- Title: Dutch smash cars and scream at sea to vent COVID-19 frustration
- Date: 6th January 2022
- Summary: DETROIT, MICHIGAN, UNITED STATES (JANUARY 5, 2022) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY AT WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY, PONTUS LEANDER, SAYING: "Even these acts of aggression, as random and senseless as they might look, what if they're not so random or senseless? What if we're trying to self-regulate? We've got needs. And maybe that need is simply s
- Embargoed: 20th January 2022 13:30
- Keywords: COVID Netherlands cars screaming sea smashing
- Location: VIJFHUIZEN, THE HAGUE, DEN BOSCH AND HILVERSUM, NETHERLANDS / DETROIT, UNITED STATES
- City: VIJFHUIZEN, THE HAGUE, DEN BOSCH AND HILVERSUM, NETHERLANDS / DETROIT, UNITED STATES
- Country: Netherlands
- Topics: Europe,Human-Led Quirky,Human-Led Stories,Editors' Choice
- Reuters ID: LVA002FT3I7A1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS PROFANITY
One swinging a sledgehammer and the other a crowbar, twin brothers Steven and Brian Krijger grin as they take turns pulverising a Peugeot 106 spray-painted with the words "Fuck COVID".
They are participants in "Mindful Smashing", a spin-off project from events organisers "CarSmash", aimed at providing locked-down locals with ways of releasing anger and frustration built up during a pandemic now entering its third year.
Dutch bars, restaurants, and most stores have been closed since mid-December, when curbs took effect that the government - battling to contain record numbers of coronavirus cases - is not due to review until January 14.
"There is nothing to do these days," said Brian. "We can't work because we own a bar and we are closed. So we thought we'd let some of that frustration go and smash a car."
Merlijn Boshuizen, who runs "CarSmash" from a breakers' yard in Vijfhuizen near Amsterdam, says clients begin by spray-painting "what's present in their lives" onto their chosen vehicle.
"The minute that they start whacking the car, we ask them to close their eyes, to feel their feet on the floor, feel the power, every vein in your body, feel what you are doing, and in that way to try to get it out of your life."
He said he has seen a big increase in COVID-related inquiries over the course of the pandemic.
A few miles to the south in the Hague, vocal coach Julie Scott runs "Screech at the Beach", a scheme with similar aims that she developed while looking for "something physical and something to release some of the tension" built up by not being able to work indoors.
Side by side with Scott, facing into the wind as it whipped off the sea, client Rozemarijn Kardijk jumped up and down yelling until she ran out of breath while trying to suppress a laugh.
"You can just - Whaa! Let yourself go," said Rozemarijn, a management secretary hoping to learn to speak with more confidence in her professional life.
Associate Professor of Psychology at Wayne State University Pontus Leander, who studies aggression and worked for more than a decade in the Netherlands, said such controlled outbursts could reflect a desire to show that one is not powerless -- particularly important during never-ending lockdowns.
"If I know that I engage in aggression in this way or this way, it'll hurt myself or it'll hurt another person... Why not drive out to the sea and scream at the sea?" he said, during an online video interview.
(Production: Esther Verkaik, Johnny Cotton) - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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