Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve seen the video of the Dutch PM deciding to clean up after he spilt some coffee because at least two aunts, an uncle and a work group have sent this to you. The video of Mark Rutte wielding a mop would likely have been accompanied by some homily about whether our own politicians would deign to do something similar in their wildest dreams. My reaction was, so what? But first here is all the who-said-to-whom:
Prime Minister of the Netherlands spills his coffee and then laughingly grabs a mop from the girl conveniently close by, then proceeds to clean up. Halfway through, he charmingly realizes that the cameras are on him – oh, what a surprise! He does a good job of the cleanup though.
The timing couldn’t be better – this was a ‘great symbolic message on World Environment Day’ tweeted the prolific tweeter Anand Manindra. The fact that cleaning crew appeared as if on cue and proceeded to cheer him on may seem a little too convenient, but the fact remains that this was a head of state doing something that many would call a ‘menial’ job. Even if this was a photo op for PR, it is a great message to send out.
Obviously, it is the first thing that would occur to Indians watching this: Indian politicians, with their vastly inflated sense of self-importance would never clean up their own messes. “In India 2-3people would have been fired for keeping the coffee mug in PMs way,” suggested one tweet.
The very lack of an entourage of a head of state is amazing to most Indians (and Pakistanis as well) because politicians from the subcontinent choose to act like emperors rather than elected representatives. The Dutch PM’s low key presence is in sharp contrast to every tin-pot Indian politician who wouldn’t be caught dead without an entourage and a gaggle of security personnel pushing people out of the way. In fact it’s a valid question to ask: would an Indian politician even carry his own coffee much less clean it up?
To answer the question “Will the self entitled and arrogant politicians learn some humility from this?,” probably not. However they may get some photo op ideas – if there is anything that the Indian politician adores as much as power, it would be publicity.
Reading the tweets, it was quite clear that people from many other countries have a similarly low opinion of their leaders as well. People tend to have a generally jaundiced view about politicians, their actions and motivations.
The Dutch PM was probably aware that there were cameras around and may have decided that his impromptu cleanup act would be a good way to burnish his halo. People have suggested that the whole thing was scripted – the convenient presence of the mop and the cleaning crew seems to suggest that the idea isn’t outlandish.
My questions are simple – why are people so floored by someone cleaning up after themselves? Why is simple dignity of labour such a rare and praiseworthy quality? Must we shower praise on someone for acting like an adult who can look after themselves? Do we really need to applaud a person just for demonstrating basic decency and the bare minimum skills for independent survival?
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