2022: Volume 6: Issue 2
■ Sijtze de Roos
You probably haven’t missed it, but when still in doubt you might remember this happy fact from our previous issue: ANSE is 25 years young this year. We joyfully celebrated this in different ways, such as in Riga, during the ably organized ANSE Summer University of 2022.
A happy event indeed. With Covid19 apparently fading away, we were finally able to meet in person again. Our Latvian colleagues did their very best to make participants from all over Europe feel welcome to join in the program. And how they managed this! The stimulating environment was not only a joy to the eye, but provided extra inspiration as well. For an impression of the location - the strikingly beautiful National Library of Latvia - please have a look at the photo to the right. All in all - organisation, environment and content - we can say that everything contributed to a stimulating and instructive conference. Yet although it certainly went fine, the nearby Ukrainian war cast its shadow over the proceedings, over Riga, over the entire Baltics and indeed over all of Europe and beyond. To cite just one example: while the Summer University was in full swing, less than a mile away from the conference venue the megalomaniac “Monument of the Liberation of Soviet Latvia” was brought down unceremoniously. “Good riddance”, most Latvians must have thought. To them, it symbolized the cruel Soviet oppression of the past; a memory made even more horrifying by the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The conference program, too, allowed ample attention to the situation of our Ukrainian colleagues. Five Ukrainian supervisors presented an impressive keynote on ‘supervision during the war and the strength of the unconquered’; an inspiring performance, highlighting the importance of the conference topic: Power Dynamics. Highlighting, moreover, the serious consequences of this war for all of us. The impact of the war goes much further than Ukraine: it concerns the whole of Europe and indeed the cause of freedom and democracy worldwide. That is why we need to keep on supporting our Ukrainian colleagues. That is why we - on behalf of our Austrian colleagues of ÖVS - publish this call for continuing support:
As you will remember, we at ÖVS together with the ANSE, this spring collected €E80,000 in donations for Ukraine. A big thanks to every donor! It allowed our Ukrainian colleagues to alleviate current needs, varying from baby food to walking frames, from insulin to chocolate, all kinds of medicine and first aid bags, night vision devices, binoculars and of course drinking water treatment and generators. We could tell beautiful and touching but above all cruel and heartbreaking stories. And it looks like the horror is far from over. This autumn, the Russian military is mercilessly targeting critical Ukrainian infrastructure, which means a winter without heating and often without water for local people. Cleaning for drinking water and solar generators are urgently needed. We therefore ask you again: help us to help.
.... ■
