BROTM (2) Ships of hope
Post number 2 of the December BROTM sequel.
Schepen van de hoop, Ships of hope.
When Jan van Riebeeck set sail to the Cape of Good Hope in 1652 to establish an outpost of the Dutch East Indian company, the Cape was already known to sailors. It was the Portugese sailor Bartolomeu Dias who discovered it at the southern tip of Africa in 1487.
The fact that the location of the Cape was known didn’t make it an easy journey.
Sailing the oceans on the wooden ships of that era was a seriously dangerous activity.
The sailors used hope as one of the “mental processes” to stay motivated, they hoped they would survive the journey and they hoped they could set foot on “terra firma" somewhere to continue their lives.
KGH Francois Valentijn 1724.jpg
Cape of good hope in 1724.
Between 1652 and 2022 the thoughts and insights about the phenomena hope changed several times.
Goethe called hope the second soul of the unhappy, a quote that doesn’t sound very positive.
In recent times the effect of hope is rated much more positively.
Hope can be a very important aspect of medical and mental health treatments, just do a Google search and you will find a lot of interesting articles.
Sometimes we can spot some hope support in the Bilge, usually when there are problems with family or friends. It’s always good to see most Bilge members supporting the poster.
The contemporary ships of hope look very different from the ships of the 17th century.
This one is made of steel and rises at least 12 stories above the water.
vluchtelingenschip.jpg
She is moored in a industrial zone along the North sea channel in the Netherlands. The ship is used for the temporary housing of 1000 refugees. A necessity because the normal yearly refugee streams coincided with the Ukrainian refugee streams in 2022, this caused a capacity problem in the reception of refugees.
The refugees must stay on this ship until the Dutch immigration service decides that their application for EU refugee status is legal, by the way these people are not locked up.
The daily activities of the refugees are limited to eating, sleeping and waiting, … a lot of waiting, they are not allowed to work yet. The children are sent to a special school 5 days a week.
But do the refugees know it’s Christmas in a few weeks?
They probably do but a significant part of the refugees comes from Syria, Irak, Afghanistan or other islamic countries, muslims usually don’t celebrate Christmas.
Most of the refugees were worried they wouldn’t survive the journey and most of them just hope that they can set foot on “terra firma” somewhere to continue their lives, preferably before Christmas.
Human behavior doesn’t change that much in a few centuries.
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