Strange but true
by
MARCEL VAN SILFHOUT |
In times of crisis, it’s clever to provide the people some entertainment
Agree, this Latin expression is a bit old but it still runs: ‘Panem et circenses’, better known as ‘bread and games.’ The Roman poet Juvenal wrote it more than 2000 years ago, a lucid satire before the letter. Give the people bread and spectacle, and they will not complain about politics, nor will they oppose the ones in power. Back than Gladiator-fights were adequate to appease the people, now it’s the soccer tournament Euro 2012, matches for a month, ideal to draw attention away from economic bad tidings and euro-despair.
As long as the tournament is on-going, the European people might forget about the euro crisis. But what to do when your country ended up in the so called ’Group of Death’ at the soccer tournament in Poland and Ukraine? What to do when it’s game over in the first round already?
Newspapers and television programmes in Holland have to cover the matches Euro 2012 and the euro crisis 2012 at the same time. A bizarre, sometimes dazzling phenomenon. How can it be that a sports event gets equal or even more attention than the euro crisis and the economic problems of Spain? Juvenal is still right, in times of crisis, it’s clever to provide the people some entertainment.
In Holland the price of bread is stable and cheap, but about the games the news is less positive. The famous orange football team from The Netherlands was considered to be one of the favourites during Euro-2012. But the first game against Denmark is like a mirror of the economic development: apparently the only way is down. Last weekend Holland had most of the chances, the team was even better than Denmark, yet, it lost. Denmark had about one chance, but exactly that one appeared to be the one and only goal in the game. Exit Holland as a favourite.
In recent weeks many Dutch columnists and cartoonists made very serious or painful satirical comments about the economic European catastrophe and the public that apparently doesn’t want to hear about the crisis. People prefer to watch soccer. It’s still the same as in the Roman era, people neglect bad tidings, they’re watching sports on TV. The so called ‘Orange fever’ (a mental state in which almost the whole Dutch country can only think about one thing: the faith of our team in the European soccer-tournament) ran sky high in the last weeks. Base line in most of the ‘professional’ football comments was: ‘Denmark has a good team, but no problem, we will win that one.’ The difficult ones in the ‘Group of Death’ were Portugal and Germany. Well, these ‘professional’ soccer-commentators were fully wrong.
It was pointed out recently, though this was about the Dutch economy: ‘the media and the public in The Netherlands seems to suffer from a manic-depressive disorder’. Holland is in the words of the German poet Goethe: ‘Himmelhoch jauchzend zu tode betrübt’ (heavenly joy, deadly sorrow). When the economic crisis started in Europe, many people and politicians in The Netherlands thought that prosperous Holland would not suffer. That naïve, manic positivism has been replaced by negativism and despair. The tournament in Poland and Ukraine is a welcome intermezzo, but now we also have bad tidings in the soccer-game! Yesterday we thought to be a winner, now we know, tomorrow we might be a big loser.
The next game will be today (Wednesday June 13) against the ultimate soccer enemy of Holland: Germany. If The Netherlands will lose this dramatic game, there will be no escape, then Euro-2012 will be fully lost and the country will - next to the economic drama - end up in a mental depression.
There’s a beautiful Dutch expression for this situation which echoes the Roman poet Juvenal; considering the importance of the game against Germany, it will be a matter of ‘the death or the Gladiolen’ (in Dutch: De dood of de Gladiolen). In fact it’s impossible to give a suitable translation for this very Dutch saying; so let’s try to explain it. ‘Gladiolen’ is a colourful sort of flowers, often given to hero’s and winners at sport evens. At the same time the word Gladiolen has a phonetic connotation which might refer to ‘gladiators’ too. And death, well, I guess that one is clear. Having said this, let’s be happy that the current soccer tournament Euro 2012 is not a slaughter field like the European arena were in the Roman days of Juvenal. Crisis or not, at least some progress in civilisation has been made in about two millennia.
Oman Tribune |
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