Other people’s suffering for education and entertainment

Ominous title though, Netherlands under water from Avrotros. Was this afuture vision of how we will be when the sea swallows us? By no means. It wasa “dive into our unprecedented nature”. A nature documentary about what ishappening below the current sea level and fresh waters of the Netherlands.Directed by Arthur de Bruin and glowingly voiced by actor Gijs Scholten vanAschat. With his voice, the two-year journey of one transparent young eelacross the pitch-black ocean on its way to the Dutch coast becomes… well,lively.

There are people who play a crackling fire on their TV screen, or an aquarium.Slower than slow TV, probably very soothing, but it won’t make you much wiser.Netherlands under water is an audio and picture book in one. So rare closewhen you get to the mayfly larvae, the tickle midge, the spotted Americancrayfish. You’ll learn how a river lamprey queue forms, and see how these”rare and ancient” fish become entangled in a slippery vortex below thewater’s surface. The cormorants know that unfortunate swimming route and licktheir lips awaiting the pile-up.

Calamities

From the underwater world to the underworld above water where _112 Today_informs us every working day about calamities and emergencies that haveoccurred in the past 24 hours. And oh, how many questions I have about that.What determines the editor’s choice? The seriousness of the accident, theoddity, the seriousness expressed in terms of injuries or deaths? Or does itjust depend on whether images are available? And how do they get those images?From bystanders? Disaster reporters?

Last week I saw passing by: a car that ended up in a backyard. A dentiststabbed by a patient with a knife. A Marktplaats sale that got out of handwith a stab in the neck, a thud at a supermarket. And of course various fatalor non-fatal traffic incidents. Sometimes a reporter is on site afterwards tofind that the garden gate is indeed halfway up the car and the door of thesupermarket is shattered. From the stab wound to the neck, some drops of bloodcould still be seen on the garden tiles of the house where the injured man hadcalled for help.

Local residents are always willing to comment. In all cases, they say: thatthey were very shocked, that the bang/explosion was deafening and oftenfollowed by a sentence of cultural pessimism about the changed times in whichwe live and no, they have no idea what exactly happened and why.

A 112 expert is present in the studio to recount the police press release. Ifyou’re lucky, Ellie Lust will be the interpreter. The former police spokesmanhas taken off her uniform, but kept the jargon. With her it is never aboutcars but about vehicles, the emergency services are always on site andsuspects are transferred to cell complexes and with undisguised glee she cansay that the police dog “had to lend a hand” in catching the suspect.

Bystanders

All well and good, but what purpose does this serve? Other people’s sufferingfor education and entertainment? The disadvantage of calamities, incidents andemergencies is that there is usually a victim. Well, I was hit by a police busonce in my life, when I was ten. I don’t know much about that, but one thing Ido know. That, lying on the tram rails, I heard bystanders speculating whetherI was still alive or not. What I’m saying is that this program is definitelynot made for the victims. For whom? That will be the bystanders, safe at home