Shut up and listen!
Don't worry, the header of this post is not meant for you but it is actually meant for me. Yesterday I had the opportunity to exercise one of my recurring development areas. I was in principle very happy about it because what would we be if we do not get the chance to continuously improve ourselves.
Let me describe you the setting, the scene that I am about to discribe took place during the last session of the breastfeeding course which I am attending. For the ones of you who are not familiar with these topics, the one thing that you need to know is that the whole circus around promotion and education on breastfeeding in The Netherlands is run buy a quite powerfull lobby also known as "the breastfeeding maffia". They spread the breastfeeding gospel using a combination of pseudo-scientific facts and plain threats.
Nevertheless I have to say that some of the practical tips that they give are quite usefull, so I decided to join again for a refresher, it has been six years now, the memory is fading.
I walk in the training room and I find the trainer and one of the attendees deep in a very animated debate whose topic I did not really manage to catch, so I politely ask what are they debating about. "We are discussing whether we should have the children vaccinated against diseases, this is a raging discussion nowadays" promptly replies one of my fellow cursist. A raging discussion, I ask myself silenty, where in the Amish communities of Pennsylvania?!?!? This is The Netherlands for god's sake what are we talking about!
But you know, I strive to be a better me, so I quietly sit down, I shut up and listen, trying not to look too amazed.
The arguments brought in in favour of not vaccinating the children are totally fascinating as well as scary at the same time, I can handle this I say to myself, untill the final blow strikes. The trainier, with the candidest voice in the world, gives her final remark. "I have three daughters and there is no way that I will have them vaccinated against cervical cancer". I am appalled, these women are crazy I must be in"The twilight zone", I am thinking in despair. Fortunately I look around me and the majority of the attendees are visibly as appaled as myself, I suddenly feel releaved, I can calm down.
I think I did quite well considering where I am coming from, of course the next step for me would be to be able to calmly and civilly participate into the discussion. I am not yet there but working on it!
Time to go now, Mama Mazzel Dagen are going on at the Prenatal, time to do some shopping!
Let me describe you the setting, the scene that I am about to discribe took place during the last session of the breastfeeding course which I am attending. For the ones of you who are not familiar with these topics, the one thing that you need to know is that the whole circus around promotion and education on breastfeeding in The Netherlands is run buy a quite powerfull lobby also known as "the breastfeeding maffia". They spread the breastfeeding gospel using a combination of pseudo-scientific facts and plain threats.
Nevertheless I have to say that some of the practical tips that they give are quite usefull, so I decided to join again for a refresher, it has been six years now, the memory is fading.
I walk in the training room and I find the trainer and one of the attendees deep in a very animated debate whose topic I did not really manage to catch, so I politely ask what are they debating about. "We are discussing whether we should have the children vaccinated against diseases, this is a raging discussion nowadays" promptly replies one of my fellow cursist. A raging discussion, I ask myself silenty, where in the Amish communities of Pennsylvania?!?!? This is The Netherlands for god's sake what are we talking about!
But you know, I strive to be a better me, so I quietly sit down, I shut up and listen, trying not to look too amazed.
The arguments brought in in favour of not vaccinating the children are totally fascinating as well as scary at the same time, I can handle this I say to myself, untill the final blow strikes. The trainier, with the candidest voice in the world, gives her final remark. "I have three daughters and there is no way that I will have them vaccinated against cervical cancer". I am appalled, these women are crazy I must be in"The twilight zone", I am thinking in despair. Fortunately I look around me and the majority of the attendees are visibly as appaled as myself, I suddenly feel releaved, I can calm down.
I think I did quite well considering where I am coming from, of course the next step for me would be to be able to calmly and civilly participate into the discussion. I am not yet there but working on it!
Time to go now, Mama Mazzel Dagen are going on at the Prenatal, time to do some shopping!
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