
B Steven (back home in Belgium) has added a photo to the pool:Civilisation crisis as a chanceMaybe we stand at the edge of the abyss: not only financial markets are in sharp crisis. It seems like we have a real system crisis of civilization. We see the problems in a variety of fields, like (political) leadership, morals, religion, church, economics, finance, ecology, human communication, trust, alientation…Maybe crisis are the best moments to find a new track. In the midst of deeply rooted problems, we tend to see new perspectives towards a better way of life, more than in the days things go well. The monetary crisis in the rich countries goes together with millions of hungry people, and this seems to point out that as a modern culture, ought to strive for a bigger role for sobriety and justice. Power corrupts and power concentrations, as well in politics as in the Roman Catholic Church, as in business, seem to prove themselves as factors that cause the society fabric to rot. In this, we now must agree with the great moral leaders of all times. History has been moving at a faster and faster pace, and societies have chosen too often for easy, quick fix-solutions. Plastics where created and produced in gigantic amounts, even when there was no solution at hand for the litter involved. The oceans today are full of it, and the stuff turns out to be toxic, the ftalates cause ill growth in animals and human beings. Modern society is “addicted” to petrol, as autor and survivor of world war two Kurt Vonnegut writes in his last essay book, Man without country”. Men drilled for petrol, devised motors at at big scale, even if the efficiency of these oil driven motors is inherently low, about thirty percent, compared to 92% in electric engins, and the proliferation came without thoughts about exhaust gasses. Policy makers and responsible have not reacted in a vigorous way to illnesses as aids, depression, murder and suicide, and therefore these have been able to spread as real epidemics. Brilliant journalists, as Evita Neefs in De Standaard point out to a root cause of evil in modern world: alienation. This spirit of lack of connectedness, fed by a big gap between the rich and the poor, leads today to heavy riots like in London and other UK cities. Man developed a highly manipulative attitude towards nature, while leaving behind the awe, reverence and the sense of mystery. Today, Mother Nature is getting her revenge in climate change, disappearing species, unhealthy air, polluted soil, lack in space, greenery and even water. In the political realm, injustice seems to come with a back lag too: the revolutions in the Arabic world look like an illustration that despotism beheads itself always, even if it takes a generation or two. Maybe the moment is there to remember a few radical truths as : Do not unto thou brother what you don’t want for yourself”, the Golden Rule that all religions have. But there is more than the fight against evil. In april OESO numbers have been publicized about the time parents spend with their babies and toddlers. Belgium is at the very end of the list, with less than fifty minutes a day. “Meanwhile, it is so that the affection and warmth that a human being receives as an infant, makes the difference in brain functioning, over the whole life span”. This statement made in a grave voice by the world class brain specialist Otto von Kreuzfeld on a congress in the end of the eighties, has never left my memory since. The need seems very real, to invest more time, attention and warmth in our children, and if we do so, maybe we ‘ll notice a decline in the high levels of cynicism and anti-religious attitudes that reach peak levels in Western Europe today? Did we adults forget the invigorating effect that the smile of a happy, satisfied child brings? Vonnegut writes in connection to this and with prophetic power: “We do not need a society that can cure cancer, nor one that can find a solution to traffic. We need to rediscover the primitive circle”. Indigenous people might have interesting perspectives to offer. Natural cultures as the !Kung San (Bushmen) and the Inuït (Eskimo) put children at the center of their existence. These semi nomadic tribes do not make war, they invest their martial impulses in hunting game, an activity that gives the men roots and wings to their male identity, and that offers intensive interaction with the natural outdoors environment. These people have a spiritual and religions inclination, and until this day do not put money or possession in the center of life. They are masters in telling stories and in the art of encounter and open hearted talk. As a result they do not suffer from loneliness or depression, if they are allowed to live according to the ancestral ways, even if their lives are lived in the midst of desolate regions and in silent places. On the contrary, this life style brings forth people with strong characters. This is the way our species has lived the best part of its four million years of history. And certainly they were not completely unsatisfied nor unhappy. Steven