The Socialist Party (SP) in the southernmost province of Limburg have written a carnival song protesting against the upcoming sale of the province’s share of utility Essent to the Germans. It is called ‘Zoëlang um maar get te zoepe haet’, which is in Limburgs dialect and probably means ‘As long as you havehe has enough to drink’. This is co-blogger Branko’s mother tongue and he speaks the Venlo variant. You may notice the softer sound of the gutteral ‘g’, which is the dead giveaway.

Carnival is just a few days away (22- 24 February) and what better way to express your anger than to get everybody drunk and singing along, protesting against losing more local clout during a recession. You may notice German is also being sung in the video, making it a multicultural all-arounder.

I can’t help but point out that many people in the northern part of the country (there’s this invisible line somewhere near a river or two) don’t celebrate carnival at all, which is seen as a more Catholic shindig, but have utter contempt for it because it’s just a huge piss up with a dress up flavour to it. Oddly enough, the same argument goes for the national holiday Queen’s Day and major football matches, but apparently some parties are more equal than others.

(Link: rtl.nl)

I used to translate stuff about Belgians throwing cats from belfries and swallowing live goldfish during century-old ceremonies and other mischief, but the Dutch in Limburg also have something albeit less way traumatising they don’t want to give up so easily. Then again, the media often reports that the Party for the Animals (PvdD) submits like 200 motions a day to Parliament, so no surprise that this becomes news.

Ganstrekken, the practice of pulling the head off a dead goose during Carnival celebrations in the Limburg village of Grevenbicht (just 2,500 inhabitants), is not decent behaviour but will not be banned, farm minister Gerda Verburg told MPs yesterday. Granting a licence for the tradition is up to the local council, Verburg said.

They used to do it to a live goose (eeeuuuw). Use a doll like they do in Ypres, Belgium with the cat, come up with something new, so many alternatives, think outside the box that is your head.

(Link: dutchnews.nl)