As Seen From Afar 2/4/2017

Two weeks ago Dutch late night show presenter Arjen Lubach looked back on the week and made note of Donald Trump’s the inauguration speech. Especially Trump’s often  repeated “From this day forward it’s going to be only America first” made a big impression on comedian Arjen. He understood that the Dutch would be better off if they stayed on friendly terms with president Trump and to that end had made a video to introduce the Netherlands in a way the American president could relate to,  and perhaps be persuaded by to make The Netherlands second in his deliberations.

This video went viral within days, especially in Europe, but it has also crossed the Atlantic and has been also shared on C2NN. If you haven’t seen it yet, you can do so in the following subtitled clip from Arjen Lubach’s show.

The video made such an impact that Jan Böhmermann, who has a very similar late night show on German television made a video in which Germany introduces itself to Trump and askes to be considered second. But Böhmermann has taken things one step further. As he explains”, al great late night TV shows across the world are linked by a network of red telephones, which never have been used before, but now are used to ask the shows in every European country to make an introduction of their own country to Trump and air it in the coming weeks. So far 9 more countries, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Lithuania, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Estonia and Iceland, have said they will join in and the video’s that have been aired so far have been gathered at a site called everysecondcounts.eu which has “Come to EU. It’s huge. It’s the greatest EU in the world!” as it’s subtitle. It’s a the site is easy to use and clickable even with small hands.

The following is a clip of Böhmermann’s show in which he introduces the concept of introductory video’s for Trump. Germany’s video contribution starts at the 1:47 mark and lasts up to 4:52.

I can’t embed all of the You Tube videos here, so I’ll just give you the shortest ones made by Belgium and Switserland, but if you have time this weekend I can certainly recommend Lithuania’s and Portugal’s contributions.

For me a very strong asset of all these videos is that none of the makers have shied away from pointing out some (very) unpleasant aspects of their own society, either in history or presently, and mocking them by turning them into “selling points” to Trump.

Böhmermann stresses at the end of his show that Trump should be proud: “When the whole world stands up to make fun of you, president Trump, you have achieved something that is truly great”. He certainly has a point there; until now it has been virtually impossible to unite European countries on any issue, but the first two weeks of Trump’s presidency has done the impossible, at least where comedy is concerned. However there are also encouraging signs within the EU, which needs to find a new footing and some new form of unity as quickly as possible and stand on its own two feet. So thank you for that, America.

 

Cross-posted at http://www.care2.com/news/member/211280220/4034796