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Conscience.

Jaap den Haan. | 25.03.2005 15:33 | Analysis | World

Tsunami.

Just after many people had finished their Christmas dinner and were watching televsion, they were confronted with the most catastrophical Tsunami in recorded history. It was difficcult to imagine what confrontation had occurred to those immediately involved. This was not the right moment to be too philosophical about its causes and so forget the misery of masses of people. Yet, we wonder what then is the right moment for man to ponder on his relationship with nature and the world he inhabits. To be philosophical in this respect is no escapism, but a deepening of our collective conscience, which indeed directly concerns tgis natural disaster. It is time that we see that environmental pollution is only the grossest form of the severe strain we put on this earth and its crust by human imbalance, normally only apparent in relation to each other. To see the mentioning of this fact as an insult to those suffering from the consequences of natural disturbances possibly or partially caused by man himself would be a narrowminded mistake and no help to any victims whatsoever, nor to anyone identifying (themselves with) them. It blows our mind that even the most progressive thinkers and the media make a taboo of this possibility, as if this is an issue of good manners only, and relevant only to rescue-workers who have no time to think- and as if this lack of time is the only legitimate form of solidarity. In this way so many people have not only died for nothing, but for the cause of further promoting a very opportunistic view on life; one that refuses to see any relationship between cause and effect, indeed, in other words logic. We aimlessly defend our innocence by not finding any logic so often when we see an effect take place in the negative. Despite ourselves we are remided however of many mythis that speak of entire nations having ever been swallowed by the sea, something we have never been able to visualise so far. Habitually we don't know when to speak or when to listen, it seems by our good sense of manners. It is nature itself, supporting us, that has no such manners however, but tells its own story. It was time to listen

Jaap den Haan.