Unsuspected power

Reflecting on 2023

Tick-tock, tick-tock, looking forward to the new year 2023, it turned out to be over before we knew it.

The passage of time - intangible, only present through the background noise of time markers created by human hands - is the constant; stable, unhindered by the unrest of everything people do to each other. Even natural forces such as earthquakes and floods had no control over time. It strode forward, unfazed, cleaving every barrier at the same pace, with foreseeable impact on all living things. Time was like the almost unseen drops of water touching the rock below, seemingly without any impact. The soft water, the tiny drop, what harm can it do to the stone, also hardened by time? But because of the duration, it turned out that time was also the all-cutting force, which eventually molds every person into an example of bundled knowledge, insights and wisdom or sublimated stubbornness; perception stored in the gaze, the mirror of the soul, mixed with experiences depicted in flowering, radiance and gradual dissolution. Time as a metaphysical, untouchable force, over which no human being, nor any living being, has or had any control. Not even the politicians who are widely converted to the belief that everything can be molded into whatever shape they want it.

“No one has control over time; time itself has a hold on everything”

?While time was minding its own business, human actions circled around, above and below this phenomenon. All vain attempts by fallible mortals, doomed to failure in their temporary existence. Where every attempt had eternal value, and could therefore be highlighted and given attention until proven otherwise. Such a year, a year to reflect on. The flash of time is paused for a moment to be admired from all sides like the Koh-i-Noor diamond, placed on a turntable, covered with a black velvet background. Are you ready for it? Tick Tock.

A year in which it became increasingly clear that (formerly) developing countries no longer take the dominance of the Western power blocs for granted. In January, shortly after the inauguration of President Lula da Silva of Brazil, fanatical supporters of opponent and former President Bolsonaro decided to storm Congress. Unfortunately, it seemed that this undemocratic behavior had been copied from Trump's supporters who had carried out a similar action at the beginning of 2021. Let's hope that the growing self-confidence of such emerging countries will lead to the development of new customs and rituals that are more appropriate for a democratic constitutional state. A country and government to be proud of.

Speaking of new customs; in the same month, after months of deliberation, the German Bundestag decided that it was permissible to send tanks to Ukraine. A significant hurdle to overcome after many decades of peaceful politics, in which the most powerful country in Europe translated the ongoing guilt of the Second World War into a restrictive (international) defense policy. Exceptional circumstances required exceptional actions. Time together with the situation provided a breakthrough. The beginning of much more? Tick Tock.

In February, Mother Earth decided to show her - unfortunately also - destructive power again, causing many tens of thousands of human lives to end due to an immense earthquake in Turkey and Syria. A not-so-gentle reminder that natural forces are untouchable and omnipresent, which the apparently dominant life form, humans, is in no way able to cope with.

Nature, which unites both otherworldly beauty and diabolic destruction. Yin and Yang, good and evil. Symbiotically connected to humanity, whose thoughts and actions are only a poor reflection of this.

“The extremes are united in everything that lives”

The extremes of all or nothing were also shown again in Oxfam Novib's annual report, Survival of the Richest, which was traditionally published at the time of the annual meeting of the world's political, economic and social elites in Davos, the World Economic Forum. This report describes and explains the development of wealth and poverty and especially the mutual distribution of increased prosperity. This once again led to the conclusion that the very richest, who represent the largest share of the world's wealth, must also pay a fair tax contribution - fair share. It remains a complex matter, in which wealth is often 'stuck' in the share package that, for example, successful entrepreneurs own in companies they have founded. Economically successful companies grow and provide employment and higher share prices also contribute to good pension provisions - through investments of the pension funds in these companies - for those same employees.

The challenge remains to distinguish between what is earned, and therefore must be taxed, by both companies and the individual and the social and economic contributions that are made. In addition, attention increased for the importance of the social and environmental costs that companies can also cause. The criminal case of Dutch lawyer Bénédicte Ficq against the top management of chemical company Chemours in the Netherlands, was an example of this. Corporate actions actually have consequences, or at least they should have for those in control, according to this pit bull among advocates. Shell Oil will be next, she announced.

Thanks to the increasing awareness among top business people that their organizations are in every respect an active part of a changing society, CEOs have, sometimes reluctantly, emerged from their ivory towers. This was expressed, for example, by participating in talk shows, which was quite exciting and challenging, as Hans van den Berg, the CEO of Tata Steel Netherlands, reported. His company provides important employment in the region and at the same time pollutes the same environment in which many employees also live with their families. Right and wrong united in one entity. In short, shades of gray everywhere...

Somewhere far away, in the infinite Universe, the comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) could once again be seen from Earth. The last time this privilege was reserved for the Neanderthals, about 52,000 years ago. Connected through the passage of time. Tick Tock...

Bola Tinubu narrowly won the Presidential elections in Nigeria, which received relatively limited attention in the Western press, even though it is a country with more than 226 million inhabitants, a number that is rapidly increasing. An important player in Africa, which in itself is rapidly increasing in importance in terms of population, economy and raw materials. India also showed its ambition and strength through an impressive (dark side of the) moon landing and a successful organization of the G-20 summit. The West, the so-called developed economies, have been warned. Dominance is fading.

In the world of big money, the authorities were again alerted by the collapse of smaller banks in America. In Switzerland, the once-vaunted Credit Suisse had to be hastily rescued by competitor and city rival UBS, which directly led to the departure of Dutch CEO Ralf Hamers. He was succeeded by the Swiss Sergio Ermotti. The Swiss clearly wanted someone from their own people at the helm, given the political and social consequences of this major operation. In any case, the so-called Swiss reliability suffered a serious blow, a distressing change in perception worldwide.

“Struggle, struggle, the eternal struggle”

Where pressure also brought about a change was the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia. The Western alliance NATO, which awoke from its peaceful hibernation, realized that the 'never again war' idea evaporated further in the clouds of smoke from exploding bombs and grenades. After decades of neutrality policy, Finland, with its well-trained army, joined the aforementioned alliance in April. Russia warned of the consequences. Rhetoric or more? Tick Tock...

In between all that violence, after years of COVID fear and measures and the various wars - don't forget the battle in Khartoum and Darfur - the world was yearning for entertainment, to dream away in an unreachable world of more than 1,000 years of history. In a tightly orchestrated spectacle, first and foremost the British, but also hundreds of millions of world citizens with them, witnessed the splendor in honor of the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Consort Camilla in Westminster Abbey, consecrated in 1065. All streamed directly into the world's living rooms. All this was an example of a distant memory of a once mighty empire. The age-old rituals turned out to be the only ones to have stood the test of time. The heart of many spectators felt warmth and comfort with something that always was, but partly the ratio said something completely different. The good and the, according to some, unjust - hereditary succession and symbol of centuries of colonialism - captured in one manifestation. For how long? Tick Tock...

Trump made history by being the first former president to be indicted on dozens of counts related to both his business and political activities. Later that year, Trump had to report to the prison in Atlanta, Georgia for some of those charges. He then proudly showed the so-called mugshot, which - only possible with Houdini Trump - earned him even more popularity. Bad is good, 'because the system was against Trump and wanted to abuse its institutions to make his re-election impossible', was the narrative of his supporters. Good and evil united in one system, the democratic constitutional state. Will this ecosystem of balance of power hold up under the pressure of opinion knights? In any case, the (legal) system is now starting to use counter-force. Here too, Trump has the - dubious - honor of being a candidate who for the first time is excluded from the primaries in both Colorado and Maine. All this on the basis of the constitutional provision that people who have been involved in an uprising may not hold government positions. The purists - the law is the law for everyone - will say that Trump has not yet been formally convicted of this offense. Only time will tell how this event unfolds. Tick Tock...

Artificial intelligence, AI, unashamedly took the main stage of global attention. ChatGPT, AI's text application, was soon followed by much better versions, and the competition was also busy. Google Bard and Bernie, developed by the Chinese company Baidu, turned out to be powerful competitors. But this was just a small sample of what is possible with AI. Consultants and the likes came up with staggering reports about the profound impact of this technology on business, drug development, politics and, yes, even Hollywood, as a representative of the entire film industry. A strike that lasted many months broke out in that same film mecca.

Both actors and writers played the role of their lives, with the aim of also being able to earn a good living in the upcoming fundamental changes due to the application of AI. They already saw the signs of a winner-takes-all situation in which actors, editors, writers and so on would become increasingly redundant. The New York Times took Open AI and Microsoft to court, because their newspaper articles, their human-created data, are used to 'train' the chat bots developed by the defendants. In every respect man rebels against machines. What's new?

At the same time, this built-in human ingenuity cannibalism included the greatness of unlocking knowledge from ancient times that is no longer widely accessible, via the so-called Vesuvius Challenge. A project in which a team tries to make a collection of charred papyrus scrolls from Herculaneum readable again with the help of AI and thereby gain access to previously unknown texts from antiquity. Who knows what wisdom - currently undiscovered and unused - from our distant ancestors will come to us and lead to new insights. After all, what was conceived long ago has to mature in order to be harvested at a later time. Something to keep an eye on.

“Nothing is all-encompassing except the inflated ego”

Man against man was the invisible battle between the Kremlin Tsar, Putin, and the Sun King of the all-powerful Wagner group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, former chef and business partner of Putin. The Wagner Group did all the dirty work for Putin in both Africa and later in Ukraine. When 'one powerful began to openly criticize the other powerful', at least, the system around him, for lack of support from the Kremlin, and more specifically from the top of the Ministry of Defense, the climate was created for the subsequent action: an advance of Wagner troops to Moscow. Coup d'état, as many Western analysts daydreamed. The cunning Putin was once again underestimated, and after a halt to the Wagner troops and the 'emigration' of Prigozhin and his men to Belarus, everything seemed to end in peace. Until a few months later Prigozhin boarded a plane and it inexplicably crashed. Even a powerful leader turned out to be a fallible person who had not properly assessed the situation. Blinded by his own ego? In any case, checkmated and now buried in St. Petersburg, where his opponent also comes from. The good of friendship and partnership also turned out to have evil in it. Toxic and deadly. What is the next move of the supreme chess master? Tick Tock...

A confrontation on a completely different front showed progress. The central banks, which had significantly raised market interest rates last year in the fight against sharply increased inflation, appeared to be winning, at least for now. Interest, for many an abstract concept, a show far, far away, but nevertheless an all-pervading power - like a natural phenomenon. Higher interest rates trickle down to mortgage rates, construction costs, borrowing capacity and so much more. The intangible that penetrates every household unmistakably and very present.

The Spanish women's football (soccer) team won the World Cup by beating England. Great, deserved and joyful. However, the expressions of joy immediately after the match were overshadowed by an incident in which the president of the Spanish Football Association kissed captain Hermoso full on the mouth, which was unwanted. A bizarre MeToo affair arose, which led to the fall of several directors. The women formed a united front and forced the machismo establishment to make a number of retreats. From something festive, something sad emerged, which then led to a triumph of righting injustice. Sadness, beauty and comfort captured in one long breath...

The waning power of the old fashioned leadership emerged when BP's CEO was forced to resign after it turned out that he had not been open about various relationships with colleagues, against strict company policy. He was expected to be a role model and not, as CEO, above the rules that apply to everyone. Exit hubris? An inspiring form of leadership was the unusual choice by David Bouhadana, the chef and founder of one of the best restaurants in the world, Noma, who, despite his status, announced that he would close the restaurant at the end of 2024 and transform it into a food lab. Financially and also humanly - the restaurant was partly powered by unpaid or severely underpaid interns who worked a lot of overtime - it was enough for him. Or the immensely popular prime minister of New Zealand, Jacinda Ardern, who indicated that she would not seek re-election because 'her tank was empty'. Still relatively young, she decided to make a different choice and not to cling to power full of her own ego. Role models for thinking and acting differently.

“Everything is layered, yes, everything”

In the middle of summer, temperatures in the Netherlands also rose politically and socially. The King apologized on behalf of the Dutch government for the slavery past. This provoked mixed reactions. Understandable according to many, when you see that this is a subject about which a lot can be said, and where the dividing line between good and evil was not just along the color of the skin. Within a week of this historic event, the Dutch coalition government, headed by prime minister Mark Rutte, collapsed. A coalition (cabinet) that was born under unfortunate circumstances and never came to fruition. The reason was the difference of opinion about tackling the asylum crisis. This crisis resulted in countless analyzes ranging from malicious intent, strategic action or simply incompatibilité d'humeurs. Undoubtedly the reality here too is more layered than the apparently obvious truth.

Amid all the hectic pace, many people worldwide took the time to see both the films Barbie and Oppenheimer - renamed Barbenheimer for convenience - in the cinema. The first film took you to a sugary-sweet, colorful world, with, how contemporary, a pinch of woke, and the other film made you experience the dynamics of the men who designed the ultimate weapon of mass destruction, the atomic bomb. Innocence and Evil captured in a duo film.

After 13 years under one and the same prime minister in the Netherlands, who tried to keep things together in a fragmented landscape, a new political reality emerged, personified by many new party leaders. As a response to Rutte as longest serving prime minister in Dutch history, the elections were all about bashing the establishment. A new narrative politically coined by opponents that after the Rutte reign and decades of Neo-liberalism, the end of the Netherlands was near. The income gap was enormous, and entire tribes were plunged into deep poverty.

The fact that research and reports from independent institutes showed that the poverty rate, especially after the introduced energy prices compensation, had fallen to the lowest level in decades did not count.

The lowest unemployment rate ever, the welcoming - albeit with squeaks and creaks - of 200,000 Ukrainians fleeing the war, in addition to other asylum seekers, all made possible by the efforts of the government, politics and society, no, that was not relevant. And in 2023, the Netherlands was once again at the top of lists for e.g. happiness, prosperity and quality of care. Opinions over facts., not uniquely limited to the Dutch politics, but fitting a global trend. Certainly, there were problems, including major ones, that could and should have been mentioned much more, but there was also that other reality, as the leading Dutch financial newspaper, Financieel Dagblad, recently headlined: “Recognize the discomfort, but don't forget the abundance”. Could optimism, like pessimism, sometimes be a choice, regardless of reality? A happening between the ears instead of actual life of people? If you can make one choice, you can also pursue other options.

The politicians, made nervous by the ever-errant voter, try to promise everything, or at least not make any choices, because if you complain you lose seats. Choices have consequences, and not making choices often even more so. And yes, if you promise something that is not feasible, then disappointment is just around the corner.

Everyone has felt for some time that all this is not sustainable, but it was not really mentioned. The power of a society that looks away. Isn't it time to look at the challenges of contemporary society in a fundamentally different way? What is possible in a world where systems come to a halt? Recognizing that there are limits to growth. That not all wishes can be fulfilled. And question what we really want in our respective countries. More data centers, or more homes, fitting the electric infrastructure, for example. How to keep it livable. Asking questions – in the spirit of the rabbi, see later in this essay – whether another opinion is possible, with associated choices.

?“What is it actually about, in essence?”

The outcome of the Dutch elections following the collapse of the government, with 37 seats for an in many ways extreme party, PVV, which had always been polarizing until then, was initially surprising to many. At a closer look, the fact that the major issues felt by people had not been acknowledged and recognized by politicians for years turned out to be one of the reasons why people opted for the atypical outsider. Desperation channeled itself through a red cross next to Wilders' name (Wilders is leader of the PVV). A peaceful but insistent message from the 'angry citizen'. The opponents of the right ?- after losing the elections - immediately dived back into their social media trenches and labeled the voters on the right as racists, simpletons or even worse. The right also made itself felt. Whoever is right, this did not contribute to the perceived need for dialogue and connection. Yet again, it was more about moral superiority rather than addressing the underlying issues. Form over substance. An opportunity missed, for now.

In Argentina it was also time for reckoning with the presidential elections. A radical candidate Javier Milei ran against the then Minister of Economy Sergio Massa, a Peronist. Milei, known worldwide for special videos such as demonstrating with a working chainsaw, and radical ideas such as abolishing the country's own currency and the Central Bank, won. In the difficult choice for many between 'a gangster' and 'the madman', they chose the latter. “With a gangster you have zero chances, with a madman there may still be options,” noted a moderate voter. In a democracy, the ballot paper is, in addition to the right to demonstrate, the means to take action. Milei has now taken rapid action with a shock and stabilization program through issued decrees, which is currently leading to unrest and protest among a large part of the population, including its voters. What seemed good before the elections, in turn, turned out to be unjust after the elections. Duality at its best.

In the run-up to the aforementioned various elections, the world was shocked by a terrible act of terror on October 7, in which Hamas carried out an attack on innocent children, women and men in Israel. More than 1,200 people died and in addition to killing people, women were also brutally raped and sometimes further abused and murdered. A traumatic event for the inhabitants of Israel, with distant connotations of the Holocaust.

This act led to a harsh retaliation - foreseen by Hamas - by Israel that resulted in many tens of thousands of deaths and is still ongoing. As well as Hamas' rocket attacks on Israel. An existential struggle for existence, from both sides. Unfortunately, as always, there are many innocent civilian victims. All this led to fierce reactions worldwide, and harsh polemics between people, with progressive universities in America, traditionally an ally of Israel, proving to be the epicenter.

Jewish students in particular suffered the consequences, as did the Jewish communities across the world. 'Ordinary' Muslims, in the Netherlands and abroad, also came under fire.

If you condemned Hamas's terror on innocent people, you were in favor of Israel's retaliation, and vice versa. If you are Jewish, you support Israel's policies. Of course, a narrative that is just as nonsensical as 'If you are a Muslim, then you support the September 11 attacks'. Labeling as an easy option versus nuance and dialogue.

In November, American President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met with the aim of calming the rising tensions between the countries.

Sam Altman, the boss of the ChatGPT chatbot parent company, OpenAI, was quickly dismissed by his Supervisory Board for unclear reasons. Was it about the direction of the company, and how to deal with the dangers of AI? However, these leaders had ignored the staff and major shareholder Microsoft, and so Altman was brought back as if nothing had ever happened. The rapid development of this technology not only caused a stir outside of the industry leader. Talking about challenges in leadership. A sign of what is yet to come? Tick Tock...

In the last month of the year, a historic agreement was reached between all countries involved, including the oil-producing countries, at a Climate Summit in Dubai, the COP28. The agreement was that people will move away from fossil fuels, with the concrete goal of net zero emissions by 2050. Of course, the skeptics see this as not concrete and compelling enough, but this agreement still appears to be a tipping point in the global energy transition that has already begun. Could there perhaps also be another side to the posited reality of the urgency of measures and even the need for their further acceleration, especially in Europe? Climate obesity versus the reality of its impact. Consider the environmental damage caused by the production of batteries for electric cars. This impact is only 'recovered' after circa 15 years, while most people do not drive their car for that long. Or the unaffordability of life due to stacked climate wishes. The challenge of the household budget that can barely reach the end of the month versus the doom image that the world will be partly under water in 30 years and so on.

“Reflecting is accelerating”

Wouldn't building in moments of rest and reflection and the willingness to allow the climate train to travel a little more quietly every now and then help keep all passengers on board in the longer term? As a reader of an online magazine recently put it: “Maybe 2050 is also too ambitious. If we move towards the goal a little more gradually, there will be more money left over for investments in new technology, which may ultimately allow us to move towards an even greater reduction in fossil fuels in a more prosperous way.” A so-called trampoline model. First lower, then higher. Possibly a case of rethinking for the climate missionaries?

From the idea of feasibility, which is a bit too forced for some, to a more organic, and possibly even more successful, climate future. From the push to the pull. If you - very appropriately - want to change course with an oil tanker, you must first accelerate strongly and then, once the course has been set, stop accelerating in time, and gravity and the current will do the rest. The challenge for central bankers is also to release the pedal in time after significant interest rate hikes and even to slow down a bit (interest rate cuts) to allow the powerful consequences of previous measures - which always only take effect a little later - to do their work. In short, get off the (activism) gas in time after the push. Food for thought?

In many aspects citizens are increasingly opposing their democratically elected governments, with or without breaking the law. The contemporary citizens themselves decide what is good, so it seems. They do not need the legislator for that. The omnipotence of the voter who has crowned himself emperor. Trump fans who dismiss court rulings, when these rulings don’t fit their opinions. Or for example the Dutch: there is a complete ban on using fireworks during New Year’s Eve in several Dutch cities. Adults with children are interviewed on camera and say with a bag full of newly purchased fireworks that they are just going to light them anyway with their children, because there is no enforcement. The very same citizen who screams bloody murder when the government does not exactly adhere to its own rules. Once again, these are all great examples of democracy a la carte. Has the democratic constitutional state been abolished and are we living in a Gesundes Volksempfinden government period? Can our hard-won and valued freedom do without the rules of democracy?

“Religion in new manifestations”

All possible steps towards the next phase?: fighting the government harshly. Does this also fit with the XR (Extinction Rebellion) community? What I think is morally superior to democratic frameworks. All of a different order, or not? If the government, or a bank, does not stop doing what I want tomorrow, I will block things, or deface works of art, until I am proven right, regardless of what the - democratic - majority thinks. Not to mention the enormous consequences for people's personal lives and the often impossibility of immediate change. Every transformation takes time, especially if it entails a radical system change. But hey, that majority is stupid, retarded or just plain ignorant, and I know what's best for them.

This in itself fits in with a millennia-old tradition of orthodox faith. My religion is superior to yours. If you do not convert to my religion, I will attack you by force or otherwise, for I am superior in my core. And if you don't understand that the world will end for all of us if we don't all worship the same god, then you just have to experience it the hard way. Recent studies show that the world must also focus its resources on climate adaptive measures, due to the likely unavoidable global warming well above 1.5C. Not everything can simply be reversed within epochs determined by the human world. And yes, you can only spend your money once.

On the other hand, there are the radical climate deniers. What do you mean, warming, what do you mean, scientific reports? I googled and read that none of it is true, so it's not true. The comeback of pillarization? This time not along the lines of religion, but along the axis of major social themes such as climate and migration.

In a recent interview in Dutch newspaper Het Parool with Rabbi Joram Rookmaaker of the Liberal Jewish Community, he indicated that there is a tradition in Judaism that one always looks at whether another opinion is possible. He stated: “If you are open to a different opinion from your own tradition, you are standing much stronger.” Food for thought for many, on both or even more sides of the spectrum, who are dressed in the guise of their own right, in their like-minded bubble.

While the world continued to indulge in contention, polemic and war, many knowledgeable minds continued to struggle in their laboratories and far beyond, prepared to make the world a more pleasant and livable place through their thinking and craft.

Based on extensive research into the asp caterpillar, a specific caterpillar, it was discovered that the particularly poisonous sting of this animal, which penetrates the human cell wall, could at the same time, if properly imitated (biomimicry), potentially contribute to more effective medicines, that can directly influence affected cells. Evil and good in one.

Research on Bowhead whales has brought scientists a step further in unraveling the fact that this species can repair DNA cells itself, probably due to the presence of certain proteins. A discovery that could help cure or prevent cancer in the future.

“Beauty is in everything, visible and invisible”

There was also a lot to see extraterrestrial, including new, spectacular images from the James Webb telescope, which captured impressive and colorful images of a planetary nebula 2,600 light years away from our Earth. A festively colored 'donut'.

There was also plenty to enjoy in the indispensable arts, such as the largest Vermeer exhibition ever in the Netherlands in the Rijksmuseum. Nan Goldin, world-famous photographer, took us into her world in the Stedelijk museum Amsterdam. The grand Indonesia (former Dutch colony) exhibition made Dutch people with and without Indonesian (Indisch) blood think about and reflect on their shared past. Injustice and exclusion facing also a joint and shared future. The German artist Anselm Kiefer, an art giant, was honored with a solo exhibition in the Voorlinden museum in Wassenaar and by renowned filmmaker Wim Wenders in the (3D) film called: Anselm. Work that makes you think deeply about matters such as history, guilt, death and life.

The various global auction houses offered the opportunity for those who wanted to acquire top work in-house. Femme à la montre, by Picasso was the winner in the most expensive work of 2023 category, with a sales price of over USD 139 million. Dame mit F?cher by Gustav Klimt followed at no. 2 with a price tag of over USD 85 million. The top 10 also included works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Claude Monet and Francis Bacon, all with price tags of many tens of millions of US dollars. Quite a hefty price tag for beauty on the wall.

All the fuss will henceforth pass by those who left mother ship Earth for a disembodied existence.

Thus, Elvis Presley's direct bloodline was obstructed, when his daughter Lisa Marie Presley left the earthly stage last year. Sixties music icon David Crosby – from the group Crosby, Stills & Nash – took his guitar and voice to a place beyond our reach. For actress and sex symbol from a bygone era, Raquel Welch, tangible adoration came to an end. High jumper Fosbury – inventor of the then revolutionary Fosbury flop, a different way of high jumping – will now express his ingenuity elsewhere. After 96 masterful years, Harry Belafonte will never again be able to perform his singing skills, in addition to his activism for equal rights, in the sublunary. Tina Turner, the timeless singing phenomenon with an extreme long singing career, now finally said goodbye to everything.

Rascal, businessman and politician, Silvio Berlusconi, the phoenix from Italy that had risen from the ashes countlessly, found his Waterloo in 2023. Sinéad O'Connor, the woman with the penetrating gaze and the cropped hair, who turned the song Nothing compares 2 U, written by Prince, into a legendary performance, was finally able to say goodbye to the unrest in her head. For all fans of the much-loved TV series Friends, the death of co-star Mathew Perry – Chandler – at far too young an age was a great shock.

Political mastodon Henry Kissinger, the man who was invariably present at benchmark moments in American and world history, has laid down his strategically thinking head after a century.

The world lost one of its great photographers, the Dutch Erwin Olaf, who saw beauty in everything.

?“The Revelation of hidden, unsuspected Powers”

What did all this bring us, between all the duality of unrest, chaos, beauty and great discoveries?

The year ended with high tide, in the Netherlands and far beyond. An imitation or a mirror of Nature? Symbolic for the overflow of what politics, those in power, companies, nature, the system can handle. The limit to what is possible seems to have been reached, even more clearly than in previous years. The bright spot in those floods in the Netherlands was that, through timely intervention, years ago, the 'Room for the River' program was set up, which did an excellent job. Giving room for excess water to flow to 'overflow areas'. It prevented causing too much damage by adaptation to the inevitable forces of nature through the deployment of people and resources. Something good came from previous disasters.

Dutch athlete Femke Bol showed at the Athletics World Championships that when everything goes wrong and seems to be lost - she fell in the last meters of the 4x400 meters mixed, in a winning position - glory can arise from the same source. 5 days after the fall tragedy, she showed the very best of herself by passing everyone and everything in the last round of the 4x400 meters women and winning gold with her team.

In everything that happened, the world, the whole, the ecosystem of mother Earth, of which we are all part, showed that underneath, often not visible, lies another reality. Underneath the world of soundbites and short TikTok videos, there is a multi layered reality. Increasingly adapting to the need for quick answers to complex questions, in politics and beyond, also seems to have its limits. In-depth knowledge and extensive experience as a touchstone again instead of smart use of ChatGPT or Google Bard? The human mind has limitations in both speed and amount of processing information. These are the limitations that nature has determined, a given fact, no matter how difficult to accept, not easy modify, just as the world cannot be completely molded into whatever shape, no matter how much citizens and politicians want it to be.

Perhaps it really is time to let the water of unrest flow into the overflow areas for a while, without a push back. Sleep one or more nights extra before coming up with ready-made answers and solutions. After the mouth of sending messages, once again paying extra attention to the ears of listening. Connecting with our natural rhythm of thinking, eating and living. A slower paced existence: slow food, slow TV, reading more, thinking longer, as just tentative steps towards something much bigger; a comprehensive adjustment. A reset.

Researchers have found strong but not definitive evidence for a 5th force of nature. This would be one of the greatest breakthroughs in science, with unimagined implications. Present all the time, undiscovered, but only after final discovery can this lead to the realization of other consequences. Here too we experience how little we actually know, and what layers are present outside our awareness. Unseen, undiscovered and untapped.

On a more earthly note, it is special that when we see a complete stranger dog or cat, we have a natural tendency to touch it and pet it. This gesture lowers blood pressure and releases oxytocin, the so-called cuddle hormone. It connects. With more and less complete strangers, we usually don't have that tendency for a light touch - if appropriate - certainly not in Northern Europe. The harshness of judging each other on social media may also be because we only touch the keyboard and not each other. Here too, there seems to be a deeper layer that creates a stronger connection. Famous Dutch author, Adriaan van Dis, recently stated in Dutch newspaper Trouw, that the human touch, tactility, is actually the most important thing in life. Possibly this explains the rise of the cuddle salons, which are already well-known in Japan, in cities dominated by singles such as Amsterdam? Could this be the - unlocking of the - 5th force of nature for human interaction? Unseen, unaware, unused? Or is that part of slowing down life, taking the time to reflect, thinking again about everything we do? Is that that hidden power that is still insufficiently tapped in a fast-paced world? The layered person is also more than a screaming mouth and limited listening ears.

While learning from others: there are peoples who have never been at war and live peacefully. This also applies to the people of Somai, in the Malaysian state of Malacca. They live secluded and aggression and anger are taboo. How do these peoples do that? Human scale – maximum 10,000 residents. In the case of the Somai, their purpose is never to impose your own wishes on others and to live in complete harmony with each other, without any form of competition. For example, when they play tennis, they do not do so to win but to play back to each other as best as possible (source: newspaper Het Parool, professor Rens Bod).

From climate advocates to climate deniers, from morally superiors to relativists, from bar kings to teetotalers. All people who have not yet (sufficiently) tapped into the depths of their being. Labeling and then excluding 'the other' creates a barrier in connecting more deeply with each other, where Nature always teaches us that balance and harmony lead to successful cooperation and survival of the species.

May the tabula rasa, which we received again this year on January 1, invite us to actually tap into the unseen and untapped connection-potential, in the full realization that it may not always be your world, but it is certainly our world. A globe on which we – once we join forces – are capable of phenomenal performance. Let the doubt - which invites you to question yourself and others - prevail. Temporize and reflect. A little more Somai, a little less conviction.

Off to a loving and promising year, with unleashed, unsuspected power.

Cheers!

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