A winter’s tale

We live in strange times.

On the one hand, there are the deeply worrying signs. Trump, all his fellows in Europe – Erdogan, Orban, Marine le Pen etc – the feeling that intolerance, bigotry, misogyny, extreme nationalism, “anti-everything that isn’t exactly like me” is growing by the minute. And everywhere, terrorism is growing. Isis might be forced to retreat out of Mosul, at great human cost, but it grows in other parts of the world.  In Afghanistan, for instance. Where also the taliban is back, in force, making everyday life both difficult and extremely dangerous for civilians. The fear of terrorist attacks is everywhere.

But, on the other hand, there is a lot of very promising resistance. Resistance in the US, but also alternatives popping up in various places in Europe. Macron? Merkel, a shining beacon of humanism. The fact that Schulz is getting a lot of support in Germany. And whatever else these leaders might stand for, they honour democracy and humanism. The latter being the most important thing. What makes me truly sick in Finland today is that I do not think that the country at the moment can call itself human. And it doesn’t help one bit that the same goes for the rest of the Nordic countries. Some of the core values of our societies are simply on hold. Lets hope they are not abandoned forever!

But there are other positive signs in the world. Most promising, in spite of all this turmoil, is the fight against disease and child mortality. The positive figures are stunning. Over the past 25 years, child mortality has been cut in half, as has extreme poverty. That’s miliions and millions of lives saved, and, more importantly, this development has helped economies and increased wealth everywhere, particularly in Africa. For more figures, see the presentations by Hans Rosling, recently deceased. His website Gapminder is a brilliant source of information. Rosling was a tireless champion for a correct understanding of developments in the world, particularly looking at the big picture.

So we are doing both well and very badly at the same time, regardless of what we look at, political life, society, ecology or environment. So what is the lesson? I would say, make sure you have the big picture, and never ever loose your optimism!