Draft speech by Saskia Bolten, 1 June 2007

Dear Ladies,

The writer Khalil Ghibran once said: ‘If we want to communicate without any problems, we will have to reduce language to seven words.’
As that is not an option, there will always be misunderstandings between people when they are communicating with each other. And if they come from different generations, the chance of that happening is quite high. So the subject of your conference is relevant no matter what age we are living in, and no matter what age we are. Which makes it all the more important, because what matters is solving these communication problems.

People from different generations communicate in different ways. A good example in the last few weeks was the competition for the best text message in the Netherlands. This is an actual literary contest, which was won by a 15-year-old girl. Perhaps you saw it on the television or read about it in the newspaper. Her message, written in text language, was rewarded by the jury with ‘De Gouden Duim’ (the Golden Thumb). I would bet that most people of my generation would have no idea what her message was about. It looked like a strange mixture of abbreviations, numbers and punctuation marks. For example, do you know what 2L8 means? Too late. Sounds logical enough, but it still takes some working out. However, the girl’s contemporaries understood the message completely.


But the differences between generations when it comes to communicating are not just about the creative use of letters and punctuation marks. Culture, upbringing, personal experiences and also the media create a reference framework and concepts that help us understand the world, and which we use to communicate with other people.


The very fact that you grew up in Indonesia and your children in the Netherlands itself makes a world of difference. Although our countries have a joint history stretching back centuries, this has unfortunately not led to any deep similarity. Not yet. On top of that, you and your children grew up in a different era in a fast changing world, so you would think that the communication gulf is virtually unbridgeable. But I am no pessimist.


My background is in the field of communication and I now work in the world of communication par excellence: politics – a world where bridging differences is often what matters most, as far as I am concerned. This is done by seeking to understand others, and by respecting differences. Understanding others is not always something that happens straightaway. Understanding takes time and effort. And if you understand too quickly, you will not really learn, according to an Oriental saying.


But young people need to be understood. Perhaps that is the time of life when the desire to be understood is greater than any other. There is another saying to the effect that home is where others understand you. And if there is anywhere that children should be understood, it should be with their parents.


For that reason, it is important to ‘keep up’ with your children and to talk with them; not just mothers and their children, but mothers with other mothers, mothers and school etc. It is really a question of participating and emancipating, and that is something you can only do properly if there is somewhere that you feel you are at home. As a politician I believe it to be important that children and their parents feel as though they are understood in our city, and that they feel as though they are understood by the people and organisations in our city. The council is making an active contribution in that area, with emancipation projects, help and care organisations, centres for women and children, and partnerships with social organisations, for promoting independence and participation.


That is why this conference is so valuable. It is aimed at understanding. Understanding the ‘youth of today’, to use a well-worn expression. And remember, there was once a time when we were the youth of today!


Young people nowadays are sometimes dubbed ‘screenagers’. They belong to a generation that has grown up with all kinds of screens - on their laptops, PCs, TVs, PlayStations or mobile phones. It is certainly very fitting and very praiseworthy that many Salamaa activities take place online! Today, though, is a real-life situation, not just a virtual one. I welcome that, and wish you the best of luck.


Finally, I would like to return to the 15-year-old girl who wrote the prize-winning text message, and tell you what the message was actually about. Using text language that at first seems so incomprehensible, she explained that she had torn her knitted jumper. A knitted jumper! Well, that is something I do know enough about and, so it seems, so does the youth of today.


The girl also said that she had to take the jumper to her grandmother to have it mended! That, for me, was the best thing. Using the most modern language that we have at the moment, a screenager explained that she needed her grandmother to mend something for her. Her knitted jumper. Older and younger generations may communicate in different ways, but if you look at the substance of the message, it seems they still need each other, and that communicating is important for both groups. That, surely, is what counts.


I wish you a successful symposium.


Thank you very much.

The text message:
b&iw! srry dak 2L8 b&: b& mt mn nwe gbrde trui Rgns 8ter blyvn Hkn: mst ds 1st nr Oma, om ’m te ltn mkn!


In ‘real’ Dutch:
ben ik weer! sorry dat ik te laat (too late) ben: ben met mijn nieuwe gebreide trui ergens achter blijven haken. Moest dus eerst naar oma, om hem te laten maken!


And in English:
Me again! Sorry I’m so late: got my new knitted jumper caught on something. Had to go to my gran first to get it fixed!