PhD students explain their most provocative statement. This time, it’s Parth N. Shah, who received his PhD on 17 June for research into environmental factors influencing the immune response of black soldier fly larvae, which are used as feed inputs for livestock and aquaculture.
‘My grandfather always used to tell me, “Count yourself fortunate that you were born in the 1990s”. He had lived through wars, and he told me what horrible times they were. As peaceful times are upon us, people are unaware of the true value of freedom. New generations do not realize how much loss and misery were endured to reach this moment of peace. I feel that as the current generation, we should keep reflecting, and realize and appreciate all the toil that was put in by our forefathers who saw the horror of war.
In the Netherlands we live in a bubble of safety. We often do not realize what hardships go on in other parts of the world. I feel very grateful for the country I’m in now, and also for the country I originate from, India — a very big country, with 77 times the population of the Netherlands and likely 77 times more issues. That is okay as Indians are not idling, they are working on it. But with 1.4 billion people, it is a different ballgame altogether to the Netherlands.’
