News from Olivier
Huhu I really am late…..November is over and Christmas just around the corner! It may not look like it but Olivier has been very busy indeed.
My involvement in the social economy sector has not diminished, I wrote about that in my previous message. It’s mainly in the informal secteur where I meet a lot of people, recruiting new administrators and guiding along men and women who want to work as volunteers in the social area. The need for it is obvious and clearly not letting up. Look at the world and be grateful for living in Europe, Belgium and Brussels rather than in Gaza. The way the world is going with the Chinese, Russians and Americans fighting for dominance is frightening. Europe has no choice but to adapt and develop a vision and a strategy to protect ourselves from military risks from Russia; you know that I’ve never been a fan of arms and weapons but alas, what else can we do now? The Americans have dropped us and we need to get our own act together.
We also have to rethink our role in the world. Do we want to withdraw and let the others act, should we just close our borders, eyes and ears and leave the field to violent countries and their destructive doings? What kind of values do we want to defend? The traditional international organisations have been weakened by the Americans, the Chinese, not to speak about the Russians. Even in Europe an ever increasing number of people are having doubts about the viability of our system and fear is growing which pushes many of them in the arms of extreme right and nationalist movements with their “easy” solutions. Alas, there is no such thing as an easy solution. I just read a fascinating book by Guliano da Empoli, Les Ingénieurs du chaos (Ed.Folio) which explains how the rise of populist movements has been deliberately and knowingly orchestrated and how it has been and is being propagated. It is quite scary but I would still recommend to read it because it helps to understand why so many people feel lost and abandoned by politicians.
Now hang on Olivier, you have always been such an unshakeable optimist – how are you in the midst of all that and what are you doing to avoid being left with nothing but bewilderment?
Well, it’s not easy, obviously. What is happening in the social sector is largely the consequence of this evolution – climate refugees, people fleeing from wars, their impact on our absorption capacities and the difficulties of young people to find their way. We must not close our eyes to that but help to look for concrete and pragmatic solutions. That’s exactly what I am trying to do, at my level and from where I am of course.
Music too saves me, I think. As you know, Barbara and I sing in a choir. We sang Mozart’s Requiem several times in churches and concert halls full to the brim in Brussels and we also sang in Sevilla and Cordoba in Spain this spring. We are now studying the Requiem by Verdi, a huge and difficult piece. I like it less than the one by Mozart which is a veritable requiem, moving, true. The one by Verdi is – Verdi. More an opera than a requiem, really. But singing together is such balm on our souls, and the group is just great!
Finally there are all these precious moments with our friends with some of whom we regularly play boggle or cards (Doppelkopf, a German game!) and our family, mainly Barbara’s sons and their and our loved ones which we always enjoy.
So, somehow we’ll manage, says the the optimistic Olivier, but like many people of a given age I am less and less fond of change ….and everything is changing…
Having said this, I wish you a happy Christmas and a wonderful new year 2026 !!
Olivier December 2025
