Who run the world?

How do you explain to a seven-year-old who governs your country? Or even the world?

Because it was King’s Day yesterday, my daughter asked me “Daddy, are the king and queen the boss of The Netherlands?”

How am I going to answer this, I thought.

I didn’t want to tell her that some guy who happened to be the oldest child of a woman of a family that happened to become ‘royal’ a long time ago, is the boss of our country. And he’s not. Just because he is our king doesn’t mean he is our boss.

So then who is? Our prime minister? I also didn’t want to tell her that a guy who on paper is the leader of our nation, but took no responsibility for one of the biggest tragedies of recent memory in The Netherlands, even though he should have, is somehow our, and her, “boss”.

Then who? Should I tell her that our country, and the world, is run mostly by white men, who have a lot of money and can simply buy their way into power? That’s not a reality I want my daughter to believe either.

So I went with the easy, but also the most truthful answer:

“Nobody is really the boss of our country, honey”