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A duty of memory. The memory of oblivion. The
duty to take action and speak out.
A crime of silence.
New Year’s Eve 2021 calls for a very careful reflection and for decisions that should be taken without delay. The year that has just ended has been unusually rich with events and tendencies that must be kept in mind and corrected to avoid points of no return from being reached. For the first time in history, some of the threats we are facing at a global scale are of an irreversible nature and the Earth’s habitability could be put in jeopardy already in the Anthropocene, if we forget once again what was agreed and we fail to assume our intergenerational responsibilities.
Until very recently we were unaware of what was happening in the world and we couldn’t express ourselves. Additionally, an age-old discrimination prevented us from acting together. After Roosevelt created in 1945 the United Nations, setting up a new wisely designed multilateral frame, the reason of power prevailed once again over the power of reason, and weapons succeeded again over words. “We, the peoples”, the protagonists of the first sentence of the Charter of the United Nations, did not yet exist at that time, and the General Assembly was then composed by state representatives -all of them male- ... Until three decades ago, 90% of human beings were born, lived and died within a few square kilometres, dominated by absolute male power. They were fearful, silent, unequal, obedient, submissive... Now, when it is more urgent than ever, the peoples may at last participate and they do so actively -that is, they live democratically- because, thanks to a great extent to the digital technology, they can express themselves freely. And equal dignity for everyone has been gradually acknowledged -this being the greatest recent triumph of mankind.
When recalling the major features of year 2021 - plutocratic neoliberal governance, pandemics, climate change, emigration, hunger and extreme poverty... - we must be aware that, after remaining silent since the dawn of time, the time has come for democratic multilateralism which is now possible thanks to citizen participation. Our lives should no longer be secured by military bases and highly expensive war weapons, but rather by the new solutions offered by the duly renewed United Nations - with a General Assembly having a weighted vote instead of veto, and comprising “We, the peoples”, the civil society, alongside the representatives of the governments. These new solutions should allow us -as so wisely advised by José Luis Sampedro- “to sail in a different direction in a new ship”.
In order to ensure the participation of all citizens, we must all be aware of the current challenges we have ahead and of how we should cope with them. We must have a “memory of oblivion” and, all together, all equal, all aware, actively participate, knowing at all times what we should do so that human intelligence always prevails over “artificial intelligence” and not the other way around. An “informed and diligent” citizenship should be able under such crucial circumstances to fulfil the purpose entrusted to "the peoples" in 1945: “to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war”... the scourge of an exhausted planet, the scourge of a small number of formidable consortia that are leading the world as a whole towards the abyss... In this respect, it is worthwhile recalling Aurelio Peccei when, in the 1960s, with as much anticipation as wisdom, and acting as a sentinel of the future, he already warned of "the chasm ahead of us”. And, with him, all those who have since then endlessly repeated the same alerts and warnings which have always gone unheeded. The role of the scientific, academic, artistic, intellectual communities... has become much greater today when there are so many “peoples” that have realized that a response must be given to their calls and not those of the “market”... UNESCO, the US Academy of Sciences, the "Earth Summits" (Rio in 1992; Johannesburg in 2002...)... have invariably been neglected due to the hegemonic ambitions of those who, since the 1980s, have gathered together in plutocratic groups (G6, G7, G8, G20).
With President Barack Obama in the White House, it became possible to sign -in that shiny Autumn of 2015- the Paris Agreements on Climate Change and the United Nations Resolution to “transform the world”, both related with the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals. But when after a few months -I must insist on it- Donald Trump imposed once again the hegemony of the United States and announced unequivocally that he would not implement the agreements signed by his predecessor, the response was silence. Silence all over the world. Silence in the European Union... because, in the meantime, the EU capacity to take action had been substantially decreased when unanimity became a requirement for the approval of some of the most relevant decisions... and unanimity is the very antithesis of democracy!
To achieve the urgent change in global governance and promote the United Nations I have briefly described above, the first solemn act should be the endorsement of a Universal Declaration of Democracy, because only a genuine democracy at all levels (local, national, regional and global) - and this is the main belief that must serve as a premise - will allow to straighten up the current wreckage and to start walking towards a future worthy of the immense faculties that distinguish the human species: thinking, imagining, anticipating, innovating, creating! Every unique human being capable of creating, of inventing, there lies our hope.
A duty of memory... and a crime of silence - now that we may, and we therefore should express ourselves-. The memory of immigrants from countries rich in natural resources... which are exploited by international oligopolies... Only three days ago, on 28 December 2021, the press reported that 188 migrants had drowned off the coast of Libya... Libya! What a great value is given to the resources found in Libya's soil and subsoil... and what a small value is given to the inhabitants of this country... The memory of Yemen with more than 70% of its population living in extreme poverty, a population placed "under the caring custody" of the great Saudi economic power... And let´s not forget the Syrians, after seven years of endless suffering caused by a war that those who were supposed to prevent or solve in a context of multilateral mediation have been unable to stop... And the memory of Afghanistan... And of so many African countries -Africa, a source of wisdom and human solidarity-... And the memory of Haiti, a country that should be always taken into account because, after all kinds of suffering, "it has run out of tears", according to "El País" from 22 August... The memory of the past consequences of supremacism in Europe and Asia, in order to prevent intolerable actions such as the invasion of Iraq from happening again... or "Operation Condor" in Latin America... which opened wounds that will be difficult to heal... And a special duty of memory to solve once and for all the coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis. In June 1995, with Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin an agreement was reached... which was immediately ruined due to the assassination of the Prime Minister... The memory of the autocracies that in many countries allow corrupt governance, drug trafficking and intolerable abuses of power... The memory of the assault on the Capitol of the United States... The constant memory of the abused Nature... The memory of the Arctic pole that, when melting, releases methane gas with an ecological effect far greater than carbon dioxide... And let us not forget the huge military expenditure that is made while the inhabitants of these well-protected territories often starve and live in extremely precarious conditions... I cannot stop repeating that it is intolerable to spend every day more than 4 billion dollars on weapons and military expenditure while thousands of people are dying of starvation, most of them children between the ages of one and five...
A new concept of security must be implemented without delay to provide citizens with more resources of all kinds in the event of natural disasters, health problems, etc., always bearing in mind the five priorities of the United Nations: food, drinking water, quality health services, care for the environment and lifelong education... The duty of memory of more than 4000 feminicides in 2020 in Latin America, as revealed in an article published in Other News on 25 November 2021... The duty of memory of the recent authentic "fraud" of Glasgow COP 26, where it turned out that the "commitments" reached were not "binding"! (And, therefore, were not “commitments”). And, only 48 hours later it was made public that the NATO's capacity for action had to be extended "for geostrategic and defensive reasons"... As always!
As always, the language of weapons, of
strength, of the culture of war instead of the culture of encounter, dialogue,
conciliation, words, peace. Against authoritarianism, a democratic
multilateralism...
A duty of memory of those who violate the human rights of their fellow human beings by refusing to be vaccinated, and in doing so also act against all scientific recommendations. But above all the duty of remembrance of those who have had no access to a vaccine due to the reprehensible greed of the most prosperous. Now that we are aware of what is happening on Earth as a whole, we must get to the root of the problems... and no longer accept the social gap which gives rise to so much affliction that cannot be solved by resorting to force but rather to words and justice.
A duty of memory to avoid going back to the “pre-pandemic normality”, with huge drinking parties that are highly infectious... Let’s not get back to the globalisation of ignorance, with thousands of people acting irresponsibly, instead of being aware of the essential role they must play in the redirection of the ecological and social situation, and being ready to actively participate... If “going back to normality” means going back to plutocratic governance, being ruled by the intentions of huge, omnipresent and omnipotent consortia, the current challenges on a global scale will become even worse. Some years ago we had no guidelines to follow. Now we do: the 2030 Agenda and the SDGs... And the democrat President Joe Biden in the White House.
If only the extremely rich did pay their fair share of taxes! I was recently shocked to learn in the press that in Spain 2/3 of the fortunes over 30 million euros will not have to pay wealth taxes... All equal -supremacism and racism must disappear in the near future-, all united, let us raise our voice and participate in the reconstruction, the invention of the future that we owe to the generations that are just a step behind ours... Albert Camus' sentence “I despise them because they could have done so much and dared so little” encourages me, more than ever in the past, to act with urgency. There would be no excuse for us today if our descendants were to blame us for not having duly prepare ourselves to face current challenges, some of them of an irreversible nature.
“The supreme duty is to go on” said Pedro Salinas. Yes: failure occurs only when we stop trying. Let’s transform the world, according to the title of the UN resolution on the Agenda 2030 and the SDGs. A duty of memory. A duty of action. A crime of silence.
