I know that some Dutch have another opinion, but this mine. In fact I never met any Dutch people sharing the same views.

The Dutch are odd people. Normally a lot of us are not in favor of our Royal family. We feel that in a democracy an ancient system like that has no place.

Except of course when it is Queensday (the birthday of our Queen). It's a big party for young and old. Celebrations starts the day before and end deep in the night after the day itself. Activities for children are organized, there is a public flee market (much like your garage sales) in most streets and lots of people are found in the pubs wearing strange orange (the national color) outfits and makeup singing the national anthem like it was the latest hit.

And except when there is a royal wedding of the crown prince. The father of the bride was a former minister of agriculture in Argentina. Because he had that position in a time of an extreme regime the father was not allowed to be at the wedding of his daughter. Considering the fact that he will not be persona non grata this is a little hypocritical. He is allowed to enter our country for any other occaision. And when we saw the tears on Máxima's face we actually felt sorry for all the commotion the national investigation of her father's past brought in the first place.

And of course except when there is a chance that Máxima is pregnant. Such an event makes the tabloids sell.

Now that Máxima gave birth this afternoon to a healthy daughter the country is in a state of euphoria. When all goes well she will be the future Queen after her father retires from his position. Everyone is happy.

The Royal family knows that after such events all will return to the regular critizing and has prepared it self to stay in the background more and more. Even the crown prince couldn't tell a few years ago if there would be a King or Queen to succeed him. Events like the birth of his daughter or the death of his father would mean a national day off. But not these days. No schools will be closed, no office will be closed and people will work like any other regular day.

Am I in favor of our monarchy? I don't really care. A head of state will always cost a lot of money. Whether it is a president or a queen doesn't make any difference. We have both. Our president does share his power with his ministers and the Queen has a role in diplomacy and in fact sells our country. One can say that she does a lot of the PR. So does that generate extra costs? I don't think so. Over the last decades the costs for the Royal family have been cut down considerably. Some of the decisions involved in that are proposed by themselves. The family knows they will be critized when the country has to pay too much when they have enough possions to keep their role for many generations to come. I am more concerned by the fact that we invest 850 million euro in the JSF project and as a result recieve a stripped down version of that fighter. That's humor.