Dutch by birth, but European by choice. I grew up in the Netherlands on a quite lane in the village of Soestduinen and have a background in Informatics & Corporate Finance. Now having reached the winter of my life, which feels more like Spring, with running, books and chess among some of my diversions.

I learned some things along the way as Shams Tabrizi  said in his poem  “Because life is too short”. The picture by Gregory Colbert, from his amazing exhibition “Ashes and Snow”  which for me symbolizes tranquility and harmony in our ever more unstable and confusing world. 

As a “minority of one” and not being part of the “us versus them tribe” this blog expresses my personal opinions, which views one can take or leave them. I also like to think, contrary to the moral outrage which can be daily found on the airwaves, they are not unrealistic.

These scribing’s go back to 2003, when I started to raise my voice against policies which brought us the “dogs of war” in Iraq which made us ask the same question which we ask today:

“is this the kind of world we wish to live in, a Hobbesian world where might is right. A world which is incapable of meeting the real challenges such as poverty, education, environment, Aids, obstacles to economic development and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. 

Or, do we wish to live in a world based on international law and universal values.

With President George W. Bush administration at the arrival of the 21st century the “winds of times” changed with his attack on multilateralism, which Richard N Haas qualified as “multilateralism a la carte, with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and by encouraging Georgia and Ukraine in 2008 to join NATO this can been seen as the main catalyst of today’s issues.

The current unjustified events in Ukraine are absolutely devastating, and like the war in Iraq an egregious violation of international law, which deserves a strategic calculated response.

The savage war in Ukraine, born from myths and Vladimir Putin’s twisted reading of Russia’s history, the President has made a grave strategic mistake which will set Russia back 50 years and leave the country diplomatically isolated, economically crippled and internally divided.

But war is always the result of a longer period in history, and this war has been in the making for the last thirty years and all parties, Russia, Ukraine, U.S. and Europe have all  played their part and none of them are blameless.

At the same time our world is at a defining moment in time, with the rise of artificial intelligence for which we are totally unprepared, and faced with different issues, climate and food system disruption; infectious diseases leading to pandemics; poverty and inequality; nature and biodiversity loss; and pollution and waste.

Issues which will not be solved by short term solutions or convenient soundbites and by excluding countries from the global equilibrium. These issues require all-inclusive global long-term solutions and these problems are far more important than a disastrous and unnecessary regional war in Ukraine, since they impact the evisceration if not destruction or survival of our so called civilization.

WJJH