MAHABAHU Readers, What Is Your advice?

Nico van Oudenhoven

NIco at Trent 14 May 2024 — Nico van Oudenhoven

At the end of this year, I have found the wherewithal to approach the Leadership and the Readers of Mahabahu and to seek their good counsel about three issues that I have been struggling with for some time.

Here they are:

Turning away from the news. I encounter more and more people who tell me that they have stopped accessing the news. For Europeans -I live in the Netherlands– the main sources of anxiety are the wars in Ukraine, Gaza and to a lesser extent in Sudan. …and, of course, the deteriorating climate.

I, myself, feel something similar. I still read the news, accessing various sources, but found it hard to listen or view to the News. Yet, I think cutting oneself loose from the News is not a solution, as this make things worse. Well informed citizens are essential for a well-functioning society.

My question to you is: what do I tell those people, who willingly close their eyes and ears? How do I go about it.

Here in the Netherlands, an extreme right-wing party won over thirty percent of the vote and its popularity is still growing [their platform: anti immigrants, anti Islam, mildly pro-Russian, pro-Israel]. Yet, and I find this remarkable, I don’t know any body who voted for that party. I, therefore, must be living in a bubble, well insulated from a major part of society. I don’t feel good about this. What is your advice?
In my neighbourhood, in the town of Leiden, there’re a few people who organise two-weekly ‘coffee mornings’ to which everyone is welcome. People, not many do show up, and we talk about little and big things. For some reason, I found this sort of initiatives of high importance. I call them ‘mini democracies’ and see them as a counter force, even as they are t ridiculously insignificant against the backdrop of to the world-wide trend that seems to do away with democracy. What do you think, and how could we create more of those ‘mini democracies? Mahabahu is certainly one of them and an important one.

And to all of you and yours who honour the Gregorian Calendar: a good, beautiful and meaningful New Year.

Nico

Nico van Oudenhoven, Senior Associate, International Child Development Initiatives [ICDI.nl] ; Nico.vanoudenhoven@gmail.com

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