Alderman Sjon Stellinga described the history of the municipality of Achtkarspelen from the prehistoric day till now. Some 10,000 years ago, there were 30 people in the area, 5000 years ago this number had risen to 3000 already and nowadays about 30.000 live in this Northeast Frisian region.
After telling this, Stellinga became really passionate. He spoke like a church leader, like a modern version of socialist leaders from the thirties, like Domela Nieuwenhuis of Troelstra, and he described the small world of Achtkarspelen, where small people lived small lives in small houses, built of peat and reeds, even until times after the Second World War. Descendants of those several dozens of stone-age settlers, with even their names sounding the same as they did a thousand years ago. And this had always been the right thing to do.
Only now, after ten thousand years, young people dared to leave this cozy, protected region, as if Frodo was finally leaving his trusted and beloved hobbit Shire. Only now the world had really changed for those rural emigrees. City boys and girls would they become, who felt proud in the modern cities of the country centre; they were trusting on their heritage!
After his speech, challenged from the public, Stellinga added: "Give some space to those people who are doing something different! That is an obligation of us to them!"
And of course: "The people in Achtkarspelen tend to work harder, work better, in times of crisis. That's how they'd reacted to crises for centuries. That was a reaction that worked, too. But nowadays perhaps they would better buy a suit, a car and a briefcase and try to find some customers!"
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