Holland Upside-Down

 

 

This is a simple map of the Netherlands, isolated on a Din-A format. The outline of the Netherlands, also called Holland. is slightly smaller than the well-known A4 or Din-A normal format. This image shows the A surplus. If you wanted to fit Holland onto the smallest piece of paper possible, you would first need to rotate it 11 degrees counter clockwise. Then it would be in its most efficient balance. As you can see in the picture below, the harbor of Delfzijl would kiss the north, while Limburg and Zealand would fit well in the south.

 

In the sixties there were gasoline companies that printed maps like this, because it used less.
Actually, I like Holland better when it is in its most efficient shape. Tilted 11 degrees, it looks more elegant, its head up high.
If the sea level were 20 meters lower, our country would look like this:

We would see a land increase of 51%, mostly near the densest region, the Randstad in the West. Because the coastline would look radically different, the country would appear to be wearing a hat—a silly, artistic French beret.
If we were to copy and paste a mirror image of the entire Netherlands right next to the original, making a kind of geographical Rorschach inkblot, it would look like this:

Holland would now be a bodybuilder who worked on his chest too much and his legs too little. I think if we held a vote on this proposal, it would have a good chance of succeeding. The Netherlands might be less populated, but the remaining parts would be prettier and friendlier. There would be more provincial suburbanization and fewer drug problems, and less poverty and violence.

 

If one were to project a view of the Netherlands from one of the poles, it would look like the above picture. We are all familiar wit polar projections from the United Nations logo. They are always used to show the world in a non-hierarchical way.

This story has no conclusion; it is but a program of suggestions.