Month: June 2022

How Politics and Football Are Intertwining

Posted on by Ljerka Popović

Soccer coach talking to his team

 

We see quite a few football promoters active in politics. In a small series about people who are ‘in politics’ in addition to football, we start with Cock Jol.

Cock, you’ve been away from football for a while, do you still follow it?

Of course, I still follow football, both amateur football and professional football.

You are a teacher, do you see changes in your classes that are reflected in society and therefore also in football?

What I have seen in this time is that many youth players have started to fill in their weekends differently. In recent years, no irregular league matches were played, and there was not even training. But of course, that also applied to other sports. I am concerned about this development. I think the unions and the clubs will certainly notice that.

Incidentally, I must say that I have had a lot of appreciation for our youth. Appreciation for the way in which they have dealt with the situation that has arisen in recent years. I’ve seen that at my school. They adhered very well to the rules assigned to them and also the lessons, which were often provided through Teams, were generally faithfully attended. Of course, my respect also goes out to my colleagues, who had to master various digital matters. Of course, I was one of them. Nevertheless, it is very important that the students can go back to school. They need social contact with their fellow pupils and with their teachers.

Do you still come to clubs? And then when you go to watch a game, where do you go?

Lately, I haven’t been looking physically anymore. Of course, the weather did not invite you to stand along the line. Today the weather is beautiful and probably I will ride my scooter to Quick, because in the last 2 games Quick has won and can come out of the relegation zone if I win.

You show political ambitions for the second time, this time for the VVD. How did your return come about?

I have always been very interested in national and municipal politics. In 2002, as a member of the Political Party Scheveningen, I was already elected on preferential votes and thus came to the City Council of The Hague.

After this instructive period, I entered professional football. In 2014 I came back from London and I started working as a teacher again at my old school the Christian College De Populier. In October 2021, I had a conversation with alderman Anne Mulder at city hall. He asked me if I wanted to be on the VVD’s electoral list for the municipal elections of 2022. I didn’t really have to think about it and I promised.

I thought and think it is a great honor to be a council member in my own city. You can denounce issues and influence issues that are close to the hearts of the citizens. The government must realize that it is there for the citizen and not the other way around. That is very often forgotten. We live in a democracy and as such are elected by the people (demos = people). I believe that too little attention is being paid to the citizens. You see and notice a lot of dissatisfaction among people at the moment. They feel misunderstood.

What kind of politician are you?

I am a liberal-conservative with a social-Christian slant. Nationally, I have always chosen liberal-Christian and I, therefore, think that the VVD suits me best. I am neither extreme right nor extreme left. I love the harmony model. For The Hague, it would be good if there were a coalition with at most 3 parties. That would be good for decision-making. Fragmentation always causes a lot of unrest. I think most people think that way.

 

ALSO READ: Politicians Should Be On TikTok More

 

How important is a sport in general for a city like The Hague? What role do you think politics should play when it comes to sports in the Haaglanden region?

I think that the responsible aldermen for Sport in recent decades have invested too little in grassroots sport or top sport. There is a lack of a real sports culture in our city, let alone top sports culture. Our heroes from The Hague, who have delivered top performances, are not pampered and honored for their achievements. Ask our average citizen in The Hague if they can name some current top athletes, then they do not know. In England and Germany, for example, the champions are heroes for life.

In the 80s/90s we had top athletes or top teams in every branch of sport. A.o. Hellas (handball), Ons Eibernest (korfball), KZ or HGC (hockey), Hijs (ice hockey), and so on. The same thing happens with our music heroes. It is a shame that the Museum RockArt is located in Hoek van Holland. We have always been pop city number 1 in the Netherlands. There was no suitable location available!! The then alderman of Culture Van Asten should have done everything in his power in 2019 to find a good, spacious location.

How do you think the municipality acted in the takeover of ADO Den Haag?

I do not want to say anything about the course of events regarding the takeover of ADO. Maybe one thing. A few years ago, an alderman for Sport said that ADO should never again be in the hands of a foreign investor. That only creates problems, he said. Anyway, let’s be happy that ADO has been saved and hopefully will be a good eredivisionist again. That would be great!

Count that you are elected with preferential votes, what would you like to tackle in and for The Hague?

I have several things that I am worried about, but I am not alone in this. In many programs of the various parties, there are practically the same themes. What I have noticed in my many conversations with residents in every neighborhood, is that they are worried about what is happening especially in their own neighborhood or street. The aldermen and councilors need to be more involved with the residents and listen to their stories. Listening to what keeps them busy.

Of course, we cannot solve everything, but I have noticed that a listening ear already removes a lot of resentment. My appeal to those in charge of our city will be to Come out of that “Ice Palace” and go among the people and stop those long meetings. Use the council meetings only to reach a final decision. Use the committee meetings for debate. Be transparent and show that you are there for the citizen. Politics must regain the trust of the people.

Will we ever see you back in football?

No, I will not come back to football, but I will always be interested in this beautiful sport.

Do you want to say something else?

I do hope that the Hague voter will give me his or her vote on 15/16 March, so that I can come to the council on preferential votes. I think I can do something for the inhabitant of The Hague to make our beautiful city even more beautiful.

Government And Online Presence – Rank Check Web Content To Improve SERP Performance

Posted on by Nino Jovanović

In the political environment, the local government have to maintain contact and correspondence with the community, especially that the reason they are in office is because of the support the people and why they ran for office is to be of service to the community.

Having an online presence is an essential particularly in today’s highly digitalized and connected world. This makes running a social media page or a dedicated website for a local government a significant thing. Through these channels, the local government can increase and improve their connection with the community as well as maintain the community’s trust by keeping them informed and updated about activities, dealings, happenings, and accomplishments of the local government.

Furthermore, through social media or a dedicated website, the local government enables and empowers the community to be involved, engaged and active in helping the them improve the community. People are given a way for them to voice out their concerns, reach out to local leaders, and even acknowledge the great work the local government is doing for the betterment of the community.

Rank Check Your Web Content To Improve Your Online Presence

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Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is necessary for anyone with a website. This is the course of action taken to build, refine and improve the content of a website so that when a user does a search on Google or on other search engines, the website or web page with that content would come into view on the search engine results pages more often as well as with a higher rank.

Carrying out a rank check is a crucial and necessary element of SEO to measure and determine the present ranking of the content of a website. By knowing and monitoring how well your website or web pages perform on search engines, you will know which SEO strategies to refine and keep to better or maintain your rank on search engines.

Managing a website and having presence in the online space, you want to make certain you are visible on the first page of SERPs as this gives your website a better chance of getting traffic, audience engagements, as well as potentially increase conversion rate.

If you want to have an accurate of how your website is performing on search engines, there are reliable software providers offering products and services for rank checking or rank tracking. One is AccuRanker, one of the quickest and most accurate keyword rank checker and tracker on the Web. Get instant on-demand updates, SERP history, and in-depth analysis of your content. With these, you can better understand which features of Google SERP drive traffic to your website and be able to assess your succeeding moves and make wise decisions based on the accurate and updated data that you have.

Politicians Should Be On TikTok More

Posted on by Ljerka Popović

TikTok

 

The turnout of young people in the last parliamentary elections was low. These voting campaigns are aimed at young people who want to do something about that. “Life experience does not depend on age.”

Although the age of Dutch politicians is not as high as in the United States, with an average age of 48 years in the House of Representatives, there is also a lack of youth representation here. As the turnout of young people has declined since the last elections, the gap between youth and politics only seems to be widening. Digital youth campaigns are trying to close this gap and are committed to getting the youth to the polls.

Voting by mail

Where the turnout for the 2017 parliamentary elections was more than 80 percent, one in three young people between the ages of 18 and 24 stayed at home. But the turnout is not only low, young people are also the smallest group of voters. Due to the aging of the population, the number of older people compared to young people is increasing. For example, nearly a quarter of eligible voters are over the age of 65. In the upcoming parliamentary elections, an even larger turnout is expected among the over-70s, because they are allowed to vote by mail due to the coronavirus.

Young people quickly vote for the party for which their parents vote, without them looking critically’, says Iris Zoet, who started the podcast KiesAdvies with her friend Isa de Beer in September last year. ‘All political podcasts are about current events, which you don’t understand if you don’t have background information’, says Zoet. ‘Isa came up with the idea of listing what all parties stand for and explaining that in a podcast.’ According to Zoet, young people do not see themselves and the subjects they deal with in the House of Representatives. “And when those topics are covered, it’s in a dusty way,” she says. “That’s why we don’t want people on our podcast that you already see everywhere.”

 

ALSO READ: 10 Careers You Can Get From Politics

 

Tiktok

In addition to a podcast, Zoet and De Beer on Instagram have started the campaign #stemopeentwintiger. In it, they call for the youngest candidate of a party to be voted for, so that he or she gets preferential votes in the House of Representatives. One of those young candidates is Carline van Breugel for D66. She also tries to encourage young people to vote for a young candidate, by offering an overview of which young people are on the candidate lists. In addition, she is active on TikTok. “A lot of politicians aren’t there,” she says, “because a lot of young people who are on TikTok aren’t allowed to vote yet. But also for people who are not yet allowed to vote, it is important to know what is going on.’ Politicians who want to be more active on TikTok may click here to leverage the platform.

Safe space

Van Breugel wants to emphasize that, although her campaign revolves around young people, she also lacks representation in other areas. As portfolio holder diversity of the Young Democrats, the youth branch of D66, she often notices that people avoid the subject of diversity for fear of using the wrong words. ‘I want to create a safe space for white people. In addition, I am bisexual and I want to go to a country where you no longer have to come out of the closet in four years.’

#zetjestemnietopmute

The public broadcaster has also set up a voting campaign for young people. With #zetjestemnietopmute, NPO 3 Funx and 3FM have joined forces to bring young people and politics closer together with ‘accessible, funny and at the same time informative content.’ Another initiative is that of the Electors. These young men organize large interactive shows and create podcasts to educate a young audience about social issues and elections.

With the criticism that young people do not have enough life experience for politics, candidate MP Carline van Breugel does not agree. “Life experience is not related to age,” she says. ‘Understanding the starting point of the group is important to make policy that is in line with young people. It’s a stereotypical argument.’