The Degradation of the Worlds
and the Renovation of the Earth
by Dom Hélder Câmara
Message to the Mani Tese
[Outstretched Hands] youth movement, at the climax of its 1972 march, Plaza
Michelangelo, Florence, Italy, November 7, 1972. Spanish version appears
in Helder Camara: Proclamas a la Juventud, ed. Benedicto Tapia de
Renedo, Pedal. 64 (Salamanca: Ediciones Sigueme, 1976): 199-204. Original
Portuguese version appears in Dom Hélder Câmara, Justiça e paz: viagens
1972-1973, Servicio de Apostillas 36 (1973). Translated from Spanish
by Maria Markovich and Dr. Gerald W. Schlabach, University of St. Thomas (Minnesota),
strictly for the purposes of classroom use. Professor Schlabach (gwschlabach@stthomas.edu) asks to be
notified if better translations exist, or if copyright recognition is
due.
1.
The footsteps of
this march should wake us up
When thousands of young people in a nation march in
order to better understand what it means to be global citizens, their footsteps should wake us
up. They are a wake-up call. Woe to the nations that don’t understand the
warnings of their youth!
Tonight we take up the topic that the Mani Tese (“Outstretched
hands”) youth movement has so appropriately chosen: citizens of the world. What world are these young people talking
about? As we will see, this world has
degraded into “worlds.”
·
Let’s take a look at the first world, the capitalist
world, and have the courage to see the extremes to which capitalism is
reaching.
·
Let’s look at the second world, the socialist world,
and face the sad distortions that the socialists superpowers Russia and China
present to us.
·
Let’s look at the third world, the developing
countries, and we will discover the shocking sight of a fourth world arising in
its midst. This is not only due to the selfishness of the first two worlds, but
also due to third world countries. Some
of these, we will see, are adopting a despicable and mistaken attitude towards
their brothers and sisters living in misery and sub-development.
Still, our gathering is not taking place under the
banner of discouragement and desperation.
We children of hope! Without
doubt, the face of the world will be renewed, through the inspiration of God’s
Spirit, but also through human work.
For the Creator and Father of women and men has entrusted to them the
task of dominating nature and completing the work of creation.
2.
The wasting of the
worlds
a. The extremes to which the capitalist world is
reaching
The capitalist world is reaching extremes that will
(hopefully) open the eyes of their most lucid representatives, especially in
the nuclei of decision such as the capitalist superpowers: the USA, Japan and – sorry, but I must add –
the European Common Market.
With no other motive besides fraternal cooperation, I wish
to highlight some of the signs that seem especially meaningful to me.
Notice what the statistics say, even the official
statistics from the United Nations that are beyond suspicion. The Italian young people who marched all the
way to Florence had impressive data available for them to examine and discuss.
Here is a small paragraph from the booklet of the Mani
Tese march:
When we pay 2.000 or 3.000 liras for a kilogram of Colombian coffee, the Colombian producer receives only 200 or 300 lira. The rest goes to the Italian supplier, importer and state, and a small part of it is paid to the Colombian exporter.
The booklet goes on:
This problem does not just concern products from third world countries: How much are Italian peasants paid for a kilogram of lettuce of cauliflower? And how much for a kilogram of apples or pears?
The young people found out that while products from
poor countries continuously lose their value, the price of products from rich
countries continuously rise. Here is an
example presented to young people at this march:
In 1963, a banana producer in Jamaica received a penny per kilogram; on the other hand the expense for a pickup truck was 210 British pounds. In 1972 the same producer received one penny for a half of kilogram of bananas, and the pickup truck was not 210 but 1200 British pounds.
Still, beware of statistics! One has to know how to
interpret them. Sometimes they present
information that covers up the hard facts.
Among the material distributed by Mani Tese, there is
the copy of an absolutely reliable speech from Robert McNamara, who was the
U.S. Secretary of Defense and who is currently the president of the World
Bank. Using concrete examples,
McNamara denounces the way in which a statistical index such as per capita
income fails to express the economic development level of a country, since
it fails to show how income is really distributed among the population.
McNamara recognizes that in the world of today there
are sad realities that the statistics are unable to describe. In one paragraph of his speech he asks,
What are we to say about a
world where hundreds of million of people are not only poor in the statistic
sense, but also face daily privations that wound their own human dignity to a
degree that no statistic can describe?
The president of the World Bank continues:
There is a world still in development where children under five years old – who barely represent 20% of the population – simultaneously represent that 60% of the mortality rate. It is a developing world where two-thirds of the children who survive will experience an abnormal physical and mental development due to the lack of food. It is a developing world where there are 100 million more illiterate people than 20 years ago. In summary, it is a developing world where death and illnesses cause endless fatalities, where the possibilities of education and employment run short, where poverty and misery predominate everywhere and where the opportunity to reach for full self-realization is limited.
The descriptions of the world that we have presented
are only sad fragments, which we could easily multiply. In this world, macro-multinational companies
are the finely tuned creation of capitalism, keener, more capable and quicker
to take advantage the old “trusts”.
Now, these multinationals don’t arise with foreign
names. The multinationals that come to
work in Italy, in the petroleum sector for example, all appear to be
Italian – Esso-Standard Italy, Italian Shell, D.P. Italy, Mobil-Oil Italy,
Chevron-Oil Italy, Fina Italy, and Amoco Italy. The same holds true with your own multinationals (such as FIAT,
Pirelli, Olivetti, Montedison, SNAI, etc.).
In each country of operation, they too cover themselves by using
national names.
The multinationals are not so imprudent as to work
only with only one specific product or in only one area. An example is your own powerful FIAT. Citing only typical cases, FIAT is associated
with the IFI (Instituto Financiero Industriale), and therefore with the SAI
(Societa Assicuratrice Industriale); it has thus acquired a 15% stake in
Citroen, which puts it in contact with Michelin and the Banque de Paris et des
Pays Bas, which controls 20% of the capital from the Campagnia Generale di
Electricita, which puts it in contact with the General Electric, where it it
participates with La Pirelli, Alitalia, Oliveti, Cinzano, the Marie Brizard, in
newspapers such as La Stampa de Turin, and on and on. A complete list would be even longer!
Nowadays, the multinationals are conglomerates,
linking empires. They tend to control
the military and political power, technical and cultural power, and the very
powerful media. Who can ignore the fact
that by the year 2000, less than 300 multinationals will control our planet?
All these companies would be a wonder of technique and
organization, worthy of enthusiasm, if only these super empires were not
providing their services to increasingly restricted and closed groups, and if
they were not playing a decisive role in the proletarianization and
sub-proletarianization of poor countries, as well as poor areas within rich
countries.
b) Distortions of the socialist superpowers
What is the role that Russia and China really play in
the face of those excesses of ambition and blindness that the capitalist world
is reaching? Are the socialist
superpowers an alternative for creating a more human situation – more generous,
with less ambition, less indifference, less selfishness?
Russia and China are seriously compromising their own
claims to a superior, socialist form of humanism, as we see in the following
comparisons:
·
The capitalist world only enjoys a counterfeit freedom
because the economic powers utilize sophisticated means in order to impose what
they want, while eliminating or neutralizing the actions of those who dare to
act in a different way. There is no
more eloquent evidence than a presidential election in the United States.
Nonetheless, the socialist superpowers impose their unique model in more direct
and brutal ways. There is an atmosphere
of suspicion, accusations, forced self-critique, internal exile, and forced
labor, all of which gives Russia and China the distinction the 20th
century’s inquisitors.
It is true that intelligence and information services of the capitalist
superpowers adopt more and more methods of suspicion, self-critique, and even
torture, always with pharisaic precautions to preserve the image of legality
and democracy.
·
The capitalist world and the socialistic superpowers
both have their own satellites. They
drive the arms race. They have launched
a space race with the same overwhelming concern for strategic domination. They maintain the same attitude of ambition
and empire toward poor countries, which provide them with raw materials.
·
The capitalist and socialist superpowers are behind
all the wars by which small countries destroy and kill one another. So far, it is impossible to guess who will
decisively win that shameful war in Vietnam, in which the US, Russia and China
all measure their forces and experiment with their weapons. However, what is already beyond doubt is
suffer defeat: Whoever the winner is,
the heroic nation of Vietnam will be defeated, and when all is said and done it
will not enjoy the conditions for reunification.
·
The capitalist and socialistic superpowers attempt to
distribute the world comfortably between one other, and nowadays they have even
divided outer space. This leaves some
naïve people from both sides with the impression that they are irreconcilable
enemies who only make the reluctant sacrifice of mutual understanding during
moments of crisis, just to save world peace….
c) The weaknesses and divisions of the third world
facilitate the domination of the first and second worlds
Our most serious challenge is that the third world – the world of poor countries, providers of raw material – presents weaknesses and divisions that facilitate domination by the first and second worlds.
If I am not mistaken, these are the major ones:
·
In poor countries, there is often a sad tradition of
privileged families who practically own their nations, and who maintain their
own wealth, dominion and empire of life and death, at the cost of misery among
their own fellow citizens.
·
In general, these privileged families are the ones who
dominate national policies.
Representatives to international bodies are chosen from this very group,
and appear in assemblies such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD), which facilitates maneuvers by the superpowers and links them with
these national elites. The
multinationals also find ideal allies for dominion and exploitation in these
privileged minorities. And so continues
the same sad history: Yes, for
centuries, African slaves were sold to Latin America, not only because people
were willing to buy them, but also because people were willing to sell them….
·
In consequence, it becomes very difficult for poor
countries to understand and act upon their own need to cooperate and complement
one another. Rivalry is commonplace,
easily fomented the powerful, who have a stake in division and in-fighting
among smaller nations. One of the
saddest forms of manipulation that the large powers use is to pick out a
somewhat more developed nation and use it in a region, as an underling and
enforcer….
3.
Renovating the face of the earth
At first sight, the situation of this world suggests despair. For
Christians, however, the last word is always hope.
Despite everything, we have no use for a misleading or
alienating hope that looks only to eternal life – as though eternity didn’t
start here and now, because it is here and now that we built an eternal life.
Regardless of our race, religion, nation, or
professional setting, if each one of us looks around, we will discover that
along with the prudent and conformist bulk of society, and along with that
elite minority which is a embarrassment for its own class, there is another
minority that is willing to work – even sacrifice – for a more just and human world.
Would it not be possible for us to find the way – in
each tiny community, then each neighborhood, each province, each nation and
each continent in all the world – to unite all those minorities until they
number in the thousands upon thousands? … Would it not be possible for these
minorities to agree upon three or four concrete points, which demand immediate
action?
The first and very important point would be to start
with each of us asking ourselves whether or not we are at peace with justice or
whether we are committing injustices.
After all, it is not enough to contemplate human misery and ask for
charity; we must achieve justice as a condition for peace. Then let us begin by confronting local
injustices together with neighbors and friends who are people of good
will. No one confronts global
injustices who does not start by facing the injustices in their own community.
Another indispensable step would be this: whoever has faith and is linked to a
particular religion should frequent their religious group. Then, in union with brothers and sisters of
good will, demand of your religious group that it never separate the love of
neighbor from love of God; demand that it speak out against all those
injustices that should never exist among brothers and sisters who are children
of the same heavenly Father.
Sometimes, when a person demands justice in the name
of his or her faith, it is all too easy to paint that person as a rebel or
communist. But on that day when we all
demand of that our religious groups that they denounce injustice and work
strenuously to make the world a more life-giving place for all [literally:
breathable], those who labeled every defender of justice a communist are simply
going to look ridiculous.
Let’s take the case of Italy. Imagine what would happen if the thousands
upon thousands of young people who marched to Florence – all the while thinking
about the injustices of this world – would not stop marching but would
continue, vigilant and demanding, at home, at school, at work, at church,
refusing to settle for band-aid solutions, but instead would demand justice as
a condition of peace.
Still, in order for all of us to actually move from
theory to practice and not settle for good intentions – in order to finally
start the reformation of the structures that we have talked so much about – we
need more. Inside of us, around us, as
a positive portent and sign of the deep changes that we must achieve at the
national, continental, and then global level – we need even more than the force
of an idea. We need a touch of grace,
an impulse from on high.
Perhaps that impulse from on high, that touch of
grace, will be the coming to life of Christ’s word: “Wherever two or three of
you gather together in my name, there will I be among you.”
And we not just two or three; we are thousands upon
thousands. Maybe some – or maybe many
of you – think that you don’t have any religion or faith. The truth is, we are and we will be with
Christ even though we don’t know it, and even though we seem not to want
it. For he will be with us, to the
degree that our hunger and thirst for justice, truth, and love is honest.
Let them laugh who will. Goliath once laughed at the young David.
For God, who is love, will not let selfishness,
ambition, and hatred, dominate the earth forever….