“Civilization and Its Discontents” Revisited: The French Interior Minister Condemns People of Civilizations other than His Own

By Dominique Bénard

The Interior Minister of the French Government, in an outlandish and peremptory statement, has directly attacked people of foreign origin living in France by saying:

‪”There are patterns of behavior that have no place in our country, not because they are foreign, but because they do not conform to our worldview, particularly regarding the dignity of women and men.  Contrary to the relativistic ideology of the left, for us all civilizations are not equal. ‪Those who defend humanity seem to us more advanced than those who deny it. ‪Those who stand for freedom, equality and fraternity appear to us superior to those which accept tyranny, oppression of women, and social or ethnic hatred. ‪In any event, we must protect our civilization.”

‪The minister’s objective is clear: in this campaign period (presidential elections will be held in France next April), attacking people of foreign origin, particularly those with Islamic backgrounds, can attract extreme right votes.

‪Mr. Guéant has his certainties, particularly that Western civilization protects freedom, equality, fraternity. ‪It is therefore superior to others …  How may me remind Mr. Guéant that the civilization about which he boasts gave birth to the Crusades, religious wars, mass slavery, colonization, genocide of Native Americans, racism, the world wars, the Holocaust, Hiroshima and Nagasaki … not to mention other smaller massacres?

‪Would a reminder of the judgment of American Indians (people who are victims of European genocide) on Western civilization, put the minister’s ideas in their proper perspective?

Wise old Wintu (California Indians)

“White people make fun of the earth, the deer, or bear. When we Indians seek roots, we make small holes. ‪When we build our teepees, we make little holes. ‪We only use dead wood. The white man, he upends the earth, cuts down trees, destroys everything. ‪The tree says, ‘Stop, I’m hurt, do not make me ill.’  But blindly he charges on. ‪He hates the spirit of the earth. ‪He tears the trees and shakes up their roots. ‪He saws the trees. ‪This hurts them. ‪The Indians never do wrong, while the white man ruins everything. ‪He blows up the rocks and scatters the leaves. ‪The rock says, ‘Stop, you’re hurting me.’  But the white man does not pay attention. ‪When the Indians use the stone, they are small and round for lighting their fires … ‪How could the spirit of the earth love the white man? …  Whatever he touches, he leaves a wound.”

Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Sioux chief, ‪1875‪

“See, my brothers, the spring has come, the Earth has received the embrace of the sun, and we will soon see the fruits of this love. Every seed is awakened and even the animals come to life. ‪We owe our existence to this mysterious power, which is why we grant to our neighbors, even our animal neighbors, the same rights as we have to live in this land …Yet hear me, you all, we are now dealing with another race, one that was small and feeble when our fathers met for the first time, but today is large and arrogant. ‪Strangely enough, they have the idea of cultivating the soil and love to possess it, which is a disease.

‪”These same people have made many rules that the rich may break but not the poor. ‪They levy taxes on the poor and weak to maintain the rich who rule. ‪They claim our mother, Earth, for their own use and barricade themselves against their neighbors, and they disfigure it with their buildings and refuse. ‪This nation is like a torrent of melted snow that overflows its banks and destroys everything in its path. ”

‪Pachgantschilhilas, chief of the Delaware

‪”The white men proclaimed loudly that their laws were made for everyone, but it immediately became clear that, while hoping we would obey them, they did not hesitate to break them themselves.

‪”Their elders advised us to adopt their religion but we quickly discovered that there were a great number of them. ‪We could not understand them, and two white men rarely agree on the need to follow them. ‪This embarrassed us until the day we realized that the white man did not take his religion any more seriously than his laws. ‪They kept their laws close at hand, as instruments to use at will in their dealings with outsiders.”

‪Kondiarionk, Huron chief, addressing the Baron de Lahontan, French lieutenant in Newfoundland.

‪”You are already so wretched that you can hardly become more so. What kind of man is the European? ‪What kind of creature does he choose to be, forced to do good while having no real motivation for this other than fear of punishment? ‪(…) In truth my dear brother, I pity you from the depths of my soul. ‪Take my advice and becomes Huron. ‪I see clearly the profound difference between my position and yours. ‪I am the master of my condition. ‪I am the master of my body. I have myself at my disposal, I do what I like, I am the first and last of my nation, I fear no man absolutely, and I depend only on the Great Spirit.

“It is not the same for you. ‪Your body as well as your soul is condemned to depend on your great captain, your viceroy who commands you. ‪You have no freedom to do what you have in mind. ‪You’re afraid of thieves, murderers, false witnesses, etc. ‪And you depend on a multitude of people whose place is situated above yours. ‪Is this not true?”

Brotherhood of man. 

Perhaps we might also remind Mr. Guéant of this passage from the Gospel of Luke (6, 41): “Why do you see the speck in your brother’s eye and do not you see the plank in your own eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me take the speck in your eye, you who do not see the plank in your own? Hypocrite, first take the plank out of your eye and then shalt thou see clearly enough to remove the speck in your brother’s eye.”

‪At Indaba-Network, we believe that there has only been one human family since the appearance of Homo Sapiens on earth, and that each particular civilization is a symphony in the concert of humankind that we must discover and enjoy to allow us to grow as Humankind. ‪Thus, any civilization progresses when it looks at another fraternally and regresses when the other is stigmatized or excluded as an enemy.

Politics from Markets or Politics from Values?

The Parthenon (Ancient Greek: Παρθενών) is a temple on the Athenian Acropolis, Greece, dedicated to the Athena, the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill

“For we are all small powers now, and once again Greece is in the forefront of the fight for the future.”[1]

Professor Mark Mazower, the New York Times on June 29, 2011

Greeks have been feeling really bad during the last two years, after the “crisis” took hold, along with the newly elected prime minister. Greeks feel bad, in the first place,  about themselves because they really messed up everything, and secondly because of their loss of interest in politics during the last few decades.  This has led to a political situation lacking in leaders and solutions. Greeks will never express this view in public, but it is common knowledge and on everyone’s mind.  Now, the reaction is riots and fire:  like a heavy smoker who suddenly learns that he suffers from cancer after 30 years of cigarettes. Greeks find themselves in the worst phase of democracy – a democracy run by an ex banker nowadays. Anger and Fear.

But what are ‘the facts’ commonly accepted in northern Europe concerning what is happening today in Greece, giving us a glimpse of the fight for the future to which Professor Mazower refers? The ‘facts’ include this scenario:  It is almost a ‘given’ that Greeks—mostly because of the sunny Mediterranean weather that they enjoy (remember Apollo?)—are more or less lazy, accustomed to just having fun and spending (their) money. It is also almost ‘certain’ that if you move a Swedish or a German family to live in Greece, after three generations, the result is the same: a lazy German family, lying in the sun and looking at the blue sea, spending time eating fish and enjoying cold coffee.

What is depicted, above, is a  cruel stereotype of contemporary Greece.  Despite the “lazing by the sea” imagery so popular in some northern European circles, Eurostat statistical tables report that the Greeks work more hours per year than both the Germans and the average European.  Now, to ‘fix’ the economy, they are effectively being asked to work more and earn less than they already do, while surviving with far fewer government services.

So why all this mess in Greece and European unhappiness with it today? Because its unproductive people simply spend money unwisely? No, unfortunately it’s not that easy. The root of European anger with the Greeks is because of values.

The Greeks invented real values and taught them to the West. When and how? These values came via ancient Greece and the Greek colonies, passing through the Renaissance, the Enlightenment, and the French and Greek Revolutions…democracy, concern for the common good, loyalty to institutions, trust and mutual respect, as well as the belief in the openness and honesty of people elected to public office…. Culture is the expression of a society’s ideas and values.  Values are why the ancient Greek culture (and its protagonists) is considered among the top cultures, not only in the West.  Values brought global respect and acceptance (as well as tourist revenues, of course!). Greeks now are blamed, actually, because, in less than thirty years, they have lost their own ancient values. Europe, especially, will never forgive them for that. Values are the reason why Greece joined the European Union, in 1981, not because of its labor force or huge market.

The future? Greeks have to find their lost values again and come back. Will it be easy? Nobody knows… it may amount to a struggle between humanity and vanity. I’ve met many people (non-Greeks) who tell me that you have to come to Greece in order to learn who you are and search inside you… I don’t know whether I would agree or disagree. I was born Greek, so my opinion doesn’t really count. But what I can do is to try to bring all these people to my homeland who want to live and experience the Olympic spirit, philosophy, and democracy and share it with them. Greeks just have to fight their only real and biggest enemy: their bad side – a side that has totally vanquished them in the last few years—and remember who they were in their glorious past.  After all, the 2004 Olympics are recent.   This is what Europe really wants, what the rest of the world really needs. Real values, from real humans, for real people.

A possible change (a change, that is, for the better: change, in its original conceptualization, is not necessarily, in itself, a positive word) will come from inside of Greece. Everyone knows that modern institutions may embrace appropriate values (just like the oracles did for the ancient Greeks:  remember the Delphi Oracle). They are the ones that can make change happen.  Such institutions would include the Orthodox Church, the schools, the universities and of course contemporary families.  Unfortunately, these institutions, like the Orthodox Greek Church do not support this much needed values-based change, even though, for example, Greek Orthodox employees (the priests) are paid from the Greek State budget, actually making them public servants… Greece’s ex-prime minister promised a separation of church –  but did nothing.

What Greeks need now is extroversion: something that the famous wealthy Greek ship owners experienced some decades ago.  This would mean overseas education, a kind of cultural and economic Enlightenment. This is because Greeks cannot really understand WHY but mostly HOW the crisis happened to them. Besides, Europe’s philhellenism movement (“the love of Greek culture”), two centuries ago, with heroes like Lord Byron, actually made Europeans really interested in Greece. History just repeats itself.  Both the Greek people and its leaders just need to make this circle again and again (for better or worse).

In short, Greeks must accept that they will need to look inward and outward to make right their country in the coming years:  particularly with regard to being more interested in and reforming their political system.  Yet, at the same time, the European community should also look at the rate at which Greeks work—much more than the average European—and the extraordinary burden most Greeks are now being forced to bear, despite their above-average annual work rate.  If the planned austerity measures go through, these same Greeks will have to pay for the very costly mistakes that their leaders in business and government have made with Eurozone banking and state partners:  errors regarding financial agreements that in no way benefited ordinary Greek citizens who will now be forced to pay for them.

Themistocles Papadimopoulos

---

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/30/opinion/30mazower.html?_r=1

New York Youth Like “Rebel Diaz” Are Making Their Presence Felt in the Wall Street Occupation

America has been a slumbering giant but recent events in the streets are showing us signs that the country may be awakening. The Arab Spring, the atrocities in Syria and Bahrain, the urban unrest in France and London, the economic meltdowns in Greece and southern Europe, the threats to the Euro-Zone, and the ongoing, grinding, and bloody warfare in Afghanistan and Iraq…  all these America has observed in its living rooms, on television — each person, each family, seemingly in timid isolation from each other.

Not any more.  Now, everyone knows that the American middle class has had no increase in its real wages for thirty years, that the poor grow desperately poor, with poverty in America reaching historic levels, that the Democrats and the Republicans are in the hands of those who have grown extremely wealthy in the past three decades, paralyzing the political system with what is known in the USA as “special interest politics.”

What’s more, the Great Recession is having a particularly cruel impact on America’s youth.  Young Americans have bleak job prospects, even if they are lucky enough to obtain a decent education.  Education costs are now so high that young people can ill afford to pay back the debts that they must obtain to pay for school.  Plus the youth of today will be saddled with the task of paying back the enormous debts of contemporary America’s political system:  debts for which they are not responsible.  The French statesman and activist Stéphane Hessel, thinking on similar problems in Europe, is calling on the youth of today to peacefully “get indignant”! Three million copies of his book have been sold so far.

Americans of modest incomes have seen their wages go nowhere while millions of them have also lost their homes in an unprecedented frenzy of “predatory” lending that unscrupulous banks and mortgage companies inflicted on them. During the 1990s and early 2000s, underprivileged neighborhoods, particularly of Latinos, were targeted for high interest mortgages, even though lenders knew that these people owned few assets to fall back on should there be any problem, such as the head of the family losing his or her job. These types of bank and mortgage company representatives received their salaries whether or not the mortgages were paid. Then, such badly made mortgages were “bundled” into financial instruments and sold on the open market to towns, pension funds, and other organizations who depend on the ratings agencies, like Moodys and Standard & Poor, for guarantees on their reliability.  Yet the larger banks pay the agencies’ fees for their ratings research!  The crash came in 2008. Bush and now Obama saved the failing super-banks with the famous “bailout.”  But the economic turmoil goes on:  people losing their homes, jobs, and income, with a very limited welfare state to fall back on.

Millions of Americans are asking, “Where’s the bailout for the rest of us?”  Youth groups, unions, peace activists, greens, middle class professionals, members of neighborhood associations, students, intellectuals, journalists, small businesspeople, and artists are finding their voices and have occupied Wall Street, the heart of America’s big bank system, for over three weeks.  This occupation, complete with working groups handling donations, finance, outreach, internet, sanitation, medical assistance, direct action, and food,  as well as producing the “Occupied Wall Street Journal,” has no plans to end soon. Ordinary citizens are sending them food and support from all over.  Similar occupations are now happening in financial districts across America.

Last weekend, one of the largest mass arrests in U.S. history occurred when New York City police handcuffed over 700 peaceful demonstrators who were walking, in a protest of solidarity, across the Brooklyn Bridge:

(Photo: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters)

On Wednesday, October 5, hip-hoppers “Rebel Diaz” analyzed the unfolding story in real time, “busting a rhyme” in a video recorded near Wall Street on  Youtube.

Exactly like the anti-Vietnam War protests of the 1960s and 1970s, this autumn American street movement has a number of tendencies.  Now, in its first stages, many mainstream media observers either trivialize the protesters or complain that they don’t seem to have a clear, unified message.  Meanwhile, the official response in the cities is quite different. In New York, for example, Mayor Bloomberg’s police force has arrested hundreds and beaten peaceful protesters with police sticks while spraying them with pepper spray.  In Boston, by contrast, Mayor Menino’s police force has taken a more tolerant approach in its handling of peaceful street protest.  After all, American cities are in a financial bind because budgets for public workers, including police, firemen, and ambulance workers, are being slashed everywhere as the recession drastically diminishes tax revenues.  It will be interesting to watch how these crucial public servants will behave should the protests grow larger and spread to more cities.  The protesters want the jobs and salaries of such workers protected too.

Perhaps one may read too positively the new street reality.  Many questions remain.  Where will this new movement go?  How can older people join and support the bright, creative, and energetic young people whom they see in the newspapers and (finally) on commercial TV?  How can we break the impasse between the Republicans and Democrats in Washington and stop the flood of money corrupting the political system with a street movement that, so far, is not united behind a clearly articulated cause or list of demands?  How can we “sack” the ratings agencies and curb the excesses of the super-banks that are “too big to fail”?  What is the relationship between what’s happening in the streets and the long needed effort to move America in a more positive direction?

In these dark days of the Great Recession, however, I am personally heartened.  There are signs of sophisticated, peaceful, youth protest coming from America’s streets, and there is no doubt that it is important.

Biorn Maybury-Lewis

Generation Y – The Millennials

‪They were born after the Cold War and the liberalization of morals, they saw Earth from space, they know how fragile the planet is, they are the most broadly educated, they navigate through virtual globalization, they know how many people are desperately poor while others are extremely wealthy, they see that the economy limps from crisis to crisis and is suffering, but they believe that society can be more democratic and generous.

We see them everywhere come together to move societies in their creaky old sclerosis, becoming the fathers and mothers of a new world. ‪They have asked to be heard.

‪Yet who is listening to the message?

‪Is the deafness of men (and some women?) ‪in power similar to that of the famous three monkeys who cover their ears, eyes, and mouths ‪but see nothing, hear nothing, and say nothing? Such attitudes hardly reflect the wisdom of those who run the world. Rather, they evidence unconsciousness – dancing while the Titanic sinks!

‪The Millennials may not have the solutions but they pose the real problem: we need to change the world. ‪Models of the last century have run out of gas and all vestiges of logic when billions of dollars, in a nanosecond, waltz uncontrolled across the globe, when a board of directors sitting on top of a tower maims thousands of lives, when millions of acres, in a few months, are rendered deserts, and while the country doing these things thinks the world, like a dumb bronze statue, sees nothing.

Who will reinvent the world?

Where are the intellectuals, those who in the past convinced people of the need to educate, the strength of human rights, and the  importance of global institutions? Maybe there is no longer a solitary intellectual with a prominent voice, but instead a collective intelligence which is parading through the streets, camping in the squares, debating openly, observing the world with open eyes.

It is crucial that we help build a new world, with new borders, new structures, unknown arts, born from these major upheavals.

Do not worry, my seventy years are not suffering from a senile cult of youth. But if I believe in the Indaba project, it is because we must spread the message, so that which has now been invented may be diffused and shared, possibly for my fellows to hear (as well as the later generations), amplifying the voice of the Millennials. They see another world in the indifference of those who have the power and who sometimes are real thugs.

Hey Millennials, yell louder! Sometimes my voice runs out of steam …

Michel Seyrat

Lessons from the Utoya tragedy

People lay tribute after a memorial service at Oslo cathedral (The Guardian Eyewitness)

On July 22, 2011, in Norway, an unbalanced man, infected by the ideas of the extreme right, murdered 77 people, including 69 young members of Norway’s Labour Party who were gathered for their summer school on the island of Utoya. Seventy-seven victims out of a population of 4,800,000 inhabitants is a proportion that would be equivalent to a massacre of more than 960 people in a country of 60 million inhabitants, like France, or more than 4900 people in a country of 306 million like the United States of America.  Proportionally, Norway lost more of its citizens than did the USA on September 11, 2001.

The force of moderation

One could expect that the Norwegian people would react violently or even hysterically but this did not happen. Norway has offered the world a lesson of moderation and democracy. The country is on the campaign trail: the municipal and regional elections will be held on September 12. After losing 69 of their own, killed on the island of Utoya, young members of the Labour Party, the main targets of the killer, are back. And they thirst for revenge. But a very Norwegian kind of revenge, wanting to be exemplary and oriented towards others, not against them. Norwegians are campaigning to defend the spirit of tolerance, a key feature of their democracy.

Le Monde, the French Newspaper, quotes Asmund Aukrust, the 26 year-old vice Chairman of the AUF, the federation of Norway’s Labour Party youth, and a survivor of Utoya:

“The killer wanted to stop recruitment to the AUF. It is therefore important to make a point of voting and engaging in politics or in whatever organization,” he said calmly. “This is the only answer for us “. The goal is to have a record turnout, a sign of a surge of democracy.

The strength of democracy

When terrorism strikes a democracy, the only intelligent answer is that which the Norwegian Prime Minister, Jens Stoltenberg, called for on the evening of the attack: “More democracy, more openness.” That’s the lesson of Utoya  which the world should take from admirable Norway:  when confronted with problems of any kind, a democracy does not close or abandon its principles, it responds with more democracy as the search for solutions requires freedom of thought, freedom of opinion, freedom of the press, democratic debate, and the gathering together of people who share democratic values.

The strength of public-spiritedness

In Norway, all parties have experienced a wave of membership after the attack on July 22, especially among young people.

That’s the point which we should take to heart: in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Greece, Chile, and in Arab countries, “outraged” young people are waiting for their voice and are protesting against an unjust and corrupt economic system, incapable of offering the new generations a worthy and stable future.

The protests are necessary, indispensable, but not enough. What will count in the coming years is the commitment of young people in political parties to bring about innovative and just solutions. Stop with the denial of politics! Political parties are necessary; if honest people, determined to change things do not engage in them, they leave room for the corrupt, the careerists, and the stupid, while democracy remains stymied. The schools and all youth organizations should train young people in democratic debate and encourage them to engage in political parties as soon as possible. Evil comes less from the harmful action of criminals than from the inaction of good people.

Dominique Bénard

Indaba-Network launches indabaXchange

The purpose of Indaba-Network is to encourage groups of young (or young at heart) to develop projects of social change in seven fields of action corresponding to the major challenges of the modern world: travel and intercultural encounters (Horizons), Environment and Sustainable Development (Earth), expression and culture (Culture), education and personal development (Liberating Education), economy and access to employment (Social Economy) ; citizenship and solidarity (Glocal citizenship), and finally the development of organizations (Organizations and Networks).

Our action has no profit, we want to participate in creating a better world according to the universal values expressed in our manifesto.

We published articles and worksheets of reflection and resources to help project promoters in their action, but until now we lacked an essential tool for effective action: a social network allowing all those engaged to manage their project while communicating with each other. Today, this tool exists and is fully functional. His name: indabaXchange.

If you are already engaged in an organization, you can adopt indabaXchange as an essential tool of communication and management. You just need to register in the network (see below), create a group and invite your colleagues to join you.You can signal your group with the logo of your organization. You can make it visible at all or only to your members. You can open it at all or restrict it to people you invite. You can even use indabaXchange to manage a network of associations by creating, for example, a group for your management team and as many groups as there are regional teams.
If you are not yet engaged in any action, indabaXchange can get you started something. You have an idea of action, create a group in indabaXchange and invite friends to join.
All indabaXchange tools are at your service to allow you to effectively facilitate your group or network of groups: a blog, an online communication tool (“chat”), discussion forums, the possibility to send messages in one click to all members of your group, the ability to manage events and tasks, create new pages with attachments, etc..
In addition, a direct link to the website of Indaba-Network allows you to download all records and documents of the Resources page that you need in your action.
As the network is open to all who share the values of Indaba-Network, you can also participate in common discussion forums, share your opinions, your experiences and successes with other groups through messages, comments, etc.. contribute to the development of common resources, promote your acton and find partners.

indabaXchange is not a social network focused solely on relationships like Facebook, our vision is to develop a wide network of young activists committed to building a better world.

Indaba-Network and indabaXchange are complementary tools, free and open to all; use them and let them know.

Click this link to access indabaXchange, register, create a group and invite your friends.

Linking ethics, citizenship and democracy

Edgar Morin

In his last book, “La Voie. Pour l’avenir de l’humanité” (The Way. For the future of Humanity, January 2011), Edgar Morin, a renowned French sociologist who defines himself as “a transdisciplinary and indisciplined thinker”, stresses the fragility of democracy and the tremendous, lifelong, constant and possibly intergenerational effort needed to consolidate it. Democracy is not purely an issue of free elections, nor merely of separation of the legislative, the executive and judiciary powers, it is necessarily based on open debate, freely expressed plurality of ideas and beliefs, as well as respect for individual and collective rights. But to thrive, democracy needs to be nurtured by active, participatory citizenship.

Playing an active role in their local community, organized groups of people can significantly influence decision-making. A committed and visionary youth, capable of critical thinking, is a crucial element in establishing and consolidating democracy. Furthermore, in a globalised world, local activism needs to be constantly associated to global awareness, as most global events do have a direct impact at the local level, and the contrary is also true. For example, the destruction of the forest in the Amazon or in Indonesia is affecting the climate globally. Nevertheless, it is our careless consumption of paper and our excessively meat based diet that contributes to the destruction of those forests. As “citizens of the world” we need to develop the capacity to transcend localistic approaches and engage with global problems. The first step, however, is the daily widening of our horizon, thinking “we” rather than “I”, being inclusive rather than exclusive, considering the effects of our decisions and behaviours on others. What will be the contribution of my action to the common good? Who will benefit and who will suffer from it? Asking ourselves these questions and resolving to pursue the common good represents the basis for ethical, responsible behaviour, and for a truly democratic society.

Critical thinking, openmindness, a sharing attitude, active participation, plurality of opinions, and respect for agreed upon rules are also the pillars of democracy and good governance in any organization, from the small group of friends sharing a local initiative to worldwide, structured major institutions.

Are those principles also the pillars of your organization? In your group, do you openly engage in debates where all points of view can be freely expressed and taken into consideration? Did you work out an agreed upon set of rules, and are they regularly applied and respected? Are decisions taken transparently and through the full participation of all members of the group? Is anybody discriminated against or excluded from the decision-making process? And, are decisions taken pursuing the common good of your group, your local community and of the world as a whole?

Responsibility and solidarity are at the origin of ethics, and should orient both organizations and society as a whole. In fact, Morin points out: “The regeneration of ethics cannot be separated from the regeneration of citizenship, and the latter cannot be dissociated from a democratic regeneration”.

Eduardo Missoni

DEGAGE!

Dégage ! Go away ! This is the cry of millions of men and women barely born when the dictators, which target them today, took  power! The cry of a generation that wants to enter the world freely and with dignity. This Spring of the Arab peoples has many causes as do  all revolutions, and it has all the beauty of Spring time. As for us, our first cry was “What courage!” to break the circle of fear and make it change sides.

Collective Consciousness

Behind the cry, there are reflections and revolts secretly shared that come to light amid the  huge crowds. There are years of deprivation, of hopeless study, of exile for intellectuals, and of jobless youth that now are leading to a joyful collective consciousness: nothing shall ever be the same!

Behind the cry, there is the strength of progress, the means of communication now under control, the universal values shared, and education received.

Dignity regained

First,we are struck by the joy of these people who have taken  back their own dignity.  We see the honor of a people standing and marching. And just after we are shocked to see how corrupted political systems can be: embezzlement, graft, nepotism, contempt, and violence.

Nonviolence shared

Then we perceive that nonviolence will triumph against state violence: we see the strength of those who know that the law is on their side and understand that collective obstinacy and individual commitment will eventually overcome, despite all the difficulties. Even if against Libyan mercenaries some acts of war will be necessary to drive out the remnants of dictatorship, these freedom fighters are inspired by the values of nonviolence.

Youth in motion

When educated and oppressed youth become the majority, outdated gerontocrats are driven away sooner or later; they can do nothing against demographics. This was the case in France in 1789, in Europe in the nineteenth century when it came time for the  people’s Springtime, and in Eastern Europe when the Berlin Wall fell . Not to mention the revolutions of India and Asia in recent centuries. Now is the time for the Arab world.

Winds of Freedom

Against containment, the winds of freedom blow.  People are talking in the streets, they cross borders, they send messages on all networks, they organize things differently and invent new ways of acting. Revolutionary brothers are welcoming each other and poor people help poor people in the border towns.

They mourn and honor the youths who were shot down during the uprising. Tomorrow, maybe, they will still be hungry as jobs will not be created by a miracle, and the external world will pressure everyone once again. But when that wind rises, the air  smells of jasmine and tastes of change.

Old Europe

Confronted with this, the old European countries seem paralyzed, still believing that democracy is a luxury not to be put in the hands of all. The European leaders did not imagine that Arab youths could want it with such a determination. And now these young people  are showing us, as in  other parts of the world once subjected to tyranny, that democracy is now also “globalized” in their hearts and minds. Obama was clearly aware of this.

Old fears

Caught in the ‘crisis’, European governments express the old fears again: the danger of Al Qaeda, the price of oil, the invasion of immigrants, etc. No really shared enthusiasm, no generosity, just a few ‘signals’! The palm is up of the Italian minister who said that there would be a “Biblical” emigration  – surprising for Muslims ! – and that we should be wary of Bin Laden. Yet Bin Laden does not seem so attractive to many young people in Arab countries ! They prefer a democratic future to the deadly junk of feudalism. It’s understandable. May we hear them!

Read, sign and disseminate the call Eduardo Missoni, former Secretary General of WOSM, Dominique Bénard and Jammal Al-Attar  are launching to support Arab youth fighting for their freedom

Sisters and brothers in Scouting, young people all over the world.

In Lybia, youth is uprising against an old dictator that used the power of oil, terrorism and emigrants to get support from governments in several countries. This dictator is violently repressing it own people. Thousands of young people have been killed. Many governments are more concerned by the price of oil and the danger of immigration than to support people in their fight for freedom. Young people want to develop their country not to flee from it. They want dignity and responsibility. This is why they are dying.

It’s time to react and stop the killings.

All over the world Scouts and youth should react. If we stay silent and passive, brotherhood and world citizenship are empty words. In Egypt and Tunisia, young people and Scouts, without waiting for their National Organizations to act, have already made their choice: they are welcoming refugees, they are giving them shelter and food, helping those who are wounded or chased. But they lack of everything.

Most of the people are just spectators. We can make a difference.

Let’s show our solidarity to Arab youth: speak out for their freedom, collect money to support their efforts, recruit volunteers to work with them in welcoming refugees, helping victims and support their projects.

Let’s ask our governments and international organizations to send humanitarian aid and stop the killings by any mean.

Let’s support the Arab spring time! Let us help young people in their own quest for freedom and dignity!

It’s time to act! Sign this appeal below and disseminate it !

Eduardo Missoni, Dominique Benard, Jamal Al-Attar

• You want to sign up the appeal ?  Fill up the form below :

Name(required)

Email(required)

City and Country(required)

Website

Submit

Δ

 
• You want to make a donation to support Arab youth?  Click on the button below :