The Nettie Column

A regular column by Nettie Klein, secretary of the IHEU and a former humanist counsellor.

WHEN I was wondering how I should start this column, the first line of a classic Dutch poem called "Mei" by Herman Garter came into my mind. This frequently quoted line goes "Fen nieuwe lente een nieuw geluid" which means "a new spring, a new sound" -- and "geluid" also stands for "voice" or "note'.

I am aware that my concept of spring time must be different from that of many IHEU members who live at another latitude than I do. But here in the Netherlands, where IHEU has its quarters, snowdrops, crocuses and the green shoots of daffodils and tulips are already heralding spring. As regards the "new sound', this IHEU magazine may well be considered as its carrier.

Further, it so happens that the nice new location of the IHEU office is on Nieuwegracht, i.e. New Canal! We now have a large room plus a small one on the second floor of a distinguished old house in the centre of Utrecht, not far from our previous address. The walk from the station has become longer, but there is a bus that stops nearby.

Our move to this other building, together with the headquarters of the Dutch Humanist League, has been quite a strain on everybody concerned. Of course, packing and unpacking and again filing away tons and tons of papers always takes a lot of energy and time. But since the previous tenants had not yet moved all their stuff when the DHI had to vacate its old premises, things were rather complicated to put it mildly.

While trying to sort out the chaos our Head of Secretariat, Erica Schulte Northolt vented her feelings by pinning the following text (by the prolific Anon) on our notice board:

(Because I already felt guilty about having been of very little assistance to the IHEU staff during the move, these words really touched me in a sensitive spot!)

Anyway, by now the number of boxes that still have to be unpacked has decreased to a manageable minimum. And when we have finally recovered the special supports for the shelves of our large filing cabinet, we will again be able to walk freely around the furniture in our pleasant new office.

In April the Executive Committee and the Chairman of the Growth and Development Committee will meet in Madrid with a group of people who have plans for the formation of a humanist organisation in Spain. This meeting will be hosted by Professor Jose Delgado with whom we have been in contact for several years, and who was one of the speakers at the academic conference of the University for Humanist Studies in Utrecht last year.

In spite of regular efforts to make contacts in Latin America, particularly on the part of our co-President Paul Kurtz, IHEU has not made much headway in establishing new organisations there. One might think that in countries where - in this case -- the Roman Catholic Church is a dominant force in society, there would be need for a movement which can offer a humanist alternative. So how come that we get so little response? Is there no desire to make changes in such fields as education, counselling and ceremonies?

We know that where people are rather lukewarm about religion, such as in Italy, it is very difficult to promote the humanist cause, If, on the other hand, non-believers run the risk of being prosecuted and worse, like in some Islamic countries, it is quite understandable that they have no humanist organisations. I would say that neither extreme fits the South American situation, but I also realise that it is not comparable either with the social circumstances in certain European countries where IHEU has very active members. For instance, in Belgium, Norway and the Netherlands the very fact that the established churches made humanists feel like second class citizens has been a strong incentive for them to fight for equal rights. And often with excellent results.

In any case, we do hope that the initiative of our friends in Madrid will be successful. With their help we will probably be able to improve and increase our contacts with humanists in other Spanish-speaking countries as well. One contact we have in Buenos Aires is studying the possibility of establishing a humanist organisation in .Argentina. He wrote to us recently about the situation there: "Relations between the State and the Catholic Church are solid and zealously tended by the ecclesiastic hierarchy. The mass media conform to this state of affairs. Older thinkers are usually on the right, the younger ones on the old left. It is going to be quite a task to find some on the humanistic atheistic side."

Also, we have just heard from an academic in Lima who is trying to launch a journal with a humanist and skeptic outlook, "Revista Peruana de Filesofia Applicada". He is convinced that it would be a very good idea to start a humanist organisation in Peru, where the "pseudoscientific and fundamentalistic groups are strong and growing."

Let me finish with reminding you of the Humanist Congress in Berlin this summer. It promises to be quite interesting and exciting, if only because you will be able to meet a lot of people from Eastern Europe. Elsewhere in this issue you will find all the details.