Dutch national bird election, politicians’ votes and ignorance

This video is about young black-tailed godwits in the Netherlands. They are one of the species, candidates in the Dutch national bird election.

Today is the last day for voting in that election. Voting is here.

Politicians could also vote, in a polling booth near Parliament in The Hague (see here).

Arie Slob of the Christian Union voted for the kingfisher. So did Henk van Gerven of the Socialist Party. And Kees van der Staaij of the SGP party.

Carla Dik-Faber of the Christian Union voted for the black-tailed godwit. So did Rik Grashoff of GroenLinks.

Lutz Jacobi of the PvdA voted for the northern lapwing. So did Marianne Thieme of the Party for the Animals.

Alexander Pechtold of D66 voted for the white stork.

Boris Dittrich of D66 voted for the house sparrow. So did Liesbeth van Tongeren of GroenLinks.

And so did Dion Graus of the xenophobic PVV party. He said he did so because the house sparrow is supposedly a ‘really Dutch bird’, ‘originally Dutch’. Mr Graus does not seem to know that house sparrows are originally immigrants from Asia. They used to feed on grass seeds and nest on rocks in the Iran-Iraq border area, already 7,000 and more years ago. As Neolithic agriculture started in the Middle East, house sparrows started to feed on grain and nest on stone houses. As Neolithic agriculture started to spread north-west into Europe, displacing earlier hunter-gatherer cultures, stone houses and house sparrows followed it.

So, house sparrows are from the same region where most refugees to the Netherlands are from today. Refugees whom Mr Graus’ PVV hates; while the PVV supports the bloody wars making these refugees.

Henk Krol of the 50+ party voted for the blackbird.

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