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| September
19th, 2001 |
The
Alliance after the attacks of September 11th "If
our societies maintain their present ways of life and forms of development
much longer, humankind is bound for self-destruction. We reject this
prospect." After the tragic bombings of September 11th in NewYork, this text written in 1993 seems more present than ever. Yet these bombings shouldn't make us forget that our world is a world where every day children and adults die of hunger or curable diseases, innocent populations are victims of fanaticisms and conflicts of all kind, where gaps of wealth challenge the human entendement. These events are not the attack of a civilization against another one. Today, wether one wants it or not, the destinies of our societies are inextricably bound together. "Our world is both one and infinitely diverse". Facing the challenges of violence, hunger, injustice, our governments mostly don't do better than reproduce old automatisms, that never deal with the real causes but solely with the more apparent symptoms, thus postponing the implementation of real solutions. The responsibility for these solutions lies at every scale: from our daily individual actions up to the setting up of big mobilizing programs involving all of society in search of solutions for the most urgent problems, and to the implementing new modes of action at every level. The current situation requires, as we know it all, intelligent and creative answers to the disparities of the present world, some of whose aspects are reflected by the thematic workshops, colleges and geocultural groups of the Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World. This is why we would like to encourage you, that play a key role in these working groups and in the general dynamics of the Alliance, to launch a debate within your networks on the ways these tragic events challenge, illustrate, the issues and problematics they have been discussed already, in particular within your electronic forums. We remind you that general commentaries can be sent to the subscribed allies through the general list <alliance@forums.alliance21.org>. If you are not subscribed to this list yet, send a mail to <marina@allliance21.org>. A specific forum on the "construction of peace and a new world governance" will be opened shortly, facilitated by the School of Peace in Grenoble (France). The Platform for a Responsible and United World is neither a sacred text nor an ideological dogma. It is merely a text that proposes a diagnosis of the present situation, values and principles for action, priorities and a strategy. It's up to us all to rephrase some of its ideas in consonance with our sensitivity and our culture, but mostly to grasp it and to turn it into a platform of action and exchange of ideas and experience. Pierre Johnson pjohnson@allliance21.org |
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