Dignity

Dignity. What is it? Even more importantly: Where is it?

The basis of everything, the basis of man, but the first in line to be trampled on today. It is trampled on by people, who are not people. Those “people” who trample on people, who are people… but are dehumanized. What a paradox.

The world is running away. It is running away from responsibility, from common solutions, from order, security and stability, which we took for granted just yesterday. It is running away from dignity.

Dignity is the common thread of the jubilee largest Slovenian diplomatic event, and ‘The World Has Fleeed’ is its slogan this year.

This is not the first time I have been a part of the Bled Strategic Forum BSF, but this time is however special for me. Nine years ago, when I was still a journalist and panelist at the Bled Strategic Forum for Youth, I never imagined that I would one day be part of the big stage of the BSF. The world is running away and so is time. At tomorrow’s panel, we will discuss where and how to move forward, at a time, when Europe (again) stands at a crossroads.

Although there will be a lot of talk in Bled these days about strategic issues of the future of the world and Europe, this is not today’s biggest event. In fact, today is the biggest day for those who step over the school threshold. May their first step be brave, their path safe, and their curiosity boundless. May they be the ones from whom the world will not run away the way it runs away from us.

May they be the ones who will understand that dignity is not “something more”, but simply the foundation of a human being. Dignity can be a “nice dress” that is not necessarily special, or it can be an “ordinary” T-shirt that is anything but ordinary. I, for example, was both in Bled today.