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In my kitchen, looking out into my little garden, I suddenly felt a tremendous emptiness rise within me. The world slides gently past me. I understand that world less and less. I can no longer follow the world. With every incident that reaches me through the news and other media, that emptiness in me grows larger.
I look with incomprehension at countries such as Poland, Hungary, Italy, Germany, China and the USA where dictatorial structures reappear. In which populists promise paradise to the people. Perhaps I am forgetting a few more countries.
It is now almost 79 years since the WWIl came to an end. During that past time, organizations were set up, which were supposed to prevent a repeat of it. All that is now being undermined. The old mistakes of the pre-WWIl period are now being neatly repeated and copied. The brewing racism and anti-Semitism is catching fire again.
Has been able to fester under the surface for years. We have learned nothing but nothing from this. Dictatorships invade other countries to consolidate their power. In the current chaos, it is almost ideal to seize power. Populism reigns supreme again. Half of the population runs blindly after it, without any self-reflection.
We are the worst students in the animal kingdom. My emptiness is almost impossible to fill. I look outside distraught. My studio is untouched. My hands still hold the…
