Don't get me wrong... I feel for the guys and girls at Nedcar who are in serious threat of losing their jobs very soon now. I am sad for the Netherlands losing another thousand or so labour places to the far (cheaper) east. Not to mention the personal losses people would suffer...
But come on... picture the CEO of Mitsubishi coming over to a rather small country just next to Germany. He hears he's meeting with the Prime Minister of that fine country, so he prepares himself thoroughly, shines his gold Rolex wrist watch, combs his hair (badly by the way, by the looks of his television interview); and then he meets Balkenende... this is what the CEO must be thinking afterwards:
"ARE YOU BLOODY SERIOUS? THIS IS THE PM OF YOUR COUNTRY?"
(Or something similar in Japanese.)
Can you blame Mitsubishi to just think: "piss off, with your expensive good-for-nothing car factory and your goody-too-shoes Harry Potter-look-a-like; I'm taking my business to those farmers in China." They are not taking us seriously. At all.
It's not like Balkenende can threaten to attack the Mitsubishi head office with his fleet of F-16s, just like G.W. Bush and Iraq. Balkenende can also not just deny Japanese companies access through the Netherlands, because it will hurt us just as much as it will hurt them.
This is a perfect example why you need a charismatic, strong, attractive and eloquent figurehead to be spokesperson for a country. Now all we have is a Japanese company mocking us, taking away our jobs, and we've got nothing to show for it.
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