Do you remember the fairytale about the ugly duckling, written by the Danish writer H.C. Andersen in 1843? The story about the little bird who’s teased for his ugly appearance by the Duck family and the other animals on the farm, but grows up to be a beautiful swan? Now, I’m again going to use the story as a metaphor for the possibillity of development within us. Since these days are hard and dark times, we nevertheless must find ways forward that are helpful. We are both same and different, but the cut downs in budgets, financial problems for companies, banks and ordinary people’s lifes on a global scale is just so wrong and crush so many constructive chances.
Yesterday large parts of Europe was hit by violent demonstrations and strikes because of the economic tightening-up in many national budgets and the stiffening on stock markets. There were violent demonstrations and strikes yesterday in France, Portugal, Spain and Greece, as well as demonstrations in Brussels-Belgium, Poland, Germany and Italy. Many people were angry because of the financial policies, and that so many people have to suffer a life of bad economy, unemployment, destroyed lifes and crushed families. Candido Mendez from the Spanish union UGT said that they protested against this financial suicide policy. In Spain the protests have been fuelled by the fact that at least two people have commited suicide recently for having lost their homes. In Brussels workers and academic civil servants alike marched against the economic restrains. They also protested against the unfair division of the econonomic means.
Now back to the story of the ugly duckling. What has he to do with these protests? He was seen as a lost case, someone to tease and bully, but he succeeded and turned out well. This is also what we must do in these troubled times. We might be harrassed but must find the resources, we must form alliances and allow both social and private companies to develop and thrive. We must change the tax systems to make it easier for companies to develop and governmental authorities to keep their staff and employ new ones.
I’m no communist or socialist, but a Christian without allegiance to a specific party. As such I believe in a combination of social care and commitment, co-operation – even over political border lines if need be, and a possibility for the individual to thrive and succeed financially within certain limits, but only to a minor degree. Greed, politcal correctness, hatred, schemes, intrigues etc will lead to Hell, because both Heaven and Hell do exist, as well as our only Saviour, Jesus Christ. We don’t want to destroy our world even more. The Creator deserves our devotion, respect, gratitude and honour by us loving each other and the Lord as well as humbly taking care of the globe we live upon.
Anders Moberg, November 15th 2012
swedish heart and soul 