HAITI, as our daily duty

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the tragedy. As an urgent call to action, I want to invoke my memory of all of the victims, of all of those who with their death (over 200,000 people) should inspire our lives.

For all of those who continue to suffer neglect, lack of affection, humiliation –injured physically, we spiritually- my attentive gaze, my outstretched hands, my remorseful heart. I ask their forgiveness for not having worked for them as they deserved, for not having echoed their cries; for not having denounced with the intensity and regularity that their suffering merits the immense injustice to which they have been subjected.

To all of those who, working to extenuation, are setting an example of true dedication, to those who for 365 days have taught us the supreme lesson of brotherly love, of selflessness and generosity, thank you from the bottom of my heart. It is they –healthcare personnel, development workers, citizens of the world who daily assist those who anxiously require compassion and relief- to whom today thousands of people all over the world are sending a warm embrace, and much applause…

I wish to recognize the countries, such as Spain, which despite their severe economic crises took immediate action. But we must do more, much more, especially those of use who enjoy an enviable degree of social security, with free access to all levels of education, without nutritional or health problems, and with an excess of entertainment that prevents us from thinking of others, comparing, taking action…

A year has passed since the terrible catastrophe in Haiti. Over 100,000 buildings were destroyed and over a million people were displaced, most of whom continue to barely survive in inhumane conditions in shelters and provisional camps, in huts, in tents. It has been estimated that 3,500 have died of cholera, and epidemic that still affects 150,000 people. And after a year only 5% of the ruins have been cleared and less than 15% has been rebuilt...

On March 30, 2010 the international community pledged to provide 5,300 million dollars (a little more than what’s invested daily in military spending and weapons). Only about 40% of that amount has been received.

What a shame! What a disgrace that we continue spending to arm ourselves to the teeth… without rapidly and efficiently remedying such horrendous situations! What a disgrace that petroleum prices continue to rise, tax havens continue to operate, drug trafficking and speculation are rampant…! It is deplorable and inadmissible that the wealthiest countries continue to seek to rule the world (presently, the G-20), ignoring the United Nations, which is the only institution that, duly reinforced, could oblige countries to keep their promises, relieve so many who despair, and mitigate suffering such as the agony endured by the Haitians this year.

All have been beset by speculators, by a market that has given or consolidated power in the same few hands, wrenching it from those who sought social justice and equality. There are too many who remain silent, distracted by television and computer screens, mobile phones, video games… without the time to reflect and act freely, based on their own deliberations.

Today, the first anniversary of the Haiti earthquake, and also remembering Pakistan and all of those who die each day from hunger and neglect, many, millions of us should cease to remain silent and raise our voices in favor of Haiti.

A year later, shame and sorrow. And raised voices.

I wish for a cyberspace earthquake to demand social justice from the world’s most powerful. I hope that millions will “click” in favor of human dignity. If we reflect for a moment on how much we have and what our children and grandchildren have, we will feel the pangs of urgency of so many people like us all over the world who lack so much.

And we will be truly convinced and will affirm that the time for apathy is over.

Get Angry!

Stéphane Hessel has recently published a booklet –an excellent idea for disseminating high-impact ideas- inviting us to refuse to resign ourselves to the present situation and, to get angry!

As you can see, the collection is dedicated to those who are “walking against the wind", a name applied to the Omaha tribe of Native Americans, related to the Sioux.

At 93, in his “final stage” and returning to his roots, Stéphane Hessel demands from us a public commitment to resistance, to defending human dignity at all times, to refusing to remain passive unmoved witnesses.

"Today, more than ever, we need the principles and values that guided us in the past, and together we must ensure that our society doesn’t abandon those values". And he mentions the treatment of immigrants, achievements in social security, and the immense danger of the communications media remaining in the hands of the wealthiest...

And he adds that it is essential "to usher in true social and economic democracy, in which individual interests are subordinate to the general good”... and which will ensure “that the press is free to carry out its tasks independently of its relation to government, economic powers or foreign influences"...

If there ever was a person with sufficient moral authority to offer this advice and to warrant such attention, it is Stéphane Hessel, the only surviving co-author of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, so lucid, and who given the urgency of his age and the present circumstances calls on us to participate in a “peaceful insurrection". Was perhaps he who in the second paragraph of the Universal Declaration wrote that human beings may find themselves “compelled to rebellion”?

"Indifference”, he notes, “is the worst of all possible attitudes". We must react.

Freed at the last minute from the Buchenwald and Dora concentration camps, Hessel offers us his supreme lesson in impartiality when he confesses that today he is “principally outraged by the situation in Palestine, Gaza, the West Bank... where the Israeli army’s acts are totally reprehensible: 1,400 deaths on the Palestinian side vs. 50 wounded Israelis... It’s inadmissible for the Jews to perpetrate war crimes", he concludes.

And he adds: "I am convinced that the future must bring non-violence and conciliation among different cultures ".

“To those who will build the 21^st century I say with great affection: create and resist. Resisting is creating ".

When I finished reading this timely message, I was reminded of the wisdom of my mother who recommended that I rest only when necessary and sleep very little, in order to take advantage of the mystery of life, and when toward the end of the 1940s (I was 16) she advised me: "If you want to be happy, never accept what you consider unacceptable ".

Yes: Let’s get angry!

"Let’s not be so patient", said José Saramago.

Thank you, Stéphane Hessel: I hope you live to see the onset of the peaceful resistance you demand.

Although, wherever you may be, you will feel the breezes of our gratitude.

Enough!

The time to say “Enough!” has arrived. To serenely and firmly proclaim that humanity cannot continue to suffer the interminable trauma of a system that has given rise to the present multiple serious crises (social, financial, food, environmental, political, ethical...).

The time has come for a great citizen mobilization against the dominating powers (economic, energy, military, media), so that a great transition may immediately commence from an economy of speculation and war (4,000 million dollars invested daily in weapons and military spending while –I will never tire of repeating- over 70,000 people die of hunger) to an economy of global sustainable development, which will rapidly reduce the enormous social injustice and inequity and the progressive (and possibly irreversible) damage to the environment.

The time has come to prevent and to sanction attacks that, through renowned rating agencies, the “market” is making on governments, those impoverished “rescuers” who must now slash their own budgets or risk financial collapse. Those who supported “less government and more market”, assuring us that the markets were “self-regulating” and that tax havens would disappear, must now retract those statements in public and correct the grave damage done.

The time has come to replace groups of plutocrats (created by President Reagan and Prime Minister Thatcher that have proved to be totally useless) by a strong United Nations, endowed with the personal, technical and financial resources that would enable it to fulfill its noble mission (of ensuring international security; guaranteeing democratic principles; freedom of expression and access to accurate information; of coordinated action to reduce the impact of natural and man-made catastrophes; protecting the environment; providing appropriately applied guidelines for social and economic development)...

The time has come for passive subjects to become full citizens; for the silent to participate; for spectators to become actors... now that modern communications technologies make distance participation possible.

And above all, through cyberspace the time has come to stretch our listless bodies; to awaken to a new day in which the reins of our common destiny are no longer in the same secular hands.

The academic, scientific, artistic, that is, the intellectual community must lead the process that will enable us in less than a decade to make the “new beginning” proclaimed in the Earth Charter.

The time to say “Enough”” has come, the time to rise up, and as José Ángel Valente expressed in his poem, the time to refuse to give up.

The time has come.