Rose-Ringed Parakeets
Non-native parakeets learn dutch but are not yet native speakers no. ‘First I thought parrots. But then I read PARAKEETS.’ - Said the jocker to the thief. Are you familiar with them? Have you seen them in Amsterdam? Have you seen them in Groningen?
It was Jimi Hendrix who released a couple of them in the UK and they populated the whole of northwestern 1 Europe.
No.
It was... it was a romantic old dutch lady... she freed a pair of parakeets in Overtoom, and they made their life in Vondelpark. How romantic!!! the first dates in The Netherlands are very special... the picnis... public space... side by side... I love dating in The Netherlands. Specially if I would be a lesbian parakeet, I would find it (far from perfect) yet quiet lovely.
But people say the lady released a pair of male and female parakeets. So no lesbias as far as I understand...
...suspiciously... very similar to the idea of Adam and Eve
‘It all started with two birds... released in paradise (vondelpark) populating the world (western europe)3’.
Yet in contrast with the simplistic approach towards origin that Adam and Eve propose, in which there is a sense of completion where there is no questions or unresolved issues and there is total belonging and union: I found and keep finding a very refreshing and powerful image when I see so many parakeets living in north-western europe. Specially coming from the tropics, and seeing them in Amsterdam during winter, when the trees lose their leaves and the Rose-Ringed Parakeets perch so densely, making a whole new green foliage with their feathers.
Preferably it was Jimi Hendrix the one responsible for the release of the parakeets after all. Being the guitar’s strong vibrations the very force propeling parakeets into an unintelligible understanding of their Genesis in Europe... vibrating in a similar manner to the unimaginable series of events that created life (as we know it) on earth. Purple... Haze... Rose... Ringed... Mercury liquid... Emerald's shining. The combination of variables beyond account. Now showing me where I came from. Honey sun, turquoise bed, Cyanobacteria, on the burning edge horizon I'm sailing on a bluebird's misprism. Bubbles and curls and tiptoes on the foam...
There is sometimes debate leading to the Green Parakeets being either a a refreshing touch of color in the city, or a threat to the species that have been living for longer time in The Netherlands. They bring a perfect scenario for us to consider human migration, planetary change and the possibility of how to live ethically with those sharing the world right now. Across the internet is easy to find debates around the parakeets: are they a threat? Since they most probably arrived as ‘exotic’ pets and, in face of their fast reproduction, should they be returned to captivity? Maybe back to Eden, where there was no problems? 4
The parakeets without being a Sci-Fi character, they are puzzleling enough to raise the feeling of being oddly familiar and simultaneously near kin and alien colonists. A great creature for us to exercise not yield to clean judgments or bottom lines—especially about what is promising or threatening.
1. (Let’s be clear: I’m not fond of calling it “north-western” because it’s colonizing language. But since we need some orientation, I’ll keep on going, baby
2. The parakeets have been in The Netherlands for a long time already, with a population increase around the 70’s. Yet, the discussion about them lingers on. It’s easy to find blogs and videos dealing with the myth of the Rose-Ringed Parakeet population in Europe. As for me, I have already been in The Netherlands for 10 years. I find myself in the privileged position of living here while maintaining contact and collaborations with my country of origin, Ecuador.
In this coming-and-going, I have access to contrasting realities that allow me to see, what is otherwise familiar, more clearly.
The questions around migration seem to have a hard time leaving the front page of the news. While some friends around me are in shock and comment “we are regressing,” I think this is not the case. Isn’t the vilification of different groups a recurring constant in our lives?
To believe that some rights have been “won” has a soporific effect. To cheer myself up I remind myself: “It’s not because you ate once that you fixed hunger for a lifetime, is it? Some things you’ll have to work on every single day.” The topic of migration always comes back. It rises somewhere, relaxes elsewhere, and then returns again. Migration is used as leverage: a populist political tool to stir emotions and win votes for both left- and right-leaning political parties.
3. I’m trying out sarcasm
4. Donna Haraway on Patricia Piccinini’s fantastic work!!!