Editorial

Early Sunday morning, some mist still is hanging over the fields in front of the window. Yesterday evening, I was one among millions of people all over the world watching the World Cup in football. Sweden was beaten by Germany. No question which team was the best. The next game, in which Argentina won against Mexico with one goal, was different. I was impressed by the energy in the Mexican team. But their fighting spirit could not take them to the quarter final. Human energy and willpower was not enough.

This train of thought reminds me of another loss. Our neighbors have sold their cows, since the price of milk has decreased to such a level that they no longer can make their living as dairy farmers. In my village, we expect that only three out of eight milk farmers will survive after another five-year period.

We really live in a new global world. Television and World Cup football unite people from different countries, cultures, and religions. As spectators and consumers, we are united even if we support different teams. But globalisation also affects daily life in the village. As producers, we take part in a worldwide competition. All over the world, both north and south, millions of people are discovering that hard work and good will are not enough to support a family.

Old systems of values no longer seem to be useful. This Saturday, an old friend of mine celebrates his 60th birthday. His son is an engineer and constructs a small technical device that is in its turn installed into 20 million mobile phones, produced in China. For my friend's son, the idea of labour division is self-evident. He has no need to grasp the whole production process in order to find his work meaningful and to make his living from it.

As practising psychoanalysts, it is necessary to discuss these new systems of production and, as a consequence, also the new set of values and the new world-order that is taking form at the beginning the 21st century. In or