Sven Kramer, my brother from another mother

In case some of you don’t know who the Sven Kramer is I’m here to inform you.

Sven Kramer is an amazing and talented Dutch long track speed skater who has won an all-time record nine World All-round Championships as well as a record nine European All-round Championships. He already won 19 gold medals.

Now you probably wonder why I call him my brother from another mother since I’m not an athlete and he is not my best friend either. Well I will explain it to you in this blog post.

Because like him, I also have zero tolerance for people’s stupidity and effrontery and this is our greatest similarity among the others.

There were so many dumb and incredibly stupid people around. Have you ever met some extremely dumb people, who don’t realize how extremely stupid they actually are? Well welcome to the club.

They usually have unhealthy bias of illusory superiority. These low ability people cannot objectively evaluate their own mental shortcomings. Because dumb people are always blissfully unaware of how dumb they really are.

Do you remember the case of McArthur Wheeler? He robbed banks with his face covered with lemon juice, which he believed would make it invisible to the surveillance cameras. This belief was based on his misunderstanding of the chemical properties of lemon juice as an invisible ink. 

 Later that night, police arrested a surprised McArthur Wheeler. When they showed him the surveillance tapes, Wheeler stared in disbelief. 

 “But I wore the juice,” he mumbled. Apparently, Wheeler thought that rubbing lemon juice on his skin would render him invisible to videotape cameras.

After all, lemon juice is used as invisible ink so, as long as he didn’t come near a heat source, he should have been completely invisible. How dumb was that?

I will give you one more example of incredible stupidity.

This very morning a delivery man rang my doorbell. He asked if he can drop a package for my next door neighbors in my house because they were not at home. I said it is OK. I took the neighbor’s package, I wished him a nice day and I closed the door.

After few minutes he rang my doorbell again. I asked how can I help him again, and he just said the dumbest thing ever to me.

He said, please let me in I would like to use your toilet. I was like what a heck? I immediately asked him: Oh man, are you stupid or what? I just couldn’t believed what he asked. But he was still in front of my door, looking at me and waiting for my answer. I said: Hell no, my house is not a public toilet. He said OK and he left.

I closed my door and I realized that I called a man stupid, just like that. But he was stupid, what could I possibly said to him? What would you say?

This event reminded me of Sven Kramer’s reaction to an NBC journalist most ridiculous question after he just won a gold metal as Olympic champion of the 5000 meters at the Vancouver 2010.  Take a look.

She approached a Gold metal Olympic winner a new Olympic record holder, after his 5000 m victory, who just finished his race and she told him: Tell me your name, your country and what you just won? What a heck? Is she stupid or what?
Kramer replied “Are you stupid? Hell no, I’m not gonna do that.” If I was in his shoes I would react exactly the same way as he did. 

I’m probably turning into Dutch slowly after 6 years among incredible and beautiful Dutch people, because I was not so direct before as I’m nowadays. 

I’m not sure  if this directness comes with age and life experience or I’m influenced by my environment. Dutch people were in general famous for their directness and from all their virtues this is my favorite one and one that admire the most. 

Dutch people value honesty and sincerity. What other non-Dutch peeps might consider rude or blunt, the Dutch perceive as honesty and truth.

In fact, they pride themselves in having and expressing an opinion. That because I admire them so much.

 They often consider the English or American forms of politeness a sign of weakness, and reeking of insincerity and hypocrisy. These two traits Dutch people absolutely despise, and probably this is why I feel so comfortable here.

So now you  probably understand why I call and feel Sven Kramer as my brother from another mother.

 I’m so proud of you and I love you bro, stay the way you are.