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Dear participants of World Congress of Families V or more informally: friends of
the family. On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee, I tell you that it is a
great honor that you have accepted our invitation to celebrate the family as
more than the sum of its parts in Amsterdam. We are here from more than 60
countries and we welcome all people that are present here and all people that
are connected to us now or later by internet. We hope that you will enjoy the
program and that you will feel informed, equipped and inspired to stand up for
the family in your own daily life.
This speech consist of three parts. First, I would like to
thank all the people and organizations that made this congress possible. After
that, I will introduce the theme and finally, I will explain why are we here?
I would
like to thank the following persons or organizations. This list is not in order
of importance and I am sure it is not complete.
1. The
Netherlands Board of Tourism (especially Antonia Koedijk)
2. The Amsterdam Board of Tourism
3. The Dutch Embassy in Washington, D.C.
4. The Dutch Pre-financing fund
5. Our Professional Congress Organiser: Eurocongress-International
6. The Local Organizing Committee
7. RAI Amsterdam
8. RAI Hotel service
9. Transvision (Translation)
10. Binpro (Audiovisual Equipment)
11. Life Media Vision (Live Streaming)
12. International Planning Committee
13. The Management Committee
14. The Howard Center For Family, Religion and Society
15. International and national donors
16. Co-sponsors
17. International and local partners
18. All volunteers
19. Larry Jacobs
20. My parents
21. My wife
Harmke
22. The Creator of all these people
Thank you for all your wisdom, support and encouragement!
The main theme of this congress is Family: more than the sum of its parts. With
this theme we would like to express that the family is not just a gathering of
individuals. We also emphasize that the family cannot be reduced to any of its
parts. It does not justice to the uniqueness of the family if people reduce it
to just a social, economical or legal unit. It is more than that. It is unique.
At the same time it is universal. In all societies families are still founded
upon a man and a woman and possible children. On day 1 the topic is Modern
families, traditional values. Many people experience a tension between what they
actually want, what tradition says and the demands of modern society. On day 2
we discuss the role of families in developing countries, because families face
many challenges that undermine their position and stability. On day three we
look forward. What kind of developments can we expect and how can we deal with
it. What are the solutions?
Let’s now move to the question, why are we here? There are
five reasons why we are here.
First the
political and cultural climate. As you may know, it is the first time in
history that we have a minister of Youth and Family in the Netherlands. Many
people see this as a result of the acknowledgment that our country has
experienced the truth and wisdom of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
which states in article 16: ‘The
family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to
protection by society and the State.’ People experience that the state cannot create what families break. But it can
do a lot to facilitate families and to give them the freedom and respect to
answer the calling to be a family. Some of you would ask, but if you have a
minister of Youth and Family why should you organize this congress? As said, the
state cannot create what families break. We as citizens, families, religious
leaders and civil society leaders also have the responsibility to make
the family the cornerstone of society. Besides that, the family has still a low
priority at many departments within the present cabinet. I would like to
illustrate that with two examples.
As in many
Western societies our society faces ageing of its population. Families do not
replace themselves, because of low birth rates. This leads to the problem that
the coming generation, which is smaller than the older generation, has to
shoulder the costs for the older generation. What does our cabinet do? It does
not do what you would expect namely encouraging parents to raise children or to
have more children. No, it pushes women through tax measures to work,
preferably three or four days a week. In short, the cabinet mis(uses) the ageing
of society to further a progressive agenda in which all people have to be equal
and thus have to participate in paid jobs. Secondly, the cabinet thinks that
immigration will compensate for the ageing of our society. Besides that fact
that this will be at the cost of developing countries (think of “brain drain”)
and that raises tensions within groups in societies; it’s also a short term
solution. Because, who will burden the costs of that generation of immigrants
when they become old? Do we need more immigrants then?
The second
example illustrates that our cabinet is not as family friendly as we wish it
were. This is the result of the discriminatory structure of our tax system.
Because most of the advantages for raising children are organized via the tax
system, mothers who do paid work receive more financial compensation than
mothers who stay at home to educate their children full time.
In sum, we
praise our minister of Youth and Family for the establishment of his department
of Youth and Family, but at the same time we call upon the cabinet to take
family first in all policy- and decision making, the minister for development
cooperation and foreign affairs included.
In addition
to the political climate argument, we see this World Congress of Families as a
catalyst that could unite people for a pro-family platform which is direly
needed in our country. The World Congress of Families shows that it is possible
to bring people from different cultural and religious or non-religious
backgrounds together.
Thirdly,
“to be or not to be,” that is the question in a globalized world. This is what
international relations scholars call global civil society. Whether we like it
or not, the increase, impact and influence of transnational and supranational
actors makes it necessary for people to unite themselves on a international
level. If you don’t want to be part of that society, you will never have any
significant influence on it. At this moment, the World Congress of Families is
the only real transnational player when it comes to the family. We have to
acknowledge that. It was a reason that we applied to host the fifth World
Congress and Families. We did so in cooperation with the Dutch embassy in
Washington, D.C. and the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions in New
York. A good example of the increasing impact of international organizations is
the United Nations. Last week the Committee for Human Rights of the United
Nations stated that the Netherlands should introduce a legal check in the case
of euthanasia. However, in the same report they said that the Netherlands
government should do more to get women to work and that they should increase
day-care. Besides the fact that this illustrates how much influence
international organizations have on national states, it also makes clear that it
is not appropriate to label the United Nations in a negative way only. I learned
from the American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr that good and evil are not that
easy to distinguish. In his view, people who think so often overlook their own
failures and weaknesses. That should make us humble.
The fourth
reason why we are here is that the World Congress of Families has been accused
of being afraid to debate and that they chose Poland as the fourth World
Congress of Families for that reason. This World Congress of Families proves
that we are not afraid to have debate or discussion. For that reason we have
invited many speakers that would not fully agree with the World Congress of
Families message but could still contribute, because of their expertise. It is a
lost opportunity that many did reject that invitation. So my question is: Who
is afraid to debate?
The final
reason that I would like to present is that we have a positive message that
surely will help people to live a happy life. We want them to discover the truth
and wisdom of the natural family. We want to show and prove that marriage and
family are the preconditions for a strong society, happy parents, real
individual development and the wealth and health of CHILDREN. In fact, we are a
Pro-child movement. By promoting this message, we do not focus on the negative.
To illustrate, If I would like to buy a car, and the Mercedes salesman only
tells me how bad Lexus is; then I will go to the Lexus salesman to hear what he
thinks of the Mercedes. Do you understand? That is the world upside down. I
think we can do better. We advertise the best car and we invite people to
experience how that car drives.
Thank you
for your attention.
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