What's wrong in Belgium pt2

This week one of the best Belgian actors died. Julien Schoenaerts was a person that reflects a lot of ideas that are in line of what I expect of life. Love plays an important role in it. "Without love this world is boring and sad" he said yesterday in a program put on tape some time ago. He was born in a part of Belgium where I come from and lived his last days in Antwerpen, the place where I live now. He often went back to his hometown in the eastern part of Belgium, to enjoy nature. Nature was for him love, the thing we need.
This little background brings me to the fact that Belgians are forgetting how much we need nature. We think we need to build houses, factories, roads, shops etc, because they create jobs, stimulate the economy, give the "so much needed" infrastructure. But don't we forget who we are ... Human beings? In this country there not a single spot where you find the "natural combination" of no noise, no smell and no light. At any point all of these elements or at least one of them is present. And we just accept it, because of the above mentioned reasons. For some of us it is a decission, but just like to story about Belgian traffic, most of us don't even consider it. We just don't think about it. We bring down trees because they are just in our way. We build new roads, so that we can drive quicker from A to B. We build houses on open spaces, because there is a lack of houses, etc... But where do we bring down buildings because there is a lack of nature? Where do we close factories because we don't accept the smells? Ofcourse there are some small initiatives which show that at least some people are considering the fact that our country looks more grey than green. But to be honoust, we talk about nothing.
In Sweden nature is something you respect. People openly say that they couldn't live without it. Houses are built of materials that do not harm nature.
This story is much longer, there is much more to say, but don't forget that the final result should be: all nature that is taken in Belgium to stimulate our econmy should at least be compensated on another place. And like I told in the above, nature is represented on different levels. So if you take nature to build a factory, do not only plant some trees around it. This is just such a fake sollution...
Last week on Belgian television there was a program which shows Belgian families travelling to places in the world where people still live like in the stoneages. This week was the first broadcast showing the families arriving on the place where they were going to stay for several weeks. One of them arrived in Papua New Guinea. I remember the father stepping out of the plane, with tears in his eyes. Not because of being homesick, but just because of the beauty of nature. He couldn't stop crying, he was overwhelmed.
I think we have to reconsider how beautiful nature is, and especially how much we need it.

I LOVE NATURE,

Jeroen