I’m a bit at a loss today as to what to say in my weekly blog. I had negotiated with myself to be a bit more lighthearted. To put some more humor into, making personal development a bit lighter, making it more of an agreeable point of interest. Yet so much is going on in the world at the moment, with hurricanes; floods, devastating loss, not only of human life, but in a way even worse of the basics in life; the need to be secure; the need to have a home; to feel safe; to know your family is safe; to have clean water, to have food, to have a decent bed so you know you can get a proper nights sleep and will be able to perform and answer to the demands tomorrow will bring, that I find it hard to be lighthearted at the moment.
I think one of the most undermining things in our so- called well organized societies is insecurity. In many ways this is 
what the world has far too much of at the moment, insecurity. It seems the forces that created life are taking a spin in supplying one challenge combined with the other
Of course it can be said, nothing is ever certain; that life can change any moment of a given day; but today’s day and age is supplying a lot of adversity.
Or has it always been like this and did we fail to see it because it happened ‘elsewhere’, whereas now its closer to home? In many countries of the western world, or dangerously close to the western world, politicians are playing unnerving games with humanities safety and livelihood.
At the same time however a shift is taking place; the dawn of a new era. The relatively innocent ways of life of the second half of the 20th century are being replaced by pretty harsh facts and figures at the beginning of the 21st; forcing those involved to re-think what really matters.
While biking through The Hague today; I was particularly struck by the billboard of an “all you can eat” restaurant in the city centre, thinking how utterly ludicrous it actually is to have a restaurant where one can binge eat much more than needed, while so many in the world suffer from malnutrition; even close to home; even in The Hague where there are also people, children, depend on supplies of the food bank. It struck me as odd to say the least.
I hope the shift we are in at the moment and all the things going on will give us some more insight in how the basic needs each and every one of us are entitled to have are divided. I hope that you’ll take a moment to truly give it some thought and ask yourself what each of individually can do to help and make this world a better place.
Ingrid Schippers, 10-09-2017
Click on the cards to learn more about their background
The abridged spoken version of this blog, features as end note on ‘Dutchbuzz’, the radio hour for Internationals every Tuesday ( with the exception of summer and Christmas recess) from 10 to 11 pm on ‘Den Haag FM and can be found in the Programme Archive of the Dutchbuzz podcasts, dated September 12 2017
