Let's head towards peace
I can’t keep quiet, I must not. I have seen many things
in many places in the world. That’s why, says Federico Mayor Zaragoza,
the moment has come to react, the moment where each human being takes
the leading role that belongs to him. The moment to appear on the scene
and everyone, heading towards peace, at last take the space that the
people who held power occupied. Even the universal principles that
guided people’s behavior have been thrown out and substituted by the
markets’ behavior. That’s how we walk along without a compass and
without paths, bursts out the writer in “The Power of Words”, the
recently edited book that compiles the best of his ideas. I
have reached the conclusion that we only have one strength: language, he
says in the introduction. That which transmits the immense, creative,
inventive power of each unique human being. If we become free through
education, if we are at last citizens and not subjects, if we build the
democracy that represents the truth of the community’s voice then we
will transmit our message from a culture of imposition, of violence, of
the fittest to survive law into one of concord, of dialogue, of
understanding, of peace and justice. The
thread of the choice of written peaces that have reflected his moods,
his hypotheses, previsions, reflections, fears and dreams all along the
years stands for hope because it supports his belied in the infinite
capacity of the human specie. This
is a wise man with renowned universal prestige, Pharmacy doctor and
Biochemistry professor in the University of Granada of which we was once
Dean. Representative of the Spanish Parliament and Minister of Education
and Science and, from 1987 to 1999, General Director of the UNESCO, he
is President of the Peace Culture Foundation and he shares his
experiences from that watchtower for them to serve as incentives in the
struggle for globalizing liberty, democracy, justice and solidarity,
along with all the people who raise against injustice, war, hunger and
exclusion of any human being. We
cannot remain silent so that our children don’t feel ashamed of us and
despise us because being able to do so much, we dared to so little. So
that when our descendants look back they cannot complain against us,
“We waited for your voice... but it never got here.” He
starts off on February 15, 2003 because that day represented for him the
beginning of the community’s voice as a multitude in peaceful way
expressed against the war. From his 70 lived years with vigor, with a
wisdom born out of experience and reflection, Mayor Zaragoza tells
leaders and the powerful over the land that the mobilization will have
continuity – not only physical continuity, but rather virtual with the
use of all the technological resources, the Internet and text messages
through the cell phones included – and that it will not only be a high
voice protesting, but also one that proposes not only against, but also
in favor of humanity’s greatest objectives, so excluded and breached
in a reiterated way. The economic, social, environmental, cultural and
ethical issues will be approached by world citizens that will no longer
quit, conscious of the fact that the era of submission has come to an
end. The
era of indifference and silence has come to an end, he writes. The day
of spirit’s rebellion, of having the future at hand, of placing
youngsters in the center of all initiative and action has come. Because
in the words of Gabriela Mistral, the name of youngsters is “Today”
and our commitment cannot be postponed. Now is the time to use all the
resources of the “global village” for people to go on the stage of
the century of the people at last. In order that another world might be
possible, the hands that have risen, instead of holding out, they must
unite in a common effort, in a projection of the future because our life
and that of the planet where we belong depends on it. We have remained
silent, he regrets. From now on, we will speak summoning all human
beings. Word’s strength! So that nobody remains silent. So that
everyone knows they are necessary and that they feel summoned. Nobody
who knows how to speak remains quiet, everyone who can join this voice!
To carry out fraternity’s revolution, the only one that hasn’t had
the clairvoyance to be undertaken, until the “global village” has
made it possible, he writes. |
José Carlos Gª Fajardo
Este artículo fue publicado en el Centro de Colaboraciones Solidarias (CCS) en 2006