Jeannette Seppen, Ambassador of Netherlands to Pakistan, recently said that Europe had suffered greatly because of an absence of sufficient critical thinking in its history. She expressed these views in her address at the closing ceremony of the fifth round of collaborative four-day-training workshops, organised by the Pakistan Center of Excellence (PACE).

Seppen noted that despite being one of the most highly educated parts of the world, people in Europe still followed a doctrine of divisiveness without thought during WWII. She said that the Dutch government is proud to be able to host events like PACE because of their policies, which encourage critical thinking and discourse. “It is better to allow all these diverse colours to blend, to blossom, than having one singular, bland colour,” she said.

The Ambassador was of the view, “as children, we were always encouraged in our school to ask why; to speak out about things that agonised us. We were also provided with responses and grievance redress. This is crucial for critical thinking, which leads to nation and peace building.”

PACE is a major CVE initiative launched by the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) with a significant support by the government of Netherlands. It serves to promote democratic values, respect for diversity, fundamental human rights and virtues of tolerance as a measure of ensuring social peace and harmony for peaceful co-existence.

The initiative also aims to facilitate a socio-political discourse, “the Alternate Narrative”, on democratic rights and responsibilities anchored in the globally accepted and practised concepts.

This article originally appeared in Daily Times July 19, 2016. Original Link.