The Nettie Report

TO my great regret I was not able to attend the IHEU Board meeting and the humanist conferences which were held at the turn of the year in India. [For reports of the conferences see elsewhere in this issue.) I was particularly sorry I could not see the new Centre for the Study of Social Changes in Bombay. From the enthusiastic accounts I got from Dutch friends who did, I gathered that the building, though not quite finished, is most impressive. And I am very happy for Dr. Indumati Parikh that her enormous efforts to establish this Centre have been so successful!

The most dramatic outcome of the IHEU Board meeting was the decision to move the IHEU headquarters from Utrecht to London. It will be accommodated in the Humanist Centre where the British Humanist Association, the Rationalist Press Association and the National Secular Society have their offices as well.

Some of the tasks of the Utrecht office will continue to be dealt with by a part-timer in the Netherlands, e.g. the Secretariats for Education, Counselling, Housing of the Elderly, the Media, Electronics and Social Work. Also, the IHEU archives will stay in Utrecht: the University for Humanist Studies has kindly offered to store them. If needed, documents can easily be faxed to London.

As a result of the drastic reduction in government subsidies, the Dutch Humanist League which has housed the IHEU headquarters from the beginning in 1952, is forced to look for less expensive premises than it has now. Till the right place is found, the DHL intends to rent out an entire office floor and it will then need the rooms used by 1HEU for some of its own staff members. That means that the IHEU office will have to move very soon, but it is quite a comfort to know that we are saving money by terminating our tenancy agreement a long time before it expires.

Further, the Dutch Centre for Humanist Studies in Utrecht is willing to provide a desk and a PC for some IHEU activities. N.B. our Dutch telephone and fax numbers will not change for the time being.

After having been involved with IHEU for well over thirty years and with the office at my doorstep -- well, half an hour away by train in addition to some time in a tram or bus and on foot - I feel rather sad about the move. And so do the other Dutch members of the Executive Committee, also because we have to take leave of our staff who worked for IHEU for so many years.

Of course, the move to London -- may well generate fresh inspiration and initiatives for the benefit of IHEU. The fact that the place is swarming with native speakers of 1HEU's official language, is quite an advantage. I can tell you from my experience of flipping endlessly through dictionaries, that it will save a lot of time. In any case, I now have one more reason for visiting the Humanist Centre and I look forward to meet the yet to be appointed new director of IHEU there.

Now back to the Dutch Humanist League. On February 17, 1946 a press release was issued announcing the foundation of the 'Humanistisch Verbond' at a well-attended meeting in Amsterdam. It said that the DHL's objective was 'deepening the spiritual life of the nondenominational section of the Dutch population and participating in the spiritual reconstruction of our country'. Further, mention was made of Jaap van Praag (co-founder of IHEU) who spoke of the necessity of a Humanist League, whereby he emphasized its fundamental difference with the churches and the need of cooperating with them.

Fifty years later to the day the DHL celebrated its golden jubilee with a very festive assembly of nearly a thousand people.

The general theme was 'Get Involved, tolerance as an activity' and the afternoon programme started with the State Secretary for Home Affairs (in the U.K. a Minister of State) putting up an award for the volunteer group with the highest achievement in promoting tolerance.

After a fascinating forum discussion on 'How tolerant are the Dutch?' with representatives from various sectors of society, led by the best Dutch television presenter, there were several parallel sessions. We could choose twice between a speaker's comer, a theatrical production in which the spectators were invited to intervene, forbidden music from Greece and a refugee from Iran, a writer who read from his works. The hilarious performance of a woman comedian and the speech of the Minister for Housing, Regional Development and the Environment filled the rest of the afternoon.

In the evening, after an excellent Indonesian buffet, there were some more speeches and parallel sessions with a film, music and storytellers. By then the band had started and a great many humanists danced happily till the close of this wonderful birthday party.

DURING the week before the jubilee a two-day international workshop for humanist funeral officials was held near Utrecht. On this occasion special attention was paid to the music played at funeral ceremonies and suggestions for music were exchanged. Most of the participants had met each other at earlier workshops and this one was very pleasant and useful as well.

Following that there was an interesting European Seminar, also for two days, on Humanist Dialogue, organised by the Dutch Centre of Humanist Studies. Most of the time was spent in groups which dealt with the subjects of counselling, education, social work, and life stance.

I participated in the group on counselling where we discussed among others the three kinds of dialogue humanist counsellors are engaged in: with their clients, their religious colleagues and their humanist organisation which is expected to support them and to which they have to render account.

The participants of the funeral workshop and the seminar, several of whom took part in both, came from Belgium, England, France, Germany, Israel, Norway and Poland, and of course from the Netherlands.

We were very pleased that quite a number of our foreign guests also attended the festivities of the DHL. I pitied them for having to sit through so much talking in Dutch, but fortunately there was non-verbal entertainment as well. So I hope it was not only out of politeness that they told me that they had really enjoyed themselves.

On the Sunday right after the jubilee (humanists just never stop) the European Humanist Professionals held their annual meeting. After reporting on their activities they discussed steps for a closer cooperation. Good news is that the possibilities for a breakthrough in Southern Europe are growing. In any case, our Italian contacts have already suggested Rome as the venue for an IHEU Congress in 2000. Sounds exciting.

With the help of the Central and Eastern European Secretariat of IHEU a conference on 'A Humanist View of European Integration' will be organised in Poland in November. Next year the general EHP meeting will be hosted by the Ligue Francaise de l'Enseignement et de l'Education Permanente in Strassbourg.