As the spectacle of the Olympics opening and closing ceremonies played on my TV screen I felt a weird sense of Britishness overcome me(something that no royal event had ever succeeded to do). That comical Delboy and Rodney reference(childhood nostalgia),that fake green pasture(fake nostalgia for an unrealistic idyll), and Mr Russel Brand signing about walruses(60's nostalgia) and I suddenly felt connected to a national identidy-I know? WHAT? really??
I've never really identified myself as any sort of patriot. Patriots to me were stuffy ignorant dukes or thuggish hooligans-strangely enough both are British stereotypes themselves!Aside from my clearly narrow minded stereotypes, being patriotic would never be of any benefit to me."Hi I'm Sofie,and I'm British,golly gosh isn't that splendid?" was no interesting conversation starter. "Hi my name's Sofie and it's pronounced Sofieeee,rather than Sophie because I'm half-dutch" on the other hand was. In that way I've always had more oportunities to express my dutch heritage, and felt more closely linked to it.
The irony of this sudden British realization, a feeling that I imagine many felt at one point during the games, is that a week before I had been denied my official right to British-ness. Months of "press 1 for...press 2 for...press 3 for..." and complex paperwork to be sent here, there and everywhere resulted in a frustrated set of parents and a failed passport application. More "press 1 for...", more paperwork and the final judgement was made-there's a chance British born, English speaking, soon to be tax paying Sofie can get a British passport(and thus citizenship) if frustrated parents pay a hefty sum(I'm talking almost £1000) and fill in excessive amounts of forms-with no guarantee of sucess, and without refund.
Unable to afford the procedure dubbed naturalisation, I successfully applied for a dutch passport. From now on my daily attire shall include clogs,my daily meals include cheese,and my daily transport method be by bike.In all seriousness though as a "dutch civilian" in the UK I have been deprived my vote in the general elections. I won't be making any political decisions anytime soon, more pressing will be who to support in the next Olympic games.
Wishes,Sofie
