Hi, everybody,
I would like to share this picture, I made this sunny afternoon, feeling really sad and angry and confused! Every year on the 30Th of April, We, the “DUTCH”as a nation, celebrate the Birthday of our Queen Beatrix. Trough out the country hundreds of thousand people will go in to the streets, dressed in Orange! Where whole family’s or children are selling their small stuff on blankets in front of their houses (free market), where there are hundreds of live bands and little children are playing their music on every corner you pass! You can buy all kinds of wonderful food from all the ethnic cultures you can think of! There are carnivals, parades and traveling attraction parks in every big city! To make a long story short this is supposed to be one of the best days of the year for use “DUTCH”…but something terrible happened! After the whole of our royal family had spent a wonderful sunny morning among the people of the city of Apeldoorn, walking, talking and shaking hands with everybody, just having unworried “DUTCH” fun, like every year! They all left in a open touring car, in slow pas, trough large crowds of celebrating people, standing on both side of the road. Towards palace ” het Loo”, where they would have a defile, for the thousands of waiting people, on the steps in front of the entrance. Groups from all over the country were waiting there to walk pass the royal family and show stuff or give stuff or sing stuff or play stuff. This had not been don this way since our old Queen Juliana steps down from the throne, some 30 years ago. Then, just on the last corner before they arrived there, a madman drove his car full speed trough the small barricades and trough the large growth standing behind it! Like in a bad movie, all the people standing there and the millions of people, that were watching these festivity’s on television, witnessed from many angles, how after a loud BANG, people were thrown high into the air, tumbling over like bowling pines! This ……. moron almost made it to the bus with the Royal family, who watched the hole horror scene from close up, including the many small princes and princesses! But luckily? the impact of all the people he had hid on the way, had damaged the car so badly, that he drove him self into a large stone monument (the needle)! Only a few meters away from the royal family and a growth of thousand surrounding them! He killed, up to now, 4 innocent people! 5 are badly wounded and 9 only have broken bits! Among those people were two orange dressed little children, that only a few seconds earlier had the time of there live!
Holland or The Netherlands, has lost its innocents today! The country, I love so much, will never be the same again!
This is a strange thing to comprehend when you are taking photos of your Bonsai in the warm sun! What is wrong with this world?
I just found out that a 5Th innocent bystander has passed away on this otherwise sunny day, sigh!
Stay safe,
Hans van Meer.
Info: karamottobonsai@hotmail.com
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The Bonsai Blog of Hans van Meer 