building bridges when the world strains peoples collide like tectonic plates and trusted structures break while climate hits us time begs for new standards, norms that emerge from stifled values calling from the rubble time moves on unfolding only visible in retrospect glancing over sightless shoulders what broke, has broken yet through cracks in the [...]
This message nearly went unwritten, for I was already waving the white flag. Our tradition of greeting each new year with glimmers of light was under a heavy strain. We couldn’t see them. The world cloaked itself in black robes, heavy with deep folds, from which no fresh breeze could stir. And the American elections [...]
Wherever we look, we see a world in disarray. Not only in Ukraine, that is now literally in ruins, but across the globe gruesome atrocities are taking place on a daily basis. The climate catastrophe, the migration tragedy and the growing dichotomy between rich and poor, to name but a few, are in fact subject [...]
‘Did COVID turn on the light?’ was the headline of last year’s New Year Wish. We then concluded that, in addition to increasing fear and polarization, the call for change was rapidly becoming louder. Symbool rejoiced. Would it finally happen then? A year has since passed. Are we disappointed? Honest truth? A little, since [...]
2020 was harsh, yes, most definitely. Corona intensified polarization, struggle and fear in the world, but the year fortunately also scattered hopeful sparkles of light. One of these we read in a Dutch newspaper which recently interviewed 400 members of our highest administrative tier. For them too, the crisis had "turned the world upside down". [...]
Building bridges, inclusion, diversity, participation and integration. Noble attempts to synthesise in a divided society where chosen solutions stem from thinking in opposites. After all, they are based on thinking in separate ‘species’ that need to be united; one may – or is even obliged to – join the other. Dualistic thinking that almost certainly [...]
You and us, we have something in common. Like an interest in each other, a shared vision or a long-term collaboration. In all of this this the word ‘together’ is key which is of great joy to us. In line with the Dutch annual tradition of choosing a new word to sum up the past [...]
We would like to express our gratitude for the pleasant cooperation with you and the knowledge and insights you have brought us. "Find yourself in the service of others", Gandhi once said. He was right. We became a better version of ourselves thanks to people like you. We are also hopeful since the beneficial [...]
