First of all, I would like to express my sympathy with the victims of the disaster in Japan and all of those involved. To remain strong in such a horrendous situation deserves nothing but respect and high esteem. Furthermore, many thanks to the organisers of Friday’s information evening. Besides answering many of the visitors’ questions, the evening also symbolised an inspiring feeling of commiseration for those in peril. The widespread and palpable feeling of solidarity last Friday gave me an insight in the potential of LUC the Hague. Besides functioning as a regular university college, LUC could become a platform for information on contemporary affairs and situations in the world. As students and staff of the very first year of LUC, it is our responsibility to live up to the mission statement “building knowledge for a better world”. Important events such as the information evening about Japan are the true foundation of the process of building for a better world. By listening to, observing and interacting with leading experts in the fields of different global challenges, students can create the necessary awareness for a necessary better world. On a planet where nature is not always on our side and vice versa, future scholars or policy makers should be aware of the risks and dangers of life on earth. LUC can serve as a distributor of knowledge that could enable us to live on earth our earth sustainably, safely and peacefully. As scholars and students, we have the duty to learn from disasters and horrors in order to learn to deal with them in the future . I would like to end this short blog entry with a Japanese saying that a friend of mine once told me: 七転び八起き(nana korobi - ya oki), Fall seven times – get up eight.
Jules Marc van der Sneppen (1st year student, LUC)
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