Presidente Trump: Misión “La Luna”, ¡no! Misión: “ ¡la Tierra!”

Monday, December 18, 2017

“El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, ha anunciado que volverá a enviar astronautas a la Luna 45 años después. El objetivo de regresar a la Luna supone un giro en la política espacial estadounidense… Esta decisión de Trump, una vez más, es reprobada internacionalmente y goza de una baja popularidad en Estados Unidos (Diario Público)”… 

Detrás de esta nueva “ocurrencia” del Presidente Trump están inmensas cantidades de dinero que se invertirán en hacer posible este ambicioso proyecto… ¡Si en lugar de llegar a la Luna llegásemos a los que padecen sida, malaria, lepra, Alzheimer, cáncer, hambre, frío...; a los que sufren las consecuencias de catástrofes naturales o provocadas…! Las urgentes necesidades en materia de salud, nutrición, justicia, educación... de la mayor parte de las personas se postergarán una vez más y quedarán supeditadas al brillo de un gobierno y de quienes, en su propio país o fuera de él, no alcanzan a ver, deslumbrados por luminarias fugaces, las consecuencias de no mirar alrededor y hacia delante. Y de no mirar atrás y aprender las lecciones del pasado. 

Si Estados Unidos en lugar de conocer mejor la Luna conociera mejor las Naciones Unidas, que están en la misma isla de Manhattan, y lideraran – como hicieron en 1945 – el establecimiento de este marco ético -jurídico que con tanto apremio necesita hoy la humanidad, integrando en el Sistema de las Naciones Unidas el Fondo Monetario Internacional, el Banco Mundial (“de la reconstrucción y el desarrollo”, por cierto), la Organización Mundial del Comercio... Si decidieran adherirse sin más demora al Tribunal Penal Internacional; y de esta forma, se dieran cuenta de inmediato que la justicia a escala mundial requiere una particularísima atención: tráficos de toda índole, transgresores en la mayor impunidad, para los que causan un deterioro a veces irreversible del medio ambiente, para los que practican la “contabilidad creativa”... Si decidieran continuar en la UNESCO… 

La mayoría de los habitantes de la Tierra aguardan aún que desde el barrio de la abundancia de la aldea global se de la ansiada orden de “Misión, la Tierra”. Pero, desgraciadamente, una vez más, no será así. Como ciudadano del mundo conozco los desafíos mucho más perentorios para las condiciones de vida de la especie humana que quedarán desatendidos. He tenido ocasión de conocer de cerca muchos de los rincones del planeta y admirar la grandeza creadora que anida en la infinita diversidad de sus habitantes, y he procurado contribuir a aliviar la situación en que viven (y mueren) tantos habitantes de la Tierra, que esperaban todavía que los pueblos más prósperos volvieran, por fin, los ojos hacia ellos. 

Mirar hacia arriba no es lo difícil. Lo difícil es contemplar los grandes problemas de la Tierra en estos principios de siglo y de milenio y reconocer el fracaso de las fórmulas aplicadas hasta ahora para hacer frente a un buen número de ellos. En lugar de mirar hacia la Luna habría que volver la vista hacia los países explotados y recelosos por tantas promesas incumplidas. Enviar expediciones a países donde viven – sobreviven – miles de millones de personas. Sólo de esta manera los Estados Unidos figurarían en la historia como el imperio que supo protagonizar la inflexión desde una cultura de fuerza a una cultura de conciliación, de convivencia, de paz. Esta sería la mejor “misión” que pueden realizar, la que el pueblo americano se merece. Todos al lado de la vida... en la Tierra. Este sería el liderazgo. 

Es urgente reducir, hasta eliminarlos, los caldos de cultivo de miseria, de exclusión, de explotación, de dependencia, donde se genera la frustración, la radicalización, la desesperanza, la violencia. Remediar los desgarros, prevenirlos. Es urgente modificar unas pautas económicas que han ampliado, en lugar de estrechar, la brecha que separa a los ricos de los pobres. Y aprender a dar idéntico valor a las vidas – y a las muertes – de todos los seres humanos, “iguales en dignidad”. 

Todos aplaudiríamos una “Misión, la Tierra” que descubriera y eliminara las redes de narcotraficantes (¡empezando por los de arriba!), la compra–venta ilegal de armas, los paraísos fiscales (que son una vergüenza consentida, una realidad sobre la que se hace la “vista gorda”), las mafias y el extremismo. Millones de personas reconocerían la actuación de quienes de esta forma mejoraran su bienestar.

Ahora, al contemplar la Tierra en su conjunto, nos damos cuenta de la grave irresponsabilidad que supuso transferir al mercado los deberes políticos que, guiados por ideales y principios éticos, podrían conducir a la gobernanza democrática. Al observar la degradación del medio ambiente - del aire, del mar, del suelo -; la uniformización progresiva de las culturas, cuya diversidad es nuestra riqueza (estar unidos por unos valores universales es nuestra fuerza); la erosión de muchos aspectos relevantes del escenario democrático que con denodados esfuerzos construimos... nos parece más inesperada e inadmisible la ausencia de reacción de instituciones y personas, la resignación, la sumisión, el distraimiento de tantos. ¿Cómo es posible? En muchos de estos países, empezando por los propios Estados Unidos, es innegable la irrestricta libertad de expresión. Todos pueden decir lo que quieran... pero con frecuencia los medios de comunicación de mayor difusión seleccionan las noticias y las presentan de tal modo que se favorece el pensamiento único, la aceptación de lo que sucede (de lo que dicen que sucede) y de la forma en que los gobiernos así auto-halagados abordan los problemas. 

Debemos apostar por un “Proyecto Tierra” y así, si en lugar de invertir en prestigio hoy hacerlo en el porvenir de los habitantes del planeta. 

Los Estados Unidos son un crisol de culturas. Ha sido tierra de acogida y ha sabido – y sabe todavía – atraer a talentos de todo el mundo, lo que le confiere una extraordinaria fuerza creadora. Todos los países deberían unirse para llevar a cabo unos programas espaciales siempre y cuando ello no impidiera ni menoscabara la gran prioridad que representan los seres vivos y, en primer lugar, los seres humanos que ya existen sobre la Tierra. 

Estamos ante gravísimas amenazas a la habitabilidad de la Tierra y son precisas acciones decididas con firmeza y a tiempo. Mirar en estos momentos tan sombríos hacia la Luna puede situar a Estados Unidos, indebidamente, muy lejos del corazón de la mayoría de los ciudadanos del mundo. Que no se aleje más. Para ello bastaría con que se tuviera la visión y el coraje de proclamar: “¡Misión: la Tierra!”.

CATALUNYA: it is never too late for gathering

Monday, December 11, 2017

It is never too late for gathering and to tackle the problems with serenity because otherwise, in the case that a timely solution is not found, can lead to undesirable situations for everyone.

As I have emphasized repeatedly in regard to the facts in Catalonia, I consider it is essential and urgent that a meeting of representatives of both parties takes place without conditions or a priori, addressing the different aspects of the conflict with serenity and high perspective, reaching conclusions that allow preventing the serious consequences that could arise.


As a former Director General of UNESCO, President of the Foundation for a Culture of Peace and co-President of the University Institute for Human Rights, Democracy and Culture of Peace and Nonviolence (DEMOSPAZ), I wish to join my voice to those who seek, from different national and international organizations, adequately resolving an issue that concerns and challenges us all.

THE UNITED STATES OF TRUMP WITHDRAWS FROM UNESCO

The Israel of Netanyahu follows them as well. It was expected. When Yitzhak Rabin ruled, Israel was very active in UNESCO, the intellectual Organization of the multilateral democratic System of the United Nations. But he died assassinated and, since then, the chances of success in the peace process are vanishing.

The United States withdraws from UNESCO because the Republican Party, with hegemonic ambitions, is incompatible with a multilateral democratic system. Already in 1919, they did unachievable the activities of an efficient League of Nations because they imposed the immense contradiction that the United States were never members of the League of Nations! created by an American President, Woodrow Wilson.

And then they have always been hostile to the excellent design of the United Nations System created by the Democratic President, Franklin D. Roosevelt...

In the 80s, at the end of the "Cold War", when was finally possible to empower the necessary expansiveness, perspective and efficiency to multilateralism, providing it with proper personal, security, technical and financial resources, President Reagan with the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher as an obedient acolyte, left UNESCO and created the plutocratic groups (G6, G7, G8 ...) set up by the richest countries, to marginalize the United Nations, not subscribing the Convention on Human Rights of Children in 1989 -it is the only country in the world that has not subscribed it-, placing the World Trade Organization directly outside the System ... and then invading Iraq without the authorization of the Security Council ... And the neoliberalism has resulted as well in the decrease of the Aid for Development increasing the number of emigrants because in their countries of origin they die of hunger. It is an intolerable fact, from all points of view, that each day more than 4 billion dollars are invested in military expenditures and armament, while thousands of people, most of them children from 1 to 5 years old, die of starvation and abandonment.

This daily colossal contribution to the economy of war has seemed scarce to President Trump, who requested an increase very quickly. And the European countries, including Spain, all of them unsupportive with the immigrants and refugees -more than 6,000 dead in the Mediterranean in 2016- rushed to increase their defense investments. And all have been silent when Trump has announced that he would not implement the Paris Agreements on Climate Change, which constitutes an intolerable threat to the quality of the Earth habitability and, therefore, to the intergenerational legacy.

I regret they leave UNESCO because millions of American children and young people will receive a biased education -in some Republican States it is obligatory to explain creationism!- typical of an educational scheme that confuses education ("being free and responsible") with training, knowledge with information and information with news. And I especially regret for Higher Education, as it is well known that the US has 2 dozen top universities... but with hundreds of universities that leave much to be desired because, among other things, education is confused with professional learning.

It is necessary that world citizens react quickly -tomorrow may be too late- demanding compliance by the United States with the Paris Agreements on Climate Change and the Sustainable Development Goals. Otherwise, it must be a great popular outcry -now that we have no excuse to keep an accomplice silence- which, aware that otherwise all humanity would suffer the consequences, requires President Trump to redress.The convinced supremacist, does not conceive that all human beings are equal in dignity and that no one can irreversibly tarnish their future. It is obvious that what worries me is not that the United States withdraws UNESCO again, but that the world as a whole, without the assistance of a strong and effective United Nations, abandons itself to its fate... especially when we know most certainly that points of no return can be reached.

What does the European Union refrain of telling clearly to President Trump that their trade relations could be affected very severely if he does not comply with the Paris Agreements? What do the most concerned citizens to wait, looking to the eyes of their children and descendants, to say that they will not admit that their intergenerational legacy deteriorates?


Now we can express ourselves: crime of silence.

Young citizens of the world, the time has come for action

Tuesday, November 14, 2017

“There will be new words for the new history”
Ángel González

“Commit yourselves!” was the final message proclaimed by Stephan Hessel. “You will have to change direction and embark on a new ship”, added José Luis Sampedro. Well, the time has come to commit ourselves, to take a new direction on board of a new ship, to start the “new beginning”  advocated by the Earth Chart, a document we should bear in mind when implementing all radical changes that must be made.

In the second paragraph of the Preamble of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it is clearly established that people might be “compelled to have recourse... to rebellion” if they are deprived from the full exercise of human rights.  Yes, it is now time for you to resort -both peacefully and forcefully- to rebellion, to express yourselves, to raise your voice, to fill the cyberspace and the streets with your voice, your views, bearing in mind that our response to global challenges cannot be further delayed.

Citizens of the world! Do not be lured by ideologists who have lost the compass long time ago and are unable to see -or refuse to see- that the entire human race -this prodigious and promising wonder- is being threatened and should, therefore, not be reduced or “localized”. Mankind should rather react as a whole against powers of all kinds -including the media power- who try to silence the voice of “We, the peoples...”, and to reduce individuals to mere spectators, immersed and blinded by their eagerness to clarify to which small “parcel” they belong to, although it has become clear that unprecedented challenges require unprecedented solutions -as I have recently stated following Amin Maalouf. Instead of focusing on issues having to do with our closer and surrounding environment, we should tackle together, with joined hands and voices, the perils that are threatening us, taking action before it is too late.

We should all be fully aware that -for the first time in the history of humankind- we are placed in an extremely serious and complex situation, with problems that are potentially irreversible and could lead us -if we don’t take firm actions on time- to a point of no return with regards to the Earth’s habitability.

I always recall the terrible words of Albert Camus: “I despise them because they could have done so much and dared so little”. Let’s take action together so that future generations never pronounce or have grounds to pronounce those words. The big challenge and the supreme duty of each generation are to ensure a dignified life to future generations and to allow them to fully exercise the unique capacities of human beings: thinking, imagining, foreseeing, creating! Every unique human being capable of creating, there lies our hope.

The time will soon come for friendship, for generosity, for listening to others, for assertiveness, for rectification and for sailing against the wind. The alternative to involution is evolution. And the alternative to revolution is also evolution. The “r” from responsibility is the only difference between evolution and revolution. If we are responsible, we will all choose evolution, as nature has shown us with such magnificence. It is essential to invent the future. We must urgently dare to know and learn how to dare. Young citizens, you must stand against the permanent attempt of the media to transform you in spectators instead of actors and to press you to choose scepticism instead of hope. I still remember a sentence from the 15-M that inspired me great hope: “If you don’t let us dream, we will not let you sleep”. Don’t be distracted by local matters, by absurd national identity issues, or by pursuing objectives that are not relevant, when we should face together problems that concern us all, wherever our home is, whatever our social status, whatever the colour of our skin, whatever our ideology... Do everything possible to make us aware of which are our intergenerational responsibilities, learn how to share, how to live together, how to strive for others, because solidarity and generosity are precisely the unknown paths we should follow tomorrow if you succeed in showing us the right direction.

There are many roadmaps that have been left aside, excluded, underestimated, and have become today more essential than ever: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Earth Chart, the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union, United Nations Millennium Declaration, the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace... all of which should serve us today as guides for our daily behaviour.  We have also today, thanks to longevity, a treasury that has been normally underutilized: the experience of those who are walking along the last stretches of their life. Experience is the balance of successes and failures obtained by each individual, and it is as valuable as it is scarcely used. This is why I encourage young people to share their experience and acquired knowledge so this helps them not to slacken and to keep striving hard now that their wings are still strong enough to allow them to fly high and not to decline.

Do not tolerate any outbreak of supremacism. This is the major source of confrontation, the idea that has caused more victims throughout history, a history that cannot be repeated. All human beings are equal in dignity: this is the foundation for peace and justice. As I wrote recently “Whether stakeholders and short-sighted leaders of today admit it or not, we have reached the anthropocene -human influence on ecological conditions- and the fact that we must fulfil our duties on time has become an unavoidable moral requirement.  Now we don’t have any excuse: we already know what is happening and we can express ourselves freely thanks to the digital technology. Above all, women -who were completely marginalized until very recently- are gradually playing an essential role –becoming the “cornerstones”- in decision-making at all levels, as should have been always the case.

It is essential, in the first place, to promote the re-instatement of a democratic multi-lateral system at an international level, with a strong United Nations capable of taking quick and efficient action, allowing us to immediately get rid of the plutocratic groups (G7, G8, G20) set up by the globalization neoliberalism and which have led to the current conceptual, social and economic confusion our current world is living in.

The elimination of the nuclear threat, which shall ensure a dignified life through the immediate implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreements on Climate Change, shall make it possible for everybody to live decently anywhere in the world.

Two critical transitions have to be made: from an economy based on speculation, on relocation of production and war -I must insist that it is intolerable to invest 4000 million dollars per day in military expenses and in the weapon industry while thousands of people are dying every day from hunger and abandonment, most of them boys and girls ranging from one to five years old- to an economy of global sustainable and human development based on knowledge.

There is a second transition that should inevitably be added to the first one: from a culture based on domination, imposition and war to a culture of encounter, dialogue, conciliation, alliance and peace. This is the great historical shift from force to word that could allow this new concept of security, and that should not only take into account territories but, above all, those who were born, who live and die in these territories.

In view of the above, it is totally unacceptable for President Trump to announce that he will not implement the urgent measures on the regulation of climate change that were agreed in Paris in November 2015. These agreements are the result of the hard work made -with great scientific rigour- for many years. As early as in 1947 the UNESCO founded the International Union for Conservation of Nature, and later on the international Programmes on Geology, Hydrology, Oceanography... And the great Programmes on “Man and the Biosphere”, “Biosphere Reserves”... Only someone driven by short-sighted interests could say today that the measures taken to ensure the quality of the Earth’s habitability were based in improvisation. Only the extravagant, media launched President of the United States, Mr. Trump, could behave in that way: young citizens, especially those directly concerned, including President Trump’s relatives, should react immediately, letting him know that, if he doesn’t change his attitude radically, a worldwide reaction will take place in the social networks to encourage people not to consume products having their origin in the great American Nation, that is enduring the effects of the inappropriate behaviour of the Republican Party.

"There is no challenge that is beyond the reach of the creative capacity inherent to humankind” said the American President John F. Kennedy in 1963. We have to invent our future. Everything that seems impossible today may become true tomorrow, but whose responsibility is it "if not everyone’s?”, as Miquel Martí i Pol so wisely advised.

Everyone should promote the disarmament for development. Everyone should contribute to the transition from force to word. The time for silence and submission is over.

It is essential to redefine issues that are critical to be able to lead a “normal” life, such as the new concept of work, democracy, the rule of “justice”, etc. In other words, we have to invent the future so that the “pending evolution” is made possible.  Evolutions consists in preserving everything that must be preserved -because these are the basic foundations and benchmarks that are absolutely essential to build a roadmap- and changing everything that must be changed. Evolution to build a different future. The future we dreamed of and we should keep dreaming of with greater perseverance.


Young citizens of the world, the time of silence is over; for the first time in history, we are facing issues that are essential for a dignified life; the time for irrelevant efforts must, therefore, give way to the time for conscious and resolute action. Dare to know and learn how to dare: this is the only way to ensure evolution and avoid revolution.

Not another day of silence!

Tuesday, April 25, 2017



Not one more day of silence allowing the plutocratic groups that have substituted the United Nations, to continue submitting humanity, leading it without compass, short-sighted, obsessed, short-term... to situations of no return.

It is necessary to proceed without
delay to the United Nations’ re-foundation, a democratic and efficient multilateral system that was designed by President Roosevelt. It is the will of people that, conscious of the fact that we are reaching ways of no return, must be expressed in great outcries to stop, before it is too late, the non-sense trajectory we are living, especially on potentially irreversible issues, such as environmental and extreme poverty.

The unacceptable has been accepted... and now, on the edge of the abyss,  it is unavoidable to react: it was accepted that the United Nations were substituted by the oligarchic groups of the G6, G7, G8, G20... so that global governance (193 countries) was entrusted to six, seven, eight, twenty prosperous countries...

It was accepted that ethical and democratic values ​​and referents would be substituted by stock markets... It was accepted that the immediate benefits prevailed over the indispensable prospective vision ... The production delocalisation was accepted -"for greed and irresponsibility", in the words of President Obama-, which does not take into account working conditions and human rights ... And it was accepted that, in order to "comply with the debt", development aid would be reduced until it disappeared ... And it was accepted that the European Union, strictly monetary, did not fulfill its duties with the refugees ... And lies were accepted for the invasion of Iraq -"weapons of mass destruction"-, the origin of so many debacles and terrorism. And it was accepted that there was no money for the Millennium Development Objectives...

And continues accepting that thousands of human beings die every day from starvation -most of them girls and boys from one to five years of age- while 4 billion dollars are spent on arms and military expenditures. And it has been accepted that it will not be granted 10% of this huge sum for development aid, as was so well proposed by the International Peace Bureau of Geneva in its great (and ignored) "Disarmament for Development" campaign...

And it is still accepted -as a result of all of the above- that the dangerous social gaps do not stop increasing... And it was accepted that "markets" appointed the governments of Italy and Greece, the cradle of democracy, without elections. And it is accepted -we must remember what happened in the years 1935-1938!- that fascism, fanaticism, the prevalence of cultures and ethnic groups over others reappear ...
We have just found ourselves concerned on the results of the European Union's "big four" session -France, Germany, Italy and Spain- preparing the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome: when we could expect them to decide, as they had established in Lisbon in year 2000, to pass through a human-based and sustainable global development economy based on knowledge ... and announcing drastic actions to shelter refugees and migrants, rapidly increasing development aid ... the only thing that comes to their mind is to strongly increase the “defence and security” costs!

On March 17 and 18, the G20 met in Baden-Baden (Germany) ... and, in order not to displease the American President -as it had happened years ago with Reagan and then with the Bush- the terms of the economic guidelines were moderated, to make them "slightly" (only slightly!) protectionists ... and it was eliminated -what a shame, what nonsense!- to make mention of the Paris Agreements on Climate, of compulsory compliance, if the present generations do not want to appear as the protagonists of the greater historical mistake that could be committed concerning the habitability of Earth and the  future generations...

And silence! ... With great diligence, the Minister of Defense of Spain, has rushed to visit the Pentagon to assure the closest collaborators of the unusual President Trump that we will buy them a lot of war devices ...

And silence.

And the "markets", since the eighties have the reins of the common destiny in their hands, also perfectly manage the "weapons of mass distraction", in a very accurate version of the very correct Soledad Gallego Díaz. Yes, they change a considerable number of citizens into impassive spectators, just experts in football and careers who due to disaffection to politics and politicians do not exercise the resistance that now cannot be postponed.

Not another day of silence! Now we can express ourselves. Now we can obtain great popular outcries.

Let's raise the voice!  
Otherwise, crime of silence.

Tomorrow may be late



Humanity is rapidly reaching points of no return in which the habitability of Earth will be irreversibly damaged.

The governors are busy redressing the way they can the fragile and vulnerable structures of power that have substituted the United Nations, a great democratic multilateral design, by
ineffective plutocratic groups (G7, G8, G20).

And the references and compasses that represented ethical values ​​have been substituted by stock exchanges and cooperation by exploitation. The lack of solidarity is absolute.

The people, who can now express themselves, who now know the challenges on a world level, are subjected to colossal maneuvers of harassment by the absolute and omnipresent media power, which reduce them to the condition of
impassive, blinded, annoyed spectators...

Who can, who should ring the tapping bells before they grasp, without solution? The scientific, academic, artistic, intellectual communities in short! There must be them who cannot remain occupied, distracted, absorbed as time passes and humanity approaches the abyss.

Those who should be at the forefront of the popular mobilizations and outcries carrying out the changes that are urgently needed, remain in their ivory towers, full of bureaucracy....

The time has come
to react, to go down to the streets and to cyberspace... because "tomorrow may be late”...