Many moons ago, I lived in the Netherlands and was always mildly bemused by odd pride that people took in what one may call transactional prudence, including the rapid recovery of small loans to family and friends. I could never be sure if the was an element of deliberate self-deprecating exaggeration in all this.
Until one day a Polish young lady came to our department and asked if any one lived near her village and could give her a lift for a week, since her colleague was on holiday. I lived in the next town, so happily offered. As I dropped her off on the first day, she took some Guilders out of her pocket and offered them to me. I was shocked, and words of polite refusal had barely left my lips when she almost burst into tears, declaring that she had not met such a reaction since arriving in the Netherlands from Poland six-months before. Over the next week we had many amusing conversations on the general topic of George Canning's observation that:
Interesting. I have quite a bit of Dutch ancestry, and I am also a notorious cheapskate. Must be genetic. Now I can tell my wife that it’s out of my hands and she’ll just have to humor me.
Exceptionally good in-depth review of Out of the Blue, the Liz Truss bio.
'Britain’s extended civil service, enraged by Brexit, had called an end to the compromise of the 2010s and intends to stand against any reform, however modest. This is no longer the grinning, jocular, Westminster of Guido Fawkes and The Thick of It. The old pull-and-push between hacks, SpAds, ministers, and mandarins – this is now gone, replaced by a particularly moralizing form of bureaucratic tyranny. Its instruments are many. It can leak information to a legally privileged class of lobby journalists. It can weaponize the workplace complaints process to oust ministers it does not like. It can draw up endless rulebook violations against elected politicians, and has indeed made the Ministerial Code into a virtual British constitution. Enduring symbol of the new reality is the destruction of Boris, Liz Truss’ predecessor. It is perhaps a failing of hers that she did not recognize the danger she was in. But equally, a normal politician in a democracy should never have to proceed on the assumption that those employed to carry out her policies are trying to destroy her – and Liz is, above all, a normal politician.'
Re California fixers: Washington DC is also a polyglot place were I somewhat intentionality spent literally months getting the permits needed to repair a wall on my little city house plot. But the problem is not really knowing who to bribe or subtly importune. The bureaucracy is just incredibly difficult with multiple veto points. I actually LIKE the polyglot aspect of the city.
Many moons ago, I lived in the Netherlands and was always mildly bemused by odd pride that people took in what one may call transactional prudence, including the rapid recovery of small loans to family and friends. I could never be sure if the was an element of deliberate self-deprecating exaggeration in all this.
Until one day a Polish young lady came to our department and asked if any one lived near her village and could give her a lift for a week, since her colleague was on holiday. I lived in the next town, so happily offered. As I dropped her off on the first day, she took some Guilders out of her pocket and offered them to me. I was shocked, and words of polite refusal had barely left my lips when she almost burst into tears, declaring that she had not met such a reaction since arriving in the Netherlands from Poland six-months before. Over the next week we had many amusing conversations on the general topic of George Canning's observation that:
"In matters of commerce,
the fault of the Dutch
Is offering too little
and asking too much."
Interesting. I have quite a bit of Dutch ancestry, and I am also a notorious cheapskate. Must be genetic. Now I can tell my wife that it’s out of my hands and she’ll just have to humor me.
Nice to read something without a single reference to the top goalscorer at the 1986 World Cup.
For next week: https://jaccusepaper.substack.com/p/review-out-of-the-blue-by-harry-cole?utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=auto_share&r=yq3s9
Exceptionally good in-depth review of Out of the Blue, the Liz Truss bio.
'Britain’s extended civil service, enraged by Brexit, had called an end to the compromise of the 2010s and intends to stand against any reform, however modest. This is no longer the grinning, jocular, Westminster of Guido Fawkes and The Thick of It. The old pull-and-push between hacks, SpAds, ministers, and mandarins – this is now gone, replaced by a particularly moralizing form of bureaucratic tyranny. Its instruments are many. It can leak information to a legally privileged class of lobby journalists. It can weaponize the workplace complaints process to oust ministers it does not like. It can draw up endless rulebook violations against elected politicians, and has indeed made the Ministerial Code into a virtual British constitution. Enduring symbol of the new reality is the destruction of Boris, Liz Truss’ predecessor. It is perhaps a failing of hers that she did not recognize the danger she was in. But equally, a normal politician in a democracy should never have to proceed on the assumption that those employed to carry out her policies are trying to destroy her – and Liz is, above all, a normal politician.'
Re California fixers: Washington DC is also a polyglot place were I somewhat intentionality spent literally months getting the permits needed to repair a wall on my little city house plot. But the problem is not really knowing who to bribe or subtly importune. The bureaucracy is just incredibly difficult with multiple veto points. I actually LIKE the polyglot aspect of the city.
Good post. Last bit was interesting... I still think Poland will be completely pozzed in about 20 years.
When I lived in Lima, people thought I was Dutch -There are a lot of Dutch people living in Peru. God knows why...
I don't understand the reason why people keep comparing Asians to Jews. There are 3 Billion Asians. India and China are nuclear powers.
There are as many Jews as Bolivians the difference in scale is ridiculous