Fear: the enemy of the joy of living

by Leonardo Boff

Around the world, as in Brazil, people today are tormented by a fear of assaults, some times deadly, and by stray bullets and terrorist attacks. The recent terrorist acts in Barcelona and London caused widespread fear, regardless of how many demonstrations of solidarity and calls for peace there were.

Getting to the bottom of matters, we must recognize that this generalized state of fear is ultimately a consequence of the type of society that has placed accumulation of material goods above people, and has established competition, rather than cooperation, as its most important value. Moreover, it has chosen violence as a means of solving personal and social problems.

Competition must be distinguished from emulation. Emulation is good, because it brings to the surface the best within us, and shows it with simplicity. Competition is problematic, because it means the victory of the strongest of the contenders, defeating all the others, which generates tension, conflict and wars.

There is no peace in a society where this logic has become hegemonic, only armistice. There is always the fear of losing, losing market share, competitive advantage, earnings, one’s place of work and of losing life itself.

The will to accumulate also produces anxiety and fear. Its dominant logic is this: those who do not have want to have; those who have, want more; and those who have more say: there is never enough. The will to accumulate feeds the structure of a desire that, as we know, is insatiable. Therefore, it seeks to guarantee the level of accumulation and consumption. That results in anxiety and a fear of not having, of losing the level of consumption, of descending in social status and, finally, of becoming poor.

The use of violence to solve problems between countries, as shown in the United States’ war against Iraq, is based on the illusion that by defeating or humiliating the other we can create peaceful coexistence. Something that is evil to the core, like violence, cannot be the source of a lasting good. A peaceful end demands peaceful means. Human beings can lose, but they will never tolerate wounds to their dignity. Wounds that cannot heal remain open, and there is always rancor and a spirit of revenge, a humus that nourishes terrorism, victimizing many innocent lives, as we have seen in so many countries.

Our society of a white, machista and authoritarian Western nature has chosen the path of repressive and aggressive violence. For that reason, Western societies are always involved in wars, ever more destructive, as the current war in Syria, with increasingly sophisticated guerrillas, and more frequent attacks. Behind these facts lurks an ocean of hatred, bitterness and the desire for revenge. Fear floats like a mantle of darkness over the collectives and individual people.

Caring by one for the other invalidates fear and its sequels. Caring constitutes a fundamental value for understanding life and the relationships between all beings. Without caring, life is neither born nor reproduced. Caring is the primary guide of behavior, so that its effects are good and strengthen coexistence.

To care for people is to get involved with them, to be interested in their well being, and to feel responsible for their destiny. Because of that, we care for all we love and we love all we care for.

A society that is guided by caring, caring for the Common Home, the Earth, caring for the ecosystems that guarantee the conditions of the biosphere and of our life, caring for the food security of everyone, caring for social relationships, so that they may be participatory, equitable, just and peaceful, caring for the spiritual environment of the culture, thereby allowing people to enjoy a positive sense of life, to accept limitations, aging and death itself as part of mortal life, such a society of caring will enjoy the peace and harmony needed for human coexistence.

It is in moments of great fear that the words of the 23rd Psalm gain special meaning: “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” The good shepherd assured: “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.”

Who lives this faith feels accompanied by and in the palm of the hand of God. Human life gains lightness and maintains, even in the middle of risks and threats, a serene joyfulness and happiness of living. It does not much matter what will befall us, because it will happen in His love. He knows the path, and He knows it well.

Leonardo Boff is a Brazilian theologian and a member of the Earthcharter Commission. This column is translated by Melina Alfaro at the Refugio de Rio Grande in Texas.

~ ~ ~

These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.

A Confession

by Uri Avnery

Today is the last day of the 93rd year of my life. Ridiculous.

Am I moderately satisfied with my life until now? Yes. I am.

If by a miracle I could be returned to, say, 14, and travel all this long way again, would I like that? No, I would not.

Enough is enough.

In these 93 years, the world has changed completely.

A few days after my birth in Germany, a ridiculous little demagogue called Adolf Hitler attempted a putsch in Munich. He was put in prison, where he wrote a tedious book called Mein Kampf. Nobody took any notice.

The World War (no one called it World War I yet) was still a recent memory. Almost every family had lost at least one member. I was told that a remote uncle of mine had frozen to death on the Austrian-Italian front.

On the day of my birth, inflation was raging in Germany. My birth cost many millions of marks. Many people lost all they had. My father, a young banker, got rich. He understood how money works. I did not inherit this talent, nor did I wish to.

We had a telephone at home, a rarity. My father loved new gadgets. When I was three or four years old, we got a new invention, a radio. No one even dreamed of television, not to mention the internet.

We were not religious. We lit Hanukkah candles, fasted on Yom Kippur and ate Matzot on Passover. Giving this up looked like cowardice in the face of the antisemites. But it had no real meaning for us.

My father was a Zionist. When he married my mother, a pretty young secretary, one of the wedding presents was a printed document stating that a tree had been planted in the name of the couple in Palestine.

At the time, the Zionists were a tiny minority among the Jews in Germany (and elsewhere). Most Jews thought that they were a bit crazy. A current joke had it that a Zionist was a Jew who gave money to a second Jew in order to send a third Jew to Palestine.

Why did my father become a Zionist? He certainly did not dream of going to Palestine himself. His family had been living in Germany for many generations. Since he had learned Latin and Ancient Greek at school, he imagined that our family had arrived in Germany with Julius Caesar. That’s why our roots were in a small town (I have forgotten its name) on the banks of the Rhine.

So what about his Zionism? My father was a “Querkopf,” a contrarian. He did not like to run with the herd. It suited him to belong to a lonely little group. The Zionists.

This quirk of my father’s personality probably saved my life. When the Nazis came to power — I was just nine years old — my father decided immediately to leave for Palestine. My mother told me much later that the trigger was a young German who told my father in court: “Herr Ostermann, we don’t need Jews like you anymore!”

My father was deeply insulted. At the time he was a highly respected court-appointed receiver, a person in charge of bankruptcies, famous for his honesty. For years a terrible economic crisis had ravaged Germany, and bankruptcies were plentiful. This helped the demagogue called Hitler, the same one, on his way to power, shouting “Down with the Jews.”

I was an eye-witness to the Nazi victory. Brown shirts could be seen everywhere in the streets. They were not alone: every major party had a private army, wearing uniforms. There were the Red Front of the communists, the Black-Red-Gold Flag of the Social-Democrats, the Steel Helmet of the Conservatives, and more. When the time came, not one of them lifted a finger.

I never attended kindergarten and was sent to school when I was five and a half years old. At the age of nine and a half I was sent to the Gymnasium, where I started to learn Latin. I was in a Zionist youth movement. Half a year later I heaved a profound sigh of relief when the train carried us across the Rhine to France — some 2000 years after my forefathers had crossed the Rhine in the opposite direction, according to family legend.

For many years I suppressed the memory of these first years of my life. My life started when I stood on the deck of a ship and saw in the early daylight a thin brown strip appear in the east. I was ten years and two months old. It was the beginning of my new life.

Oh, the bliss! A large boat with a huge, dark boatman brought me from the ship to the shore of Jaffa. What a mysterious, magical place! Full of people who spoke a strange, guttural language, who gesticulated wildly! All around the wonderful smell of a market with exotic foods! Horse-drawn carriages in the streets.

I mention these first impressions because later I read the biography of David Ben-Gurion, who had arrived at the same place some years before me. What an awful place! What a guttural language! What barbaric gesticulation! What disgusting smells!

I loved this country on first sight, and I still love it, although it has changed beyond recognition. I cannot imagine living anywhere else.

People keep asking me if I am a “Zionist.” I answer that I don’t know what “Zionism” means these days. To my mind, Zionism died a natural death when the State of Israel was born. Now we have an Israeli nation, closely connected with the Jewish people everywhere — but a new nation nevertheless, with its own geopolitical surroundings, with its own problems. We are bound to world Jewry rather like, say, Australia or Canada are to Britain.

This is so clear to me, that I can hardly understand the endless debates about Zionism. To me, these debates are empty of real, honest content.

So are the endless debates about “the Arabs,” debates neither real nor honest. The Arabs were here when we arrived. I have just described what I felt towards them. I still believe that the early Zionists made a terrible mistake when they did not try to combine their aspirations with the hopes of the Palestinian population. Realpolitik told them to embrace their Turkish oppressors instead. Sad.

The best description of the conflict was given by the historian Isaac Deutscher: a man lives in an upper floor of a house that catches fire. In desperation the man jumps out of the window and lands on a passer-by down below, who is grievously injured and becomes an invalid. Between the two, there erupts a deadly conflict. Who is right?

Not an exact parallel, but close enough to inspire thought.

Religion has nothing to do with it. Judaism and Islam are close relatives, much closer to each other than either of them is to Christianity. The catchphrase “Judeo-Christian” is bogus, an invention of ignoramuses. If our conflict turns into a religious one, that would be a tragic aberration.

I am a complete atheist. In principle I respect the religion of others, but, frankly, I cannot even start to understand their convictions. They look to me like anachronistic relics of a primitive age. Sorry.

I am an optimist by nature, even if my analytical mind tells me otherwise. I have seen in my life so many totally unexpected things, both good and bad, that I don’t believe that any thing “must” happen.

But looking at the daily news, I could waver. So many stupid wars all over the place, so much awful suffering inflicted on so many innocent people. Some in the name of God, some in the name of race, some in the name of democracy. So stupid! So needless! In the year 2017!

The future of my own country fills me with anxiety. The conflict seems endless, without a solution. Yet to me, the solution is completely obvious, indeed so obvious that it is hard for me to understand how anyone in their right mind can avoid seeing it.

We have here two nations — Israelis and Palestinians. Innumerable historical examples show us that they cannot live together in one state. So they must live together in two states — “together” because both nations need close cooperation, with open borders and some joint political superstructures. Perhaps some kind of a voluntary confederation. And later on, perhaps some kind of union of the entire region.

All this in a world that is compelled by modern realities to unite more and more, moving towards some kind of world government.

I won’t live long enough to see all this — but I am already seeing it in my mind’s eyes on the eve of my 94th (a nice number, all in all.)

I realize how lucky I have been throughout. I was born into a happy family, the youngest of four children. We left Nazi Germany in time. I was a member of an underground organization, but never caught and tortured like some of my comrades. I was severely wounded in the 1948 war, but fully recovered. I had an attempt on my life, but the assailant missed my heart by a few millimeters. I was for 40 years the chief editor of an important magazine. I was elected three times to the Knesset. I was the first Israeli to meet with Yasser Arafat. I have taken part in hundreds of peace demonstrations and have never been arrested. I was married for 59 years to a wonderful woman. I am reasonably healthy. Thanks

~ ~ ~

These announcements are interactive. Click on them for more information.

Los Tratados

Palabras del ex Presidente Ricardo De la Espriella en la Fundación Omar Torrijos,
en el acto de homenaje al 40º Aniversario de los Tratados Torrijos Carter

Amigos todos:

Agradezco esta distinción que ciertamente excede las razones consideradas para entregarla a alguien cuyo mérito mayor no es otro que el de ser un convencido Torrijista

Les ruego me permitan aceptar esta distinción, también en nombre del torrijismo, expresión de la voluntad política y patriótica que determinó los grandes cambios y transformaciones que la República viviera bajo el liderazgo y la conducción de Omar Torrijos Herrera.

La firma de los Tratados, el 7 de septiembre del 77 cambio el destino y la historia de La Nación Panameña.

Recordamos hoy al patriota que fue. Y culminó la lucha, para que su país y su pueblo dejará de ser una colonia y redimir la injusticia de la imposición y la ocupación militar.

Omar Torrijos enarbolo la bandera de la dignidad de esta patria. Y el pueblo supo que estaba ante aquel que prefería morir antes que dejar caer en tierra la bandera que empuñaba, en esa frenética batalla que lideró, en esa epopeya que, desde muy joven soñó. Lo hizo en nombre de las generaciones que le precedieron y que lucharon dejando su huella y conquistas logradas en ese entonces, Omar recogió la bandera y siguió por la ruta ya marcada con tanto sacrificio y dolor de nuestro pueblo. El empuño esa bandera con audacia, valor y dignidad.

Ese 7 de septiembre que hoy conmemoramos cambió la historia con tinta y compromiso. Fue el día que Omar reivindico a los mártires del 64, del 59, del 48 y de muchos más, patriotas que en nombre del pueblo ofrendaron sus vidas por tener un País libre de ataduras coloniales, que tanto nos humillaron. Ese día comenzó a desmantelarse la colonia y gracias a ese día. Que se logró después de largas y arduas negociaciones el Canal es panameño.

Justo es reconocer el mérito y patriotismo de esa pléyade de panameños que de una u otra forma, participaron a costa de grandes sacrificios personales, en las negociaciones para lograr este tratado.

Si bien la lucha por la soberanía era generacional, lo conseguido en estos tratados, se dio por la tenacidad, el coraje y el empeño personal de Omar.

Fueron logros, cambios y transformaciones que hoy muchos olvidan y otros tantos pretenden desconocer, como si quien los hizo posibles jamás hubiese existido.

Y la parte más trágica de todo esto es que aquellos por los cuales luchó el torrijismo, siguen marginados de los grandes beneficios que generan sus conquistas, porque el concepto del mayor beneficio colectivo posible que se buscaba, quedó convertido en burla, mientras los adversarios, detractores y enemigos de aquella causa de liberación continúan beneficiándose a costa del sacrificio del pueblo.

Gran parte de la culpa de este estado de cosas la tenemos nosotros mismos. Y es que el propio Omar nos advirtió desde muy temprano lo que nos pasaría si dejábamos que nos arrebataran todas esas conquistas. Así que estamos obligados a preguntarnos, Si nosotros, los que nos llamamos Torrijistas, vamos a seguir permitiéndolo.

Porque sinceramente, amigos todos, creo que por encima de la incertidumbre de los verdaderos torrijistas sobre el futuro del país, y de sus instituciones, la preocupación más sentida que tenemos es que no seamos capaces de superar las diferencias pueriles que hoy parecen separarnos en distintos grupos, y nos impiden, recuperar los senderos de Omar Torrijos. Que nos llevaron a grandes conquistas para nuestro pueblo

¡O dejamos de lado los egoísmos e intereses personales y nos unimos por Panamá, o los interesados en sepultarnos para siempre, a todos nosotros, al Torrijismo y a su recuerdo!

Lograran su propósito.

Por mi parte, creo que esa unión que tanta falta nos hace podemos lograrla si los torrijistas nos lo proponemos. Omar no se merece menos, es lo que tenemos que hacer.

Muchas gracias.

~ ~ ~

Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web

Capítulos Latinoamericanos TI sobre CICIG

Capítulos latinoamericanos de Transparencia Internacional hacen un llamado para fortalecer la labor de la Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad de Guatemala (CICIG) y respaldarla frente a las amenazas a su autonomía:

Los capítulos nacionales de Transparencia Internacional en América Latina, ante la deplorable medida adoptada por el Presidente de Guatemala, Jimmy Morales, de declarar persona no grata al Sr. Iván Velásquez, quien venía encabezando la Comisión Internacional contra la Impunidad (CICIG), y ordenando al mismo tiempo su expulsión del país, nos dirigirnos a la opinión pública de la región, a fin de manifestar lo siguiente:

1. Expresamos nuestro repudio a las citadas medidas, así como advertimos a la comunidad internacional que se trata de una afrenta contra la institucionalidad democrática y la lucha contra la corrupción, además de implicar una seria ruptura de los compromisos internacionales asumidos por el Estado de Guatemala en la lucha contra la impunidad.

2. La CICIG es un mecanismo acordado entre el gobierno guatemalteco y la ONU para enfrentar el abuso del poder, en coordinación estrecha con el Ministerio Público del país. Ha logrado avances muy importantes en los últimos años y ha probado su eficiencia en detectar y perseguir la corrupción al más alto nivel, convirtiéndose en un ejemplo para los esfuerzos contra la corrupción en toda la región.

3. La situación generada, que pone en riesgo la continuidad de la CIGIC, tiene como principal responsable al propio Presidente de la República y tuvo lugar sólo horas después de que la citada comisión y el Ministerio Público solicitaran al Congreso de este país, llevar adelante el mecanismo del antejuicio, a fin de suspenderle la inmunidad y proceder a abrirle una investigación por el presunto delito de financiamiento electoral ilícito.

4. Queda en evidencia, entonces, la grosera manera en la que el Presidente Morales pretende obstaculizar, no solamente la investigación sobre el citado delito, sino también otros que ya vienen siendo investigados y que han sido atribuidos a aparatos clandestinos de seguridad, presuntamente vinculados al gobierno que él conduce.

5. Ante tan preocupante situación, la reacción producida en el plano internacional ha sido de claro rechazo a la medida, demandando al Presidente Morales una inmediata rectificación, así como el respeto al orden democrático y a las expresiones de discrepancia con las medidas, que vienen produciéndose desde distintos sectores de la sociedad guatemalteca.

6. Resulta muy alentador también que desde la propia escena oficial surgieran voces discrepantes, como las de varios Ministros de Estado que renunciaron a sus carteras mostrando su disconformidad con la actuación presidencial, así como la del Procurador para los Derechos Humanos (Ombudsman) y, sobre todo, lo resuelto por la Corte Constitucional de Guatemala, que ha suspendido los efectos de las decisiones del Presidente. Todo ello, permite abrigar la expectativa de que los hechos denunciados puedan ser revertidos en el corto plazo.

7. Hacemos en consecuencia un llamado para mantener alerta a la comunidad internacional a fin de respaldar la labor de la CICIG y de lo que ella representa para Guatemala y el mundo. También para solidarizarnos y acompañar al pueblo guatemalteco en estas difíciles circunstancias, convencidos de que el atropello producido no habrá de prosperar y que, por el contrario, abrirá a una etapa nueva de la que saldrá fortalecida la lucha contra la corrupción.

8. Finalmente, saludamos y respaldamos muy especialmente la labor que en ese hermano país viene realizando Acción Ciudadana, capítulo guatemalteco de Transparencia Internacional, y reiteramos nuestro compromiso de permanecer unidos y atentos para continuar apoyando su actuación a favor de la integridad y del pueblo de Guatemala.

Suscriben:

• Asociación para una Sociedad más Justa ASJ, capítulo hondureño
• Costa Rica Íntegra, capítulo costarricense
• Chile Transparente, capítulo chileno
• Fundación Nacional para el Desarrollo FUNDE, capítulo salvadoreño
• Fundación para el Desarrollo de la Libertad Ciudadana, capítulo panameño
• Participación Ciudadana, capítulo dominicano
• Poder Ciudadano, capítulo argentino
• Proética, capítulo peruano
• Transparencia Mexicana, capítulo mexicano
• Transparencia por Colombia, capítulo colombiano
• Transparencia Venezuela, capítulo venezolano
• Transparencia Internacional – Programa Brasil
• Acción Ciudadana, capítulo guatemalteco

~ ~ ~

Estos anuncios son interactivos. Toque en ellos para seguir a las páginas de web