Over the past year, I had the opportunity to make a small, unexpected contribution to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. I actually contributed to the 10th and 16th of the 17 goals in the form of two small bells for the Netherlands Carillon, a subject I wrote two books on in the past two years: 'Klokken voor Amerika'/'Bells for America'. The carillon was presented to Americans in the 1950s in gratitude for their contribution to the Dutch liberation and the aid provided under the Marshall Plan. All fifty bells were returned to the Netherlands in 2019 for retuning, and are now set to return to Arlington in a few weeks' time. There they will be hung in their renovated steel tower.
They will be flown across the Atlantic along with three new bells donated to the US by the Netherlands, in celebration of 75 years of freedom. Two of these bells were dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt at the behest of three members of the Netherlands Carillon Advisory Committee, including me. King was a prominent advocate for equal civil rights for all Americans, regardless of race or colour in the last century. And Roosevelt chaired the committee that helped draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
I was thrilled to admire the two bells cast by the Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry for the first time: they serve as concrete evidence that humanities research can contribute to the pursuit of equality and strengthening of international relations. Later this year, the bells will ring out in harmony over Arlington National Cemetery near US capital Washington D.C.
Diederik Oostdijk