As I survey the wond’rous dross

A Sunday hymn of praise to questionnaires

Explosion damage in Antwerp, from the VRT news website. https://www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2023/04/02/vijftien-woningen-beschadigd-bij-explosie-in-het-centrum-van-ant

I was recently surveyed. A man came to the door and asked whether he could ask me some questions. I told him to come back on Saturday. When he came back on Friday, I told him to come back on Saturday. When he came back on Saturday, I let him in, gave him a cup of tea and sat him down at the dining table. Two hours later, I bade him goodbye.

The questions concerned things that concern citizens in Belgium these days. I was asked whether I vote in various types of elections: national, local authority, European Parliament: never, sometimes or systematically.

I looked at him. “Voting is compulsory in this country. If I say I vote ‘sometimes’ or ‘never’, is that me incriminating myself?” I answered that I vote systematically. I was asked when I had last voted. I replied that I have never voted. “But you said you vote systematically?” “Yes,” I replied, “the system being that persons who are nationals of other EU states can register to vote in local and European Parliament elections, but are under no obligation to do so. They cannot register to vote in national elections, however. I never registered to vote and so that was the system under which I didn’t vote. I voted systematically. Since I became a Belgian national, there has been no election, either European Parliament, local or national. As a Belgian national, I would now be obliged to vote, if there were an election. But there hasn’t been one since I became a Belgian. So I vote systematically: no election, no vote. But your question makes it impossible for me to give that explanation. All I can do is tick boxes. So, the box I tick is ‘systematically’.”

He asked me another question. Which political party do I feel myself best aligned to? I looked at the list, and there were some familiar names. MR, who introduced a parliamentary private member’s bill to abolish Black Friday. It failed. N-VA … don’t they adopt a somewhat hostile position towards foreigners, even if I am Belgian now? I always liked Guy Verhofstadt, but I’m not sure I like the direction that his party, OpenVLD, is headed.

The list was given on the researcher’s tablet computer, but he needed to scroll it to get to the end of the list. It was a very long list. “There is a very long list of political parties here,” I said. “Do you seriously expect me to have studied the manifestoes of each and every one of them and then decided which of them I align with, even before there is any announcement of an election?” He didn’t reply, but asked if I wanted to skip the question. I skipped the question.

But why I skipped the question is not explained in the research results. Perhaps I will be classified as a wandering star who has little to no realisation of what politics is. The fact is that, with a choice of 30 political parties (my survey selection was not restricted to those who stand in elections in my own part of the country), no one can claim that there isn’t a party in there that fits exactly with their outlook. Problem is finding it and being sure it still reflects your outlook, when it comes to casting your vote.

The mayor of Antwerp City Council is a certain Bart De Wever, and he represents the N-VA party. Antwerp is becoming a bomb site: one went off last night and damaged 20 houses and six cars on a square that is the city’s central bus station. Only a few occupants were hurt, and only slightly at that, thankfully. No conclusion has been reached as to the cause of the explosion. Mr De Wever says that the Federal Police needs more people. He unfortunately has no influence over the Federal Police, but he does over the Antwerp local police, which is a department of his council. Another politician, the Home Secretary (Minister van Binnenlandse Zaken), Annelies Verlinden, who represents the CD&V party, says that “We have to continue along the path that we have started on.”

Mr De Wever continues, along the path that he has started on: “With all appreciation for the efforts and commitments made by the federal government in recent times, the federal judicial police remains grossly understaffed. Hopefully they will not wait until another innocent victim falls to finally deploy the necessary resources.” Mr De Wever sees the cause of the explosion as being drugs gangs. He’s perhaps right, but that doesn’t seem consistent with the “open view” initially taken as to the cause of the explosion.

It seems that Antwerp’s politicians look to the federal level for an answer to the violence in their city. And the federal level – where do they look to? The VRT editorial board reports “For the time being, there do not seem to be any additional measures.” Mrs Verlinden: “We have decided to place a port force with the shipping police, there are more police officers there. Of course we also have to recruit some of those people and that takes some time. In the coming months we will see the force strengthened. We have also appointed a drugs commissioner, who will soon really get started. I really think we are making a stand against those criminals. But it is a complex phenomenon in which international cooperation is also crucial.” What makes me hesitate is that, if a government minister makes a public statement about a drastic shortage of police officers and the need to recruit them quickly, how assiduous will the process be in recruiting the new officers, and how circumspect will the authorities be to the possibility that they could end up recruiting fifth columnists?

So, the federal level is, after a year and more of serious violence in Antwerp finally “getting started”, albeit “along a path that has already been started on”. When is a start not a start, then? Anyhow, bravo; and as it does so, it looks to other countries for cooperation. Also bravo. Meanwhile, Antwerp is shaking in fear for the next explosion at 3 o’clock on a Sunday morning.

They ask me which party I feel most closely aligned with. Do I feel aligned with the party that blames the national government, or with the party of national government that blames other governments? I skip the question.

I apologise to my researcher: the whole questionnaire has taken two hours. Does he spend two hours with each interviewee? “Thirteen minutes,” he replies. “Thirteen minutes? Do you get valuable answers to your questions?” I ask.

This time, he skipped the question.