Job Barth

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Job Barth

Job Michiel Barth (pronounced Yob Micheal Bart) (May 31, 1985 – present), is a controversial, charismatic politician in the Netherlands. He is the leader of the market liberal People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD). He is labeled as a far-right populist by his opponents but he fiercely rejected this label and distanced himself from other far-right politicians. He boldly admired former Dutch Prime Minister Wim Kok, a socialist. Barth can be considered a nationalist, on cultural rather than racial grounds. There are also parallels to cultural protectionism as seen in Canada.

Biography

Barth was born on May 31 1985 in Lelystad the Netherlands, to father J.D Barth and mother A.J.M Heitrbink. Due to his fathers employment he has been quoted stating that his youth felt like “being homeless with a roof over your head”. Moving from city to city, mainly between the North American continent and that of Europe, as his father went from job to job. His academic history has a rough start as he is held back in elementary school due to poor language skills. After obtaining a Dutch high school degree (Gerrit vd Veen high school) he traveled by himself to Los Angeles to eventually enroll himself in Santa Monica High School. It is widely believed that it was the American drive and spirit that led Barth to pursue further academic excellence and attend Clark University in Worcester Massachusetts. Here he was known not only for his academic drive but also his social and athletic skills, playing both tennis and ice hockey.

After two years on the American east coast Barth felt it was time for a change. This need for a new environment can be linked back to his passed in which he moved on average every two to three years. He chose to remain in the United States of America and return to the west coast and started taking classes at the University of California in Berkeley. On May 1st 2007 the transfer was completed and Barth became a full time student and no longer a Visiting Scholar. During his time at UC Berkeley he first experienced working for the Dutch Government he was assigned with the difficult task of compiling a list of US based companies in California, Oregon, and Washington whose revenue exceeded one billion dollars. It was up to him to research if these companies currently had investments in the Netherlands, had plans to invest, or if these companies had no interest in entering the Dutch market and if so what these reasons were. Compiling this list became challenging as several companies operated under different names abroad or had limited information available to the public. Even with these difficult obstacles on his path he managed to finish within the scheduled time. Another internship afforded him a different way of serving his country, and offered him the ability to see the direct results of his efforts. Working for Doug Engmann, the Honorary Dutch Consul of San Francisco, offered new learning experiences. He assisted Doug with some of the daily duties of an Honorary Consul, such as organizing traditional Dutch holidays such as Saint Nicholas and the Queens birthday. With his experience in making databases he also updated a database of Dutch citizens and Americans with Dutch heritage in the Bay area; this would include placing advertisements in local newspapers and attending numerous Bay Area Dutch organizations meetings. Further more he assisted Doug in translating emails and letters from Dutch to English and helped maintain relations within the diplomatic community. All of these assignments taught him a lot and shaped his professional side. However it was a smaller project that took most of his time and energy within the Dutch Consulate: helping with the promotion of the campaign to save the Golden Gate Park windmills.

The main goal of this non-profit was to redevelop the western end of Golden Gate Park and its two Dutch windmills into a destination for education and recreation. In the past the north and south windmills helped transform parts of the park from sand dunes into the amazing site for recreation it is today. Through his involvement he learned about American work ethic, and the generosity, passion and willingness to make positive local change. Doug Engmann and Don Propsta (committee chairman) did not get paid, did not receive a key to the city, their work with the help of many like Barth was making their living environment sustainable for us and other future generations. It was his goal to bring these American characteristics back to the Netherlands, which at this time was facing difficulties as a new multicultural society in which its old identity is having difficulty adapting to the new European cultural and political environment. He had planned to with a Berkeley education and show them that with a goal, ambition and passion even a twenty one year old blond Dutchmen was able to give back to his American living environment, and all of this more then 5000 miles away. This is why he became a Dutch Studies/ Political Science major at Cal. It is essential for him to enter into exciting discussions with fellow American students on issues affecting the Netherlands. He would remain a Berkeley student for two more years until he graduated and decided to fulfill his personal believe that military service makes an individual better prepared for the real world, serving for two years within the BBE battalion.

Before entering Dutch politics Barth was a manager within ABN-AMRO bank for twelve years taking him to several overseas positions, including United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore and Hong Kong. During his time with ABN AMRO he also managed to obtain an international law degree from Erasmus University in Rotterdam in 2015. Barth left ABN-AMRO to become a member of parliament representing the VVD in 2023. During the 2030s he was very successful as the political leader of the VVD. He was widely known as a charming individual that enjoyed socializing with fellow members of parliament and entering in to daring discussions holding controversial positions on such issues as multicultural problems, political dualism between government and parliament, and the future of the European Union. His criticism of Dutch position within a global perspective made his party the largest in the country but led to Barth’s personal life becoming extremely stressful as multiple death threats were sent to his work address, fortunately to this day none have come true.

Personal dreams/life

He has great hopes to become the next Prime Minister of the Netherlands in the upcoming election. Barth plans to serve two terms after which he plans to run for Mayor of Amsterdam to be closer to home and slowly retire from Dutch political life. Barth has been married for 12 years to Daphne Deckers and they have four children together (Senna, Kyra, Izaak, and Sam). He has authored many books about his personal challenges through life and related subjects to his profession of being a politician.