A Permanent Whisper as a Cry for Peace

Lettre de la Terre promise et sainte

2011-12-28T11:20:00.000-08:00

Ces dernières semaines, on assiste en Israël à une recrudescence de la ségrégation des femmes venant des milieux ultra-orthodoxes juifs. Mais je commencerais par une autocritique qui s'impose: nous nous sommes endormis sur des "acquis" qu'on supposait définitifs et nous nous sommes trompés.

L'imagination maladive des intégristes se déploie ces derniers temps comme des ailes de vautours au-dessus de la liberté de vivre ensemble dans une entente qui convient à un état démocratique. "Des oiseaux rapaces" tout de noir vêtus, nous envient, à nous femmes, le peu de place gagnée dans la cité avec tant de difficultés et de luttes.

Une fillette de 8 ans a été agressée parce qu'elle n'était pas habillée assez décemment, une jeune femme est poussée violemment au fond du bus, une soldate se voit interdire une place assise dans un bus, sur des murs des pancartes indiquent: "Trottoirs pour hommes seulement", pour les femmes de l'autre côté, à une manifestation culturelle de l'Armée, des soldats intégristes sortent en claquant les portes pendant qu'un chœur de femmes chante, à la Knesseth, pendant un Colloque sur les problèmes sociaux en Israël, un religieux quitte la salle pour ne pas entendre une femme parler à la tribune.

Vous voulez encore des exemples? Il y en a plein! On le savait mais, comme vous autres, chers amis, on a fait semblant de ne pas le savoir…

Les gens de bonne volonté, des laïcs aussi bien que des religieux, (car ils ne sont pas tous fous et extrémistes), se sont réunis pour une manifestation contre les intégristes. Même Shimon Peres, en tant que Président de l'Etat, est venu à la télé pour appeler les gens à sortir dans les rues, chose rare pour un Président qui, normalement, ne devrait pas être d'un côté ou de l'autre.

Or, mes chers amis, depuis des siècles sans nombre on nous a présenté les religions – et je parle maintenant des trois monothéismes – comme une didactique de l'excellence… La Loi de Moïse, le Sermon sur la Montagne de Jésus ou la Charia des musulmans, voilà autant d'enseignements exemplaires qui avaient pour but de changer l'être humain et le rendant meilleur, plus juste, plus attentif à son prochain, plus spirituel surtout!

Et alors on a le droit de poser cette question à messieurs les religieux de toutes les religions et sectes du monde: comment se fait-il qu'après des siècles de cet exceptionnel enseignement religieux, vous n'êtes pas encore délivrés de vos instincts, de vos haines, de vos désirs débridés, de votre ignominie? On se serait attendu, chez nous, pauvres laïcs pécheurs et malheureux abandonnés de Dieu, que vous soyez meilleurs que nous, que vous représentiez pour nous un exemple à suivre.

Mais rien! Relisez le Décalogue, s'il vous plaît! Vos instincts sont donc encore plus noirs que vos habits si vous avez besoin de couvrir les femmes de la tête aux pieds, de ne pas les écouter, de les maltraiter afin de ne pas succomber à leurs charmes. Mais dites-moi, toi, le grand héros qui t'es attaqué à une gosse de 8 ans, crois-toi que le bon Dieu est sourd-muet comme toi? Quelque part dans la Bible – tu connais ce livre, je suppose! – il est écrit que lorsque Dieu créa l'être humain "homme et femme Il le créa"… C'est tout au début du livre, dans l'Introduction, parmi les histoires avec les oiseaux du ciel et les autres animaux qui eux, ne peuvent certainement pas dominer leurs instincts, mais nous…

Bref, nous nous sommes endormis en veillant sur les libertés acquises. Nous, les femmes et les hommes de tous les pays. Nous nous sommes laissés aller en parlant des "droits de l'homme", concept transformé ensuite en "droits des humains" enfin d'englober aussi les femmes. Mais cela ne suffit pas, notre laïcisme sans profondeur et sans vraie prise sur les réalités de tous les jours doit être revu, nous devons revisiter nos textes et continuer notre lutte d'une autre façon. Le religieux a été souvent occulté, méprisé, d'autres fois complètement oublié du discours social et politique comme s'il n'existait pas. Mais il existe et il faut l'affronter.

Parce que je m'y connais un peu, j'ose vous dire, chers amis, que les trois monothéismes sont des religions totalitaires, que toutes les femmes ne veulent pas être couvertes comme chez les intégristes, les femmes des Talibans non plus, et que l'Europe qui se croyait à l'abri de l'intégrisme ne l'est pas du tout et qu'en fin de compte les Inquisitions se réveillent. Les Inquisiteurs de toutes les nations sont depuis belle lurette au travail.

André Malraux avait dit que le "XXIème siècle sera religieux ou ne sera pas"… Religieux, il l'est, mais certainement pas dans le sens que Malraux le pensait…

Bluma Finkelstein

Haïfa – Israël

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4167668,00.html

2011-12-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

European Winter

There are places where threats from outside (real or imagined - or both) strengthen the consciousness of common values. In these days we Europeans may feel scolded for being self-convinced, wealthy, for taking many things for granted, for not being able to manage crises. Lack of historical memories? But you just have to meet older people who tell you about the times of the last wars. Even if we were not directly involved, we suffered from various material restrictions. The worst of them was censorship under the regime, that supported Franco's army during the Spanish Civil war and flirted with both sides during WW II. The documentary by João Canijo "Fantasia Lusitana" shows that flirt openly. The Lisbon harbour was busy around the clock, welcoming the vessels of the Allies but also of the German Fleet, shipping the refugees towards the American Eldorado. They all met in Lisbon at the early forties, but hardly came in touch. My city was a marked space and a waste land at the same time.
We surely welcome the Arab spring, but what we badly need for the moment is a shade of light in the winter. This light comes from dialogue, from stretched hands, from living together as life students."Image-making as global policy is indeed something new in the huge arsenal of human follies recorded in history", wrote Hannah Arendt in the year of 1975, shortly before her death.
But looking at the naked branches of a winter tree, we may begin imagining the small buds from the next spring. And enjoy the rumour of the sea waves.

Sami Michael: I am an optimistic

2011-09-29T06:35:00.000-07:00

The famous Israeli writer Sami Michael was invited by the young leaders of the social protest in Israel to give a speech in the rally and he spoke in Hebrew and in Arabic. The Rally in Haifa was very special thanks to the cooperation between Jews and Arabs.

At age 85, it’s hard to be optimistic but the young generation today makes me feel optimistic.

It is the first time in Israeli history that the fuel and engine joined together, it is the first time that the middle class connects with the rest of the people and it’s the first time that Ashkenazim, Sephardim, Arabs, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Bahais, blacks and whites unite in a common struggle. I don’t remember anything like this in Haifa or elsewhere across Israel.

The impact of the Middle East has reached us, too.

Thanks to the shiny eyes of the young people here I am an optimistic. You, all the young people, don't know what a miracle you are realizing. You by your hands are reshaping anew Israeli society.

It is not enough to demand justice, you have to fight for it. Every revolution movement need continuous regeneration and vision, therefore I am suggesting to pitch a tent in front of the home of every parliament member, 10 protest tents of the home of every minister. In front of the prime –minister home don't pitch any tent, because he is totally detached. We have to help the parliament members and the ministers to remember that they are there for serve the people but not to be the masters of the land. They have to concern the interest of the people but not the rich, not the capital.

Today thanks to you I am an optimistic. Thanks to you I feel as I am twenty years old.

La Métamorphose de Mahmoud Abbas

2011-09-24T02:48:00.000-07:00

On le croyait mou, sans grande envergure, facilement manipulable. À la mort de Yasser Arafat, il avait été élu Président de l'Autorité Palestinienne par défaut en quelque sorte, parce que d'autres mieux placés que lui avaient été éliminés, soit par les Israéliens, soit par une faction rivale palestinienne. Mais parfois un homme politique se montre à la hauteur d'un événement historique qui agit comme un révélateur. Ce fut le cas de Mahmoud Abbas, et la chrysalide s'est métamorphosée en un très beau papillon. C'est ainsi un homme transformé par l'Histoire qu'on voit sur les photos remettre à Ban Ki Moon sa demande de reconnaissance par l'ONU du futur Etat palestinien, et ensuite à la tribune de l'Assemblée Générale de l'ONU, faire son discours d'une voix forte et sûre. On ne peut que s'en réjouir.

Zeki Ergas
SG, Pen Suisse Romande

Declaration of the Writers for Peace Committee at the 77th Congress of PEN International in Belgrade, September 2011

2011-09-20T15:18:00.000-07:00

We live in an age where a broad and systemic meaning is attributed to the idea of peace. It is conceived as the ability to confront conflicts and a willingness to shepherd open and potential violence into forms of dialogue, in spite of the difficulties involved in such an approach.

This is why our mission as writers is complex, as we must promote a culture of peace not only through our writings, but also as simple citizens of the world. Wherever there is oppression, colonization, or illegal occupation, injustice and violence, whatever the form it takes, peace is a challenge, which we must take up by helping to promote the power of citizens who are confronting the brutality of arbitrary systems.

Therefore, we stress the urgent need to have a viable negotiated solution between all the parties involved in Israel and Palestine, so that their peoples can live in self-determination, liberty, peace and security. A solution must be negotiated for those regions where respect for civil rights and self-determination cannot prevail until an agreement has been reached by the parties.

At the same time we are convinced that the solution to the cultural, linguistic, ethnic, social, and political conflicts in Tibet, in the land of the Uyghurs, Kurds, and Basques, in the Balkans, Mexico, and in so many other countries cannot be found without dialogue.

The Lugano Declaration of 1987, approved at the 50th Congress of International PEN, says that “There can be no freedom without peace, nor peace without freedom.” It also states that “terrorism must be condemned, whether it comes from states or individuals or whether it claims to be justified within the framework of a struggle for liberation.”

Our century should also pay urgent attention to the violent ways through which financial speculation has brought about the impoverishment of a large part of the world population, as well as the increased exploitation of natural resources, endamaging the global climate, and the violent attacks on nature and the environment. It is in this sense that the commitment to making peace always has a political aspect insofar as it is public; it should always be a part of human rights that have as their aim a self-determination that is responsible and cooperative. Nonetheless, it is our deep conviction that all the national PEN centres and above all the members of the Writers for Peace Committee (WfPC) should condemn terrorism and violence in all its forms. Indeed, the WfPC has kept the symbol of “the pen which conquers the sword.”,

Reading Norway, in quiet mourning

2011-08-02T13:28:00.000-07:00

Quoting the lines written by Anders Heger (the whole letter can be read under the link
http://www.norskpen.no/English/EnglishDetails/tabid/515/ArticleID/1088/Default.aspx),
one might ask whether sheer fanaticism, megalomania, xenophobia, need to outbreak in such a repulsing form in order to give peace a great chance. This is tragedy, and we are not used to tragedy, even if we perceive it in the satellite news, and not only in Oslo or Utoya:

I really wish you could have seen my city these days. So much is different, we are closer to each other, I am searching for a word to describe the atmosphere, and I can't find anything better than "dignity". Like when the mayor, the king and the prime minister all gave the same message: We are going to meet this the only way we can: With more openness, more democracy, more trust. Or the young survivor who summed it up, still standing shivering with a blanket around her: When one man can have such a hate, imagine how much love we all can create.

Each one of the killed young people could be our son, our daughter. But this is not the case of the assassin, who needs so badly media cover. Let us not give it to him. Let us further ask what we have done to fill the empty spaces between our homes, where we have raised peace-loving children, who respect all living beings, and the hate incubators. The issue may be more complicated that the insight that such creatures, which can kill young people in cold blood, had not enough love. It does not matter so much what such beings failed to get. It matters rather where our responsibility – not guilt – lies from now on.

Is it suitable to say now “All of us are Norwegians”? I do not know. Anyhow, I do not feel this way. And this has nothing to do with a deep concern about what happened to those wonderfully engaged girls and boys. Neither can we ever be sure that such a dreadful action would not happen elsewhere – it did often happen elsewhere, it will happen again elsewhere. Even next to our home – let us keep being realistic, most of all in order not to panic unnecessarily.

Have we become more vulnerable since July 22? I cannot answer to that – but would just like to wish that we have become more attentive to each sign of lack of communication, of isolation, of misunderstanding, all the situations that are thresholds of violence outbursts. But after the waves of violence, it is in our hands to keep moving within the waves of care for the world.

Statement of protest against the situation of the freedom of expression in Turkey

2011-05-16T10:20:00.000-07:00

Having observed with great anxiety the situation of the freedom of expression in Turkey,

we, writers representing more than 30 PEN centres from all over the world, gathered at the General Assembly of the Writers for Peace Committee of International PEN, held on the 7th of May 2011 in Bled (Slovenia),

strongly protest against measures infringing freedom of expression in Turkey and demand the immediate release of all detained journalists, writers and translators.

Moreover, we emphasize that the internet is a major area for the freedom of expression and this freedom must not be censored.

Edvard Kovač
Chair of the Writers for Peace Committee
PEN International

Statement upon education and culture

2011-05-16T09:53:00.000-07:00

On the occasion of the 43rd International Writers' Meeting at Bled, Slovenia, members of 31 PEN centres made the following statement:

We are saddened that some of the European and many other governments around the world are contemplating or are already actively engaged in cutting down on their spending on public education, including their funding for higher education, especially in the fields of arts, literature and social sciences.

Good writing depends on an educated readership and a critical appreciation of the ideas we try to put into our works which are traditionally provided by various university departments.

We firmly believe not only that our writing but also the future of our democracies depend on the critical skills taught to students at the institutions of higher knowledge. The fact is that even in the current crisis in many of our countries and states, the cost of education represents only a fraction of governmental budgets. Cuts into the living body of our most treasured humanist, philosophical, artistic and social science curricula cannot be justified on economic grounds.

Indeed we see these cuts as short-sighted and ruinous. They will do uncalculated damage not only to the institutions of knowledge as such but also to the capacities of our societies to renew and reinvent themselves through the use of the creative writing and reading skills of our young.

We ask you to do whatever possible to deter such policies and to help us present in all forms and languages the complexities of the world and our beings to an informed reading public in the future.

John Ralston Saul
President of International PEN

Hori Takeaki
General Secretary of International PEN

Marjan Strojan
President of Slovene PEN

Déclaration du Comité des Écrivains pour la Paix du Pen International sur le problème nucléaire

2011-05-11T13:18:00.000-07:00

Nous exprimons notre grande solidarité avec le PEN japonais et tout le peuple japonais qui souffre des conséquences de la catastrophe de Fukushima, ainsi qu’au peuple russe et ukrainien qui souffrent encore des effets de Tchernobyl.

L’information des citoyens sur les risques du nucléaire est capitale. Elle ne doit pas être confisquée par des experts oeuvrant pour une conception centralisatrice du pouvoir. La gestion du nucléaire ne doit pas être laissée de manière opaque à des sous-traitants. Il faut une transparence de débat au sein des parlements représentatifs. Des instances de réflexion sur le développement des énergies durables non productrices de CO2 doivent être constituées, auxquelles les citoyens seront associés.

Do visível e do invisível – os caminhos oblíquos da paz

2011-05-09T15:09:00.000-07:00

Acerca do 43º Encontro Internacional de Escritores em Bled, Eslovénia

entre 4 e 8 de Maio de 2011

Se me movo contra algo,

Algo que ecoa, algo impermeável,

Algo irreconhecível, separado, sem nada a ver

Comigo, algo vivo, algo de que me aproximo,

Na vida, e de que desde tempos remotos

Nunca acederia em mudar o nome.

(Karlo Hmeljak, n. 1983, do poema “Tirano da felicidade”)

Durante três dias, cerca de 83 escritores ligados a 33 Centros ou à direcção internacional do PEN debateram em torno de 3 temas: 1. Bibliodiversidade e o futuro da escrita, 2. Liberdade de expressão e censura visível e invisível, 3. A imagem do estrangeiro na literatura como caminho para a paz.

Os textos apresentados e reunidos no habitual caderno foram o fio condutor que se perdeu por vezes no labirinto das mais diversas posições, no cruzamento de várias inquietudes. As perspectivas apresentadas eram assim contraditórias, poliédricas. Para quase todos os oradoras da primeira secção, a bibliodiversidade digital é um resultado da explosão da liberdade política e económica, da aceleração intercomunicativa; a preocupação pelo futuro do livro dá lugar a uma interrogação sobre o futuro do texto literário, ao reconhecimento da necessidade de protecção de línguas e culturas minoritárias.

Numa descida em aproximação sobre o mapa das mudanças no século XXI, assiste-se à explosão, à exigência da liberdade de comunicação. À recordação dos tempos, não muito remotos, da censura exercida nos países do Leste europeu, vêm juntar-se a denúncia de novos tipos de censura (como a truncagem de conteúdos por influência de ideologias politicamente correctas), de condicionamentos impostos pelo mercado editorial ou por outras formas, brutais ou subtis, de mainstream mediático.

“Uma cabeça que se inclina reconhecendo, homo sum, mesmo na sua maior miséria e no instante do seu aniquilamento, não é a de um estrangeiro”, defendeu o esloveno Miha Pintarič. A fronteira frágil passa porventura entre as asserções rimbaudiana e sartriana, entre Je est un autre e L’enfer, c’est les autres. E porquê? Porque ver o Outro como indivíduo singular implica sempre uma encruzilhada dessa infinitude de aspectos que compõem qualquer personalidade, enquanto uma amálgama indiferenciada de “Outros” depressa se torna difusa, ameaçando aniquilar as singularidades.

Mas não será o livro do mundo, ao lermos a história da sua evolução que hoje nos surge como velociférica, um quadro vivo e fértil de faces plurais, um mosaico onde temos de organizar permanentemente a coexistência de alteridades como o livro digital e o livro impresso, a censura e a liberdade de expressão? O escritor, como foi repetidamente lembrado, é um peregrino por entre estranhos. Aqui, a ambiguidade do termo francês étranger não ajuda a clarificar, podendo tornar mais funda a brecha de inquietude que se pode sentir ao abordar o desonhecido – a menos que se seja possuído, como todo o artista, desse amor mundi que se desdobra e se prolonga em cada ser individual.

Por vezes tenho pena das pedras de museu

Forçadas a comportar com a imagem do homem.

(Bert Pribac, n. 1933, do poema “Estátuas”)

Houve ainda uma apresentação da biografia ficcionada de Maria, em tradução eslovena a partir do francês, tendo o seu autor, Marek Halter, atribuído à mãe de Jesus um carácter seguro de si e ambicioso quanto ao futuro do filho.

A reunião do Comité de Escritores para a Paz, que tem lugar no encontro anual de Bled, debruçou-se sobre as preocupações com o ambiente após a catástrofe japonesa, exigindo uma informação detalhada dos cidadãos por parte dos governos dos países sujeitos ao perigo nuclear. Estavam ainda na agenda questões como a situação da cultura e língua uyghur, as limitações à liberdade de expressão na Turquia e violência na Síria e a paz no Médio Oriente, num momento de viragem histórica propulsionada pelos movimentos em prol da liberdade nos países árabes. Pela primeira vez em muitos anos, ouviu-se a voz de uma escritora israelita e de outra palestiniana sentadas à mesma mesa, expressando um apoio incondicional à criação de um Estado palestiniano viável e à retoma imediata de negociações entre Israel e a Autoridade Palestiniana.

9.5.2011, TS

Foto: Memorial aos resistentes contra o nazismo na aldeia de Bohinj, nos Alpes meridionais

Un héros a été tué à Jénine

2011-04-13T09:14:00.000-07:00

La photo de Juliano Mer Khamis mort, assassiné, gisant dans son son sang, est insupportable. Il n'avait que 52 ans. Dans la fleur de l'âge. Il aurait pu encore donner beaucoup. Mais les fanatiques ont frappé. Sans pitié, sans humanité. Il avait un petit enfant, sa femme attendait des jumeaux. Tuer quelqu'un qui lutte pour la paix, pour la réconciliation des peuples israélien et palestinien, n'est pas un crime ordinaire. C'est une faute grave, une erreur impardonnable. Il n'y a pas longtemps, j'ai visité le Cinéma Jénine et le Centre Cunéo pour la Paix dirigé par Ismail Khatib qui lui aussi travaille avec des jeunes, garçons et filles, comme Juliano au Théâtre de la Liberté. Ismail avait décidé, avec sa femme, il y a plus de cinq ans, de faire don des organes vitaux de son fils de douze ans tué par balle par un soldat israélien à des enfants arabes et juifs. Plusieurs vies ont ainsi pu être sauvées. Certains d'entre nous ont vu le film Coeur de Jénine qui raconte cette histoire. Le monde a besoin, nous avons besoin, de héros comme Juliano et Ismail. La lutte pour la paix et la justice doit continuer envers et contre tout. L'abandonner serait une trahison.

Zeki Ergas, Centre PEN Suisse Romand

Just one unanswered question

2011-04-07T06:51:00.000-07:00

Is it possible to imagine what a murderer feels, while getting masked in order to kill someone who dares to put together boys and girls on the stage, which for some twisted minds is considered a crime?

We can just hear and read voices of sympathy, of shock, of sadness about the murder of Juliano Mer-Khamis, who has been cowardly assassinated on the 4th April 2011 in front of the theatre in the Jenin refugee camp. All around the world we are shaken by this wave of grief, of revolt, against fanaticism and the conditions that make it grow.

But today we just want to give the word to Juliano himself:

JULIANO MER-KHAMIS: My name is Juliano, and I’m the director of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin refugee camp. The Freedom Theatre is a venue to join the Palestinian people in their struggle for liberation. We believe that the Third Intifada, the coming intifada, should be cultural, with poetry, music, theatre, cameras and magazines.

This place never had a theatre. This place never was exposed to these arts. So, actually, we are building everything from scratch. We are building capacity, building of actors. We are building capacity, people of audience. You know, sometimes it’s easier to create actors than audience. We are dealing with the young generation to expose them to these arts.

The location of the Freedom Theatre—and don’t let this view to deceive you—we are sitting in the mid of the most attacked and poor refugee camp in Palestine: the refugee camp of Jenin. We are talking about almost 3,000 children under the age of 15 suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. It means they pee in their pants when they are 11. It means they cannot concentrate. They cannot deal with each other without violence.

O melhor anúncio em Israel e na Palestina

2011-02-24T07:48:00.000-08:00

Let us not forget, let us not get used

2011-02-16T10:31:00.000-08:00

Let us not forget, let us not get used

Hope must not be the evil thing that comes out of the Pandora box, if it can be tempered with anger (against injustice) and with memory. So may hope keep us active instead of crossing arms and legs in a soupy faith on the idea of destiny.

Some time ago we saw the moving history of Ismael Khatib, whose dead son saved the lives of other children because the father agreed upon the transplantation of the organs. The documentary by Marcus Vetter, Das Herz von Jenin, The Heart of Jenin (2008) shows us how the situation of people getting together, out of their own Weltansichten, may be as problematic and complex as a new organ living in a strange body.

The rebuilding of Cinema Jenin, with a huge amount of volunteer work, was just a step towards the normality of a new utopia of Cinema Paradiso, a cultural centre where people can meet again, make literary readings, see good films and spend peaceful evenings of open memories and fearless debates – of course also between Palestinians and Israelis. Remembering the words of Mahmoud Darwich: We just want to be normal citizens…

And now this film Nach der Stille, After the Silence, which we are eager to see, about the meeting between Yaël Chernobroda with the parents of the suicide bomber who killed her husband Dov, an architect and peace activist. She took an initiative which many of us do not know whether they could do it – yet knowing that it shows a hopeful path. Beyond all anger about useless violence, I allow myself to keep some warm memories, such as an evening of December 2010, when Yaël and I looked over her beautiful terrace view across the cypresses and agreed upon the project, even if it is utopian, to rebuild the railway from Haifa to Beirut.

If peace may be compared to a train, Yaël and the parents of Shadi Tobassi have built the first station, in the cold Berlin February.

16.2.2011

Teresa Salema

Um ou dois passos na frente de fogo – escritores e palavras para além das fronteiras, em Haifa de 1 a 4 de Dezembro de 2010

2010-12-08T08:02:00.000-08:00

Um ou dois passos na frente de fogo – escritores e palavras para além das fronteiras, em Haifa de 1 a 4 de Dezembro de 2010

Entre metáforas e considerações, a presença de cerca de 40 escritores coincidiu com o trágico incêndio que custou a vida a um número igual de pessoas e fez cancelar todas as festividades culturais e religiosas previstas para a celebração das três religiões monoteístas. Restou assim muita discussão e alguma leitura de textos, ambos de um pluralismo interrogante e buscando soluções para o diálogo que ali sobrou mas que sabíamos que faltava noutros lugares.

Alguém lembrou René Char e o seu texto Feuilles d’Hypnos, escrito em 1943 durante a Resistência contra o nazismo e a sua melancólica evocação de uma herança que já não traz consigo qualquer testamento.
Precisamos de um novo paradigma, de paz, de liberdade de expressão (para regiões onde não existe), de igualdade de direitos, de defesa do ambiente…

Mas esse paradigma não existe já, como herança para a qual não há receita testamentária? Alguém lembrou ainda: os escritores são os melhores gestores da inquietude – e mantê-la viva, representada e discutida, ajuda a impedir que ela se transforme em terrorismo.

Words Beyond Borders - Writers for Peace International Conference

Haifa, Israel, December 1-4, 2010

The International Conference of Writers for Peace took place in Haifa with 40 writers from 13 countries in attendance.

The objective of the conference was to discuss issues concerning peace and freedom of expression. It brought together people from many parts of the world to meet each other and become friends, if they weren't already.

The choice of time and place, coinciding with the Holiday of Holidays Festival—which celebrates Ed Al-Adha, Hannukah, and Christmas—underlines the intention to carry on a free and frank discussion of issues specific to the region.

Many themes were discussed in this spirit, such as Language of Writing, Literature Facing the Challenges of our Time—Environment and Peace, Liberty of Conscience and Freedom of Expression, Writers in Periods of Conflict, Human Rights. Writers from different places, with profoundly different opinions told their personal stories, but they were all united in understanding the necessity and urgency of searching for a peaceful solution to the problems of Israelis and Palestinians.

The reduced participation of Arab and Palestinian writers, despite the insistent invitations, remains an open issue. But such participation in future meetings is very necessary. Half of the hall should not be empty again.

Writers and intellectuals should continue to pursue dialogue with each other even in complex situations, making full use of freedom of expression and in complete independence of political authorities.

The main issues of the Haifa Conference can be summarized in the following three points:

1) Freedom of conscience is only a first step but no guarantee of freedom.

2) It remains to be seen whether Israeli and Palestinian writers will fight for freedom of expression to make peace or whether they will tolerate the various kinds of censorship.

3) If peace is to become a basic human right, it needs to be constructed through education, attention, dialogue, and artistic creation.

Similarly, during these last few days we have seen countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, and Greece sending assistance and support to Haifa to extinguish the fire that has ravaged the region and caused 40 deaths. Such solidarity reveals that there can always be a will to work together in emergency situations. If people are able to come together under such tragic conditions, they can also cooperate in order to make peace.

Bluma Finkelstein, Israel

Sylvestre Clancier, France

Edvard Kovač, Slovenia

A oliveira plantada pelos participantes do encontro, no pátio do Centro Cultural Judaico-Árabe Beit Hagefen

2010-06-20T17:06:00.001-07:00

http://enews.ferghana.ru/news.php?id=1750&mode=snews

Group of Central Asian writers addressed people of Kyrgyzstan urging them to stop violence

18.06.2010 16:21 msk

Ferghana.Ru

Dear citizens of Kyrgyzstan!

In the south of the country the terrible fighting has been continuing for the several days, in which our friends, familiars, relatives are dying. The fire of this conflict can spread in the whole country. Every minute it'll get more and more difficulties to stop it. The consequences might lead to destruction of Kyrgyz nation and state.

The bloodshed, which was in April when the White House was assaulted, united all people of Kyrgyzstan. The bloodshed now make precipice between people in Kyrgyzstan every minute wider and wider.

The citizens of Kyrgyzstan must stop this fight by themselves and return the life of cities and countries on the normal way.

Central Asian PEN, the writers of the region, regardless of their nationality, calling on all parties to the conflict, all freedom-loving and wise people of Kyrgyzstan to lay down weapons, stop violence, not to succumb to provocations and not to follow in the wake of destructive elements.

For the future of Kyrgyzstan. For the future of our children. For the sake of peace in Central Asia.

Dalmira Tilepbergenova, writer, director and president of the Central Asian PEN (Kyrgyzstan) Centre;

Vadim Murathanov, writer, member of the Central Asian PEN Centre;

Leila Kalaus, writer, artist, editor of the literary magazine "Bibliophile", a member of the joint venture in Kazakhstan, a member of the Central Asian PEN Centre;

Sanjar Yanyshev, writer;

Rabik Ismailov, member of the Uyghur PEN Center (Kazakhstan);

Smagul Elubaev, vice-president of the Kazakh PEN Center (Kazakhstan);

Kanat Kabrahmanov, a member of the Central Asian PEN Centre (Kazakhstan);

Topchugul Shaydullaeva, vice president of the Central Asian PEN Centre (Kyrgyzstan);

Mariam Aripova, member of the Central Asian PEN Centre (Tajikistan);

Bubu Tokoeva, member of the Central Asian PEN Centre (Kyrgyzstan).

Daniil Kislov, writer, editor in chief of the information agency "Fergana.Ru"

Statement of the Writers for Peace Committee of International PEN Concerning the Tragic Events of May 31, 2010

2010-06-14T02:34:00.001-07:00

Statement of the Writers for Peace Committee of International PEN Concerning the Tragic Events of May 31, 2010

Déclaration du Comité des écrivains pour la paix du PEN International par rapport aux événements tragiques du 31 Mai 2010

Declaración del Comité de los Escritores para la Paz del PEN Internacional sobre los acontecimientos trágicos del 31 de Mayo de 2010

The Writers for Peace Committee follows the Lugano Declaration in condemning individual terrorism as well as State terrorism; we declare that those who resort to violence, even for a good cause, „annul the missions to which they are dedicated and lose all claims to legitimacy” (quoted from the Statement of the 50th Congress of International PEN in Lugano, Switzerland, May 1987).

We declare that:

1. Nothing justifies the violence and murders that the army of the State of Israel have perpetrated against the people on the ships that brought humanitarian aid to Gaza. The use of firearms was entirely out of proportion and unsuitable as a response to the resistance put up by the people on board. We strongly condemn these murders and regret the deaths.

2. We protest against the grave violation of the right to freedom of expression of the journalists on board.

3. We demand that the government of the State of Israel agree that an international committee investigate and throw light on the events and establish responsibility.

4. To prevent the recurrence of such events, we demand that the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority accept the international monitoring of all ships so that the blockade can be lifted.

5. We ask that the two States, that of Israel which is already in existence, and that of the people of Palestine which has yet to be established as soon as possible, recognise one another. We believe that the only way to achieve the peaceful coexistence of the two States is through dialogue.

6. It is the role of the international community through its institutions to make this political dialogue possible. It must draw on the resources of the respective cultures, particularly the literary ones, of the two peoples whose writers are witnesses to peace and are committed to achieve it.

***

Le comité des écrivains conformément à la Déclaration de Lugano qui condamne le terrorisme individuel aussi bien que celui d'Etat en proclamant que ceux qui utilisent la violence, même pour une bonne cause, "rendent nulles les missions auxquelles ils sont consacrés et perdent tous leurs droits à la légitimité". (extrait des Déclarations du 50^ième Congrès International du PEN, Lugano, Suisse, Mai 1987)

Déclare que:

1. Rien ne justifie la violence et les meurtres que l'armée de l'Etat d'Israel a commis sur les navires apportant l'aide humanitaire à Gaza. L'utilisation des armes à feu a été tout à fait disproportionnée et inadéquate à la résistance et à l'agressivité des gens à bord. Nous condamnons vivement ces meurtres et nous regrettons les morts.

2. Nous protestons contre la violation sérieuse du droit à la liberté d'expression des journalistes à bord du navire.

3. Nous exigeons que le gouvernement de l'Etat d'Israël accepte la commission internationale pour éclairer les événements et établir la responsabilité.

4. Pour que ces événements ne se reproduisent plus, nous exigeons que l'Etat d'Israël et l'Autorité Palestinienne acceptent le contrôle international de tous les navires pour que le blocus soit levé.

5. Nous demandons que les deux Etats, celui d'Israël qui existe déjà et celui du peuple Palestinien qui devrait encore s'établir dans le meilleur délai, se reconnaissent réciproquement. Nous constatons que seul le chemin de dialogue représente la voie vers une coexistence pacifique des deux Etats.

6. La communauté internationale aves ses institutions a le rôle de rendre ce dialogue politique possible. Elle doit s'appuyer sur les ressources des cultures respectives, particulièrement littéraires, des deux peuples dont les écrivains ne cesseront jamais de porter le témoignage et de s’engager pour l’accomplissement de la paix.

***

El Comité de los Escritores para la Paz, en conformidad con la Declaración de Lugano que condena el terrorismo individual y también el terrorismo de Estado, proclamando que quienes utiliza la violencia, aunque sea por una buena causa, “anulan las misiones a las cuales se han consagrado y pierden todos sus derechos a la legitimidad” (extracto de las declaraciones del 50. Congreso Internacional del PEN, Lugano, Suiza, Mayo de 1987)

Declara que:

1. Nada justifica la violencia y los asesinatos que el ejército del Estado de Israel ha cometido sobre los navíos transportando ayuda humanitaria a Gaza. La utilización de armas de fuego ha sido completamente desproporcionada e inadecuada a la resistencia e a la eventual agresión verbal de las personas a bordo. Condenamos vivamente esos asesinatos y lamentamos las muertes.

2. Protestamos contra la seria violación del derecho a la libertad de expresión de los periodistas a bordo del navío.

3. Exigimos que el gobierno del Estado de Israel acepte la comisión internacional para esclarecer los acontecimientos y establecer la responsabilidad.

4. Para que esos acontecimientos no se reproduzcan más, exigimos que el Estado de Israel y la Autoridad Palestina acepten el control internacional de todos los navíos para que el bloqueo sea levantado.

5. Pedimos que los dos Estados, de Israel, que existe ya, y el del pueblo Palestino, que debería establecerse en el más corto plazo posible, se reconozcan recíprocamente. Constatamos que solamente el camino del dialogo representa la vía para una coexistencia pacífica de los dos Estados.

6. La comunidad internacional con sus instituciones tiene la tarea de tornar posible ese diálogo político. Ella debe apoyarse en las riquezas de las culturas respectivas, particularmente literarias, de los dos pueblos, cuyos escritores jamás cesarán de ser testigos y de empeñarse para la concretización da la paz.

14.06.2010

Edvard Kovač
President of the Writers for Peace Committee
Président du Comité des Écrivains pour la Paix du PEN International
Presidente del Comité de los Escritores para la Paz del PEN Internacional

Eugene Schoulgin
General Secretary of International PEN
Secrétaire Général du PEN International

Wishing for voice to be heard down the valley

2010-03-30T18:20:00.000-07:00

About the 42nd International Meeting
of the Writers for peace Committee,
between the 24th-28th.3.2010

Everything begins and ends with the word. The poetry reading by Renato Quaglia and Silvana Paletti in a dialect of the Resia Valley (in the border zone between Slovenia and Italy) opened the yearly meeting of the Writers for Peace Committee near the Bled Lake. Who does not wish to have his or her voice heard, who does not think that the discourses of dominant paradigms have already become worn out coins (as Nietzsche asserted), and that we urgently need invigorating voices to be echoed in the lacking regions of the world?

We all live in lacking regions – lacking of such sense which is built in friction with the material and human world, with that environment which wraps us. During three days, seventy-three writers from twenty-nine countries discussed problems related to globalization as an opportunity or a new colonization, to the consequences of such globalization for literature, to the day and night dreams as promoting or threatening peace. During three days the questions have been common, the answers have been diverse but not necessarily opposite.

Globalization? Globality? Mondialisation, in French meaning? The word games may get out of orbit and it is suitable to keep one’s feet on an earth which we wish to make worthier dwelling. As soon as one accepts the language of globalization, stressed the P.E.N. President, John Ralston Saul, we are talking about, and perhaps assuming an economic dimension which suffers under a false rationality. The role of the writers would therefore be placed in the heart of politics without falling into the exchangeable and worn out slogans of party and government politics, without becoming a victim of the functional network of economics. Literature, as Marketa Hejkalova stressed, is always a resistance focus, also through the minority character of many languages in which it is written. That’s why it should be multiplied with translations in numerous languages, so Francisco Belard, secretary of the Portuguese Centre.

We live, as the Slovene writer Miha Pintaric stressed, as if we had no boundaries. And the big world society should precisely incite us to face a plurality of alterities, so that we should be allowed to retrace permanently the fluid outlines of our identity, always fragile and permeable. To listen to the landscape that surrounds us, with its diversity of voices, human voices ant other.

We live, I would here add, as if we were invulnerable and immortal. As if we could gallop on the day dreams without letting them become nightmares, like the monsters that Goya’s reason engendered. About such things and much more we have heard the Albanese novelist Ismail Kadaré, who lives in Paris, speak. He read us a short story full of acid irony which was called “The dream bringer” and tells us about the terrible restrictions imposed to the liberty of managing space and memories.

We never leave the conflict focuses, which remain from one year to another our permanent concern – the lack of liberty of expression in Russia, the repression of the Uyghur culture through the Chinese government, and the Middle East, always. Bluma Finkelstein, an Israeli poet and a member of the French Centre, who lives in the pluricultural city of Haifa, where the three religions of the Book coexist side by side, defended the biblical necessity of becoming the guardians of our brothers. Someone’s face (whom we may hardly know) can only be defended by the resistance of the words. They are delicate weapons, but they do not quit facing the discourse of the dominant paradigms, which themselves already contains so many empty and shallow zones. Entela Kasi, form the Albanese Centre, evokes the memory of her grandmother, confined through the dictatorial regime to the limits of the family house and defending the invention of an alternative world.

But such inventions may become deadly, if they come out of fictions which are contaminated by an unbearable historical weight. In this way, the Israeli state would have seen its dream to land at last in its promised world corner become into the nightmare of repressing permanently many of the inhabitants of the occupied territories after the Six Days War, stressed Zeki Ergas from the French Swiss Centre. The awakening may be painful, according to the words of Amos Oz, absent yet present in the words of many participants, engaged in a struggle against all forms of fanaticism. It may be an awakening of amputated patients on a hospital bed, who little by little would learn to walk again, would learn to give each other the hands that might be paralyzed through the anesthesia of so many decades of ideological stubbornness. It may be hard to walk, even to move a finger, but the word cannot wait. And it was with a sign of hope that the bridges to a literature festival - “Words beyond borders” – began being built. It is expected to take place in December in Haifa.

Teresa Salema
Vice-Chair of the Writers for Peace Committee
President of the Portuguese PEN Centre
30th March 2010

Rencontres du Comité pour la Paix
du PEN Club

à BLED (SLOVENIE)

Peut-on rêver d'un tel berceau pour accueillir les rencontres du comité pour la paix du PEN club?

Paisibles sont les paysages cachés au cœur des montagnes slovènes

Paisibles sont les sourires de nos hôtes, accueillants et bienveillants

Paisible sont les mots empreints de tendresse que prononce Edvard Kovac

Paisibles sont les échanges des écrivains malgré thème ardu «Littérature et globalisation» ou la paix entre rêves diurnes et rêves nocturnes.

C'est dans cet «entre» du lac et de la montagne qu'on peut imaginer le miracle de la paix. Miracle-mirage au sens où le lac miroite l'abrupt du rocher mais dilue sa rugosité en nuances bleutées qui se succèdent comme autant de vagues, qui le polissent de la même façon que les débats se succèdent et policent, se creusent et s'apaisent dans la richesse de la diversité des interventions.

Il semble qu'au plus fort des tempêtes de plume, les vagues ne puissent trouver apaisement, pourtant le miracle se produit sur des espaces très simples : écoute, respect, affabilité qui puisent à la source de l'art de vivre slovène.

Nous avons expérimenté cet art de vivre nous lorsque retournant aux valeurs de la terre, nous avons visité une ferme coopérative qui accueille les touristes et leur offrent le cadre soigné de la montagne, la restauration où la beauté des plats s'allie avec le goût d'un terroir qui se revivifie. Le présent puise dans le meilleur du passé, le réinvente et ces innovations de l'organisation agricole sont propices à l'échange, au dialogue.

Alors surgissent les mots «société-monde, peuple-monde» dans les interventions des écrivains qui s'opposent aux constats terrifiants qui menacent la planète.

Ce constat a été dit, répété au cours des interventions mais quelques grands principes ont été rappelés: «l'écrivain a une responsabilité et un devoir envers le peuple» écrit Assel Omar du PEN de Russie, car ajoute-t-elle : «tous les peuples du monde ont les mêmes problèmes et les mêmes joies». C'est bien cet universalisme qui rapproche les peuples et leurs écrivains. Ce rêve, Edvard Kovac nous le conte «la lumière du regard de l'Autre a réveillé sa pensée et sa parole» mais réaliste il nous dit «notre époque est méfiante envers les utopies». Bien des interventions ont stigmatisé le rationalisme instrumental jusqu’à ce que John Ralston Saul, Président du PEN International vienne insuffler la nécessité de d'une raison qui doute et de forces qui font équilibre: l'intuition, l'éthique etc. , cet équilibre des forces peut seul empêcher les tyrannies et les intégrismes, tout comme le travail de la langue est le devoir premier de l'écrivain, travail de la langue qui doit sans cesse combattre celui de la communication réductrice, de la bureaucratie sans imagination et de la traduction sans âme.

«L'écrivain actuel vise le mot authentique» écrit Edvard Kovac, ce mot authentique, nous l'avons écouté en l'invité d'honneur Ismael Kadaré qui honoré de sa présence ces rencontres et dont le livre «le château des rêves» vient d'être traduit en slovène.

Dans la soirée de lecture, entretien et musique, offerte par la municipalité de Ljubljana, nous avons saisi, anticipé les mots de Bluma Finkelstein de Galilée qui nous rappelé que la paix sans justice ne veut rien dire et dont le texte a développe l'idée «je suis le gardien de mon frère».

L'histoire nous rappelle Francisco Belard (Portugal) c'est le rêve d'un seul monde, de cent littératures, de mille langues, des écrivains et partout des traducteurs pour les langues minoritaires, qu'elle soit Ouïgour en Chine, hongroise en Slovaquie mais surtout c'est le rêve de paix qui traverse l'humanité depuis Jaurès, Ganghi, Matin Luther King ainsi que le rappelle Sylvestre Clancier.

Art de vivre des slovènes décliné lors des soirées poétiques et musicales où l'art baroque réunissait musiciens et chanteurs dans le cadre du très beau chanteau de Bogensperk, berceau d'autres rêves intellectuels qui puisent leurs inspirations de la montagne, de la forêt et de la rivière, pour les universaliser.

Autant de bains paisibles qui ont accompagné chacun des membres réunis, attention envers l'autre jusque dans la dispute qui s'ouvre tolérante à l'autre tout en restant ferme.

Se parler, échanger, se confier parfois et rire...ressentir, rêver, vivre ensemble, tels ont été les verbes de cette rencontre.

A chaque heure le lac s'éclairait d'une lumière nouvelle, d'une tendresse nouvelle. Ils sont rares les moments de grâce où la paix prend corps dans un ressenti individuel et collectif, une respiration où le temps coule plus doucement, où la beauté, la bonté et la justice remplacent la laideur, la méchanceté et la violence, où se réconcilient le doute et la raison, l'utopie et la sagesse, l'inscription de mots réels dans un devenir où la rencontre se renouvelle, belle et simple telle la jeune femme chantant la « douce mémoire » de Diego Ortiz et en attente du mal d'amour pour s'envoler.

Un immense merci AU PEN Slovène et à tous les participants qui ont permis d'être ensemble des artisans de la paix.

Nicole Barrière

Secrétaire générale adjointe PEN France

42e. Conférence Internationale

Comité des Écrivains pour la Paix

(BLED, SLOVENIE 24-29 Mars 2010)

° 73 écrivains venus de 29 centres différents – représentant pays, régions, cultures et langues … ;

° 3 tables rondes – sur : l’économie politique de la globalisation, la littérature et la globalisation, et les rêves diurnes et nocturnes de la paix, notamment au Moyen orient;

° 1 grande réunion du Comité des écrivains pour la paix – avec la participation active de nombreux centres, ainsi que John Saul, le nouveau président et Eugene Schoulgin, le SI;

° 2 réunions informelles de préparation - dont une pour la conférence, Mots au-delà des frontières, à Haïfa, en décembre 2010

- avec la participation d’écrivains du bassin méditerranéen : arabes, musulmans, juifs et chrétiens pour promouvoir la paix et la compréhension dans la région;

° la présence d’Ismail Kadaré, le grand écrivain albanais, comme hôte d’honneur – une interview par Edvard Kovac dans laquelle il a rappelé que toutes les dictatures, les régimes totalitaires tentent de contrôler les rêves et l’imagination des peuples, mais que cette tentative est toujours vouée à l’échec, car impossible…;

° réception par Mr. Danilo Türk, le président de la république slovène - qui en tant qu’ancien haut fonctionnaire de l’ONU connaît bien le problème de la globalisation et en a parlé avec beaucoup de compétence dans son discours;

° la visite du château de Bogensperk avec un concert de musique baroque de haute qualité par le Trio Domen Marincic – dont la découverte agréable que l’adorable chanteuse qui attend un bébé est la fille de Morjan Strojan, le président du pen slovène…;

° les nombreux repas pris en compagnie d’anciens amis et collègues qu’on a la joie de retrouver, et de nouveaux amis et collègues qu’on a le plaisir de découvrir…

C’est tout ça la conférence du Comité pour la paix de Bled, et plus, beaucoup plus …

Il m’a semblé que deux thèmes ont particulièrement retenu l’attention des conférenciers, mais j’avoue un certain parti-pris…:

1. l’ancien paradigme basé sur la croissance illimitée, le profit et le marché n’étant plus durable et viable, il est indispensable de le remplacer par un nouveau paradigme basé sur la croissance qualitative, la justice et la compréhension mutuelle. Nous les écrivains avons un rôle important à jouer : nous devons créer un nouveau langage qui exprime les valeurs de ce nouveau paradigme. Ce qui signifie que nous devons rejeter le langage creux, vide de sens et rationaliste des technocrates, des managers et des économistes qui ne sert que les intérêts d’une minorité de privilégiés, et qui est en train de mener le monde et la planète à une destruction certaine. Nous les écrivains avons la responsabilité de créer un nouveau langage vrai, authentique et viable dans les cultures, langues et valeurs minoritaires, y compris celles des peuples indigènes et aborigènes…

2. En ce qui concerne la paix au Moyen-orient, la solution des deux Etats étant soutenue par pratiquement tous les acteurs, Pen International doit jouer son rôle évident qui est de travailler pour la participation active des Pens israélien et palestinien dans cette solution. Le Pen israélien doit pratiquement être reconstruit de toutes pièces. La conférence de Haïfa peut et doit servir à cette reconstruction. Quant au Pen palestinien, des problèmes politiques existent et nous avons regretté l’absence de Hannan Awwad. Mais dans une lettre d’excuses à Edvard Kovac, la présidente du Pen palestinien a fourni des raisons valables pour cette absence : alors qu’elle se préparait à partir, elle a été convoquée d’urgence par Salam Fayyad, le premier ministre palestinien, pour une réunion dont le thème était l’élaboration d’une Charte dans laquelle la liberté d’expression occupera une place d’honneur. Donc : primo, il y a des invitations qu’on ne peut pas refuser ; et secundo, c’est une très bonne nouvelle pour les relations entre le Pen International, le Pen palestinien et le (futur) Pen israélien.

Pour conclure, j’aimerais terminer ce rapport avec deux remarques personnelles : c’était un véritable honneur pour moi de lire le message de Hannan Awwad, Peace Between Dream and Reality (merci à Edvard de l’avoir proposé); et de converser en turc avec mon ami Kaiser Özhun, le président du centre uyghur.

L’année prochaine à … Bled (si Dieu le veut …)

Zeki Ergas
Secrétaire Général
Centre Pen Suisse Romand

Cinema Paradiso...

2010-02-22T21:12:00.000-08:00

...ou como a normalidade, para muitos de nós uma evidência, pode renascer em Jenin.

In 2005, Ismael’s 11 year old son Ahmed was shot down by the Israeli army. Despite his grief, Ismael decides to donate his son’s organs to Israeli children thus saving their lives. One and a half years after his decision, Ismael travels through Israel to meet the children he has helped and their families. It is a journey through a territory marked by prejudice.
A year later, still deeply affected by his son’s death, Ismael opens a cultural center for the children of the camp as an alternative for their street life. Thanks to foreign donations, the center starts providing many activities among which film courses are given. After a while, the children want to produce their first short film, only to realize that they have no place to show it in. The only cinema in town was closed more than twenty years ago. The decision emerges to reopen the cinema. Marcus Vetter, the director of "Heart of Jenin" and Fakhri Hamad and Ismael Khatib decide together to launch the "Project Cinema Jenin" and open the cinema again.

The resurrection of Cinema Jenin has enormous dramatic potential and its story will be told in the form of a documentary which follows a parallel process where the children of the camp make a film about their lives. At the same time they are taking part in reopening what would become their future stage.
More about the project.

Saudação do Paquistão

2009-12-28T14:48:00.000-08:00

Mensagem enviada em 28 de Dezembro de 2009 por Syeda Henna Babar Ali, Presidente do Centro do PEN do Paquistão:

Peace requires tolerance and a large heart to accomodate difference. It means we need to understand the hardship of others, to feel compassion what others suffer and the price they pay so that others can have peace. Pakistan has known no peace since 1979, this year there have been 470 bomb blasts and several thousand people dead, families destroyed, property destroyed. We all want peace, we want the war on terror to end and we want the terrorists to leave our country forever. We will have no peace while there is poverty, inequality, huge disparity of income, lack of opportunity for the masses, illiteracy and a public educational system which does not teach critical thinking or analysis and does not develop the full intellectual capacity of young minds. The youth of Pakistan is bright, young, promising and vibrant, they want a better future for themselves and their country, they want peace, harmony and a good life for themselves and their families just as the developed countries of the Western world, Asia or the Middle East. Yes, we can bring peace to Pakistan through a better system of education, which will empower the youth, encourage them to become young entrepreneurs and create jobs for themselves. Prosperity brings hope tolerance and PEACE.

Aos Colegas do P.E.N. e a todos os que amam a Paz...

2009-12-22T08:14:00.000-08:00

...mas que sabem que ela se conquista em cada gesto quotidiano e no conhecimento dos efeitos da sua ausência:

Desejamos a todos uma quadra com muita luz interior, que tem origens várias: razão, intuição, empenhamento no mundo. Muitos de nós, na face da terra e noutros Centros P.E.N., não poderão talvez juntar-se aos seres que amam devido a obstáculos que um pouco mais de razão, de intuição e de empenhamento no mundo tornariam desnecessários. Esperamos que o nosso trabalho, baseado numa comunicação e acção empenhadas, contribua para abolir em 2010 muitas barreiras ainda existentes, no interior e no exterior de cada um de nós - e para isso cada gesto consciente conta em cada momento, não apenas nesta quadra.

Saudações calorosas de Teresa Salema (Presidente do Centro do P.E.N. Português e Vice-Presidente do Comité de Escritores para a Paz do P.E.N. Internacional)

To the P.E.N. Colleagues ant to all those who love Peace but also know that it must be conquered in each daily gesture and in the knowledge of the effects of its absence:

We wish you all a season with lots of inner light, which comes from different sources: reason, intuition, engagement for the sake of the world. Many of us on Earth and also in other P.E.N. Centres will not be able to join their beloved ones due to obstacles that would turn out to be unnecessary with a little bit more reason, intuition and engagement for the sake of the world. We hope that our work, based upon an engaged communication and action, may contribute to abolish in the New Year many barriers that still exist, in the interior and the exterior of each of us – and for this each conscientious gesture counts every moment, not only in this season.

Warm greetings from Teresa Salema (President of the Portuguese P.E.N. Centre and Vice-President of the Writers for Peace Committee of International P.E.N.)

Aux Collègues du P.E.N. et à tous ceux qui aiment la Paix mais qui savent aussi qu’elle doit être conquise avec chaque geste quotidien et en connaissance des effets de son absence :

Nous souhaitons à tous une saison avec beaucoup de lumière intérieure, qui vient de différentes sources : raison, intuition, engagement au monde. Beaucoup d’entre nous sur la terre et dans d’autres Centres P.E.N. ne pourront peut-être pas joindre les êtres aimés à cause de quelques obstacles qu’un peu plus de raison, d’intuition et d’engagement au monde rendrait inutiles. Nous espérons que notre travail, basé sur une communication et action engagées, puisse contribuer pour abolir en 2010 beaucoup de barrières encore existantes, à l’intérieur et à l’extérieur de chacun de nous – et pour cela chaque geste compte à chaque moment, pas seulement pendant cette saison.

Saluts chaleureux de Teresa Salema (Présidente du Centre P.E.N. Portugais et Vice-Présidente du Comité des Écrivains pour la Paix du P.E.N. International)

Depoimento de George Monbiot, jornalista do jornal britânico The Guardian, no encerramento da conferência de Copenhaga (19.12.2009)

2009-12-21T07:45:00.001-08:00

At no point has the injustice at the heart of multilateralism been addressed or even acknowledged: the interests of states and the interests of the world's people are not the same. Often they are diametrically opposed. In this case, most rich and rapidly developing states have sought through these talks to seize as great a chunk of the atmosphere for themselves as they can – to grab bigger rights to pollute than their competitors. The process couldn't have been better designed to produce the wrong results.

I spent most of my time at the Klimaforum, the alternative conference set up by just four paid staff, which 50,000 people attended without a hitch. (I know which team I would put in charge of saving the planet.) There the barrister Polly Higgins laid out a different approach. Her declaration of planetary rights invests ecosystems with similar legal safeguards to those won by humans after the second world war. It changes the legal relationship between humans, the atmosphere and the biosphere from ownership to stewardship. It creates a global framework for negotiation which gives nation states less discretion to dispose of ecosystems and the people who depend on them.

Even before the farce in Copenhagen began it was looking like it might be too late to prevent two or more degrees of global warming. The nation states, pursuing their own interests, have each been passing the parcel of responsibility since they decided to take action in 1992. We have now lost 17 precious years, possibly the only years in which climate breakdown could have been prevented. This has not happened by accident: it is the result of a systematic campaign of sabotage by certain states, driven and promoted by the energy industries. This idiocy has been aided and abetted by the nations characterized, until now, as the good guys: those that have made firm commitments, only to invalidate them with loopholes, false accounting and outsourcing. In all cases immediate self-interest has trumped the long-term welfare of humankind. Corporate profits and political expediency have proved more urgent considerations than either the natural world or human civilization. Our political systems are incapable of discharging the main function of government: to protect us from each other.

And should we care…?

2009-12-10T11:36:00.000-08:00

On the day of Human Rights, should we care about the breaking of some protocol rules by Barack Obama in Oslo, or about the life of Aminatou Haidar, suspended on the thread of our silence and risking to fade under our incapacity to tell our anger to the ears that lead directly to the heads which can decide, to the hands which are able to act quickly?

On the day of Human Rights, should we care about the statement of the general-director of Amnesty International in Portugal, who finds it even possible that sending troops to Afghanistan could be a means for the sake of peace in the region, or about the lack of water in many Palestinian homes, at the same time as Israeli settlers declare themselves openly to be against the freezing of the settlements in East Jerusalem?

What should we really care about, if not the insustainability of too many situations on our planet, much more than our private soul can handle with? Listening to the beautiful song by Clint Eastwood, yet we have a feeling that it means more that the concerns of our private sphere – we are inevitably connected with all the world, let us not only hope for the better. Getting angry against injustice may be a pretty good first step to get energy to act – about how to act, there is no receipt, no formula, no way put the path.

10.12.2009

Teresa Salema

2009-11-27T10:30:00.001-08:00

For the sake of a sustainable life

APPEAL of the Writers for Peace Committee 2009

« Writers, International PEN members, conscious that one of our fundamental principles leads us to work for peace, conscious of our imperative duty of humaneness, we are calling on the conscience of world leaders.

It is indeed fundamental and urgent, for the survival of mankind with dignity and for the survival of our planet, to make all world citizens, beginning with our leaders, aware of the situation of extreme vulnerability in which the human species and all other species find themselves today.

Deforestation, environmental degradation, and pollution in various forms are massive and will soon be irreversible.

Population explosion, global warming, lower water tables, are all of concern.

The proliferation of weapons of mass destruction is proven. Resources are shared less and less. Inequalities in all areas, especially in access to health care and education, are growing, as are poverty and malnutrition.

Many of the human rights stated in the Universal Charter ratified by the United Nations are not being respected in numerous countries, at a time when the importance of highlighting new rights, such as the right to peace, has arisen.

Living beings should not become a trade commodity, any more than air should be taxed.

The right to water for all in this world should be considered as an ethical principle, a categorical imperative as defined by Kant, an irrefragable right.

The use of renewable energy should be favoured and developed everywhere, as should be the rights to education, to work, to leisure activities and to culture for all.

All these rights should be recognized as patrimonial rights worldwide.

The issue in question is the capacity of mankind to think the world, to understand that there is only one world which is our shared asset.

We need to change our benchmark of what is progress, and invent a new paradigm, as true progress for humankind is still conceivable; it is linked to the real achievement of all the above mentioned rights, which should govern the organisation of a new world order, that of a sustainable and supportive planet.

Yes, it is urgent to accelerate the achievement of real democratic societies, ensuring for their citizens total freedom of conscience and the full use of all their patrimonial rights.

We appeal, with all our hearts, for the achievement of such societies, able to federate in order to share freely the governance of our planet.

We are launching this appeal to our leaders to incite them to work in this direction, as we are aware that scientific and technical progress do not automatically bring social and cultural progress for all.

We, writers, members of International PEN, recognize that real progress is linked to sharing, and therefore to the sharing of universal ethical values which alone will allow all humankind to share wealth equitably with mutual respect, meaning with respect for the planet and for future generations ».

Writers for Peace Committe (International PEN)

Des regrets aussi, mais pour aller en avant

2009-11-23T09:41:00.000-08:00

Des regrets aussi, mais pour aller en avant

Connaissons-nous toutes les héritages que nous utilisons à jour le jour ? Il paraît que l’expression « pleurer sur du lait renversé », si fréquente au Portugal, est d’origine juive, ce qui ne nous étonnerait pas, vu tous les siècles de présence de cette culture, même sous le manteau de fer de l’Inquisition et surtout dans les villages de l’intérieur du pays, ou sous le masque d’une identité de « nouveaux-chrétiens ». En tout cas : il y a des moments où nous avons simplement envie de simplifier ce qui est complexe, face à l’intransigeance d’un gouvernement que chaque jour, avec chaque nouvelle pierre sur un nouveau bâtiment, montre la certitude de pouvoir mettre en cause ce qui serait pourtant la seule solution pour la paix entre deux peuples, la coexistence de deux États, israélien et palestinien (je suis ici l’ordre chronologique, l’ordre alphabétique).

Il faut une forte dose, disons peut-être une overdose de irréalisme pour exiger le possible, tout en renversant, pas le lait mais un des mots d’ordre les plus emblématiques du Mai 68. Mais en revenant à l’image du lait, on se souvient aussi de Heinrich Heine qui comparait, dans la première moitié du dix-neuvième siècle, la vie des allemands à des cheveux qui nageaient paisiblement dans un pot de lait et la vie des français à des mouches qui luttaient furieusement pour rester à la surface du liquide. En effet, nous européens nous multiplions, presque toujours paisiblement, en déclarations de solidarité pour le peuple des territoires occupés en Cisjordanie et encerclés à Gaza, en proclamations pour la paix au Moyen Orient, tandis que dans ces mêmes territoires les gens se heurtent chaque instant. Pas seulement aux check points mais surtout contre les hauts murs de leurs propres certitudes solipsistes, d’un côté et de l’autre.

Pas d’illusions : tandis que des deux côtés du mur palestinien dominent les sourds-muets, les humiliations quotidiennes, l’insécurité et la précarité porteront la parole.

Ce qu’il faut justement c’est essayer le dialogue, même si l’on commence par parler contre des murs. Mais essayer de parler, n’est-ce pas mieux que de se lamenter, de jeter des pierres, de se faire sauter ? Il y aura un jour, Amos Oz nous le rappelle, où l’israélien et le palestinien pourront se donner les mains après avoir fait de douloureuses concessions mutuelles. Ce seront, peut-être, déjà des générations qui ne seront plus dominés par le fanatisme. Mais elles sont déjà là – bien que peu nombreuses encore.

Teresa Salema, 21.11.2009