Today is World Day of Social Justice. The UN recognise that social development and social justice are indispensable for peace and security within and among nations. Respect for all human rights and fundamental freedoms are a necessary condition for social justice.

Our first impulse may be to look at countries and regions in the world, where human rights are violated. Those countries and regions do need our attention indeed.

However, this year the team of The Wyrd Podcast likes to draw attention to the social justice situation in Europe. To our own countries. Because we may like to think that our democracies comply with human rights and are socially just.

Still, also in our societies fundamental rights of a lot of people are violated on a daily basis, with grave injustices and high inequality as a consequence. The lives of many people still matter less than other lives. We like to name specifically the marginalisation that is experienced by women, by black people, indigenous people and other people of colour, by LGBTQIA+ people, by disabled people and by poor people.

As heathens, our communities are particularly important to us. To ensure all heathens can experience the same level of peace and security, we need to be aware of unconscious mechanisms of exclusion in our communities. That is why we like to challenge you today to hold up the mirror to yourself, and also to put a mirror in front of each other. What will you do today to make the world a bit more equal, fair and socially just?

Jochem