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Le Monde diplomatique <br><br>
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August 2004<br><br>
Superducks and underducks<br><br>
by Eduardo Galeano<br><br>
EVERY day we spend $2.2bn on killing each other.
Global<br>
military spending in effect pays for huge
hunting parties in<br>
which hunter and hunted are of the same species;
the winner<br>
is whoever kills the biggest number of his
peers. Think how<br>
all this money could better be spent to provide
food,<br>
education and healthcare for deprived children
worldwide.<br><br>
The first impression is that such vast
expenditure on arms is<br>
grotesque. Does it appear more justified if we
look closely<br>
at the context? The official line is that the
wastage is<br>
essential to the global war on terror. Yet
common sense<br>
suggests that terrorists are grateful for the
many weapons in<br>
circulation and so much military action under
way. The wars<br>
in Afghanistan and Iraq have greatly stimulated
terrorism:<br>
you do not need to be a statistician to notice
the increasing<br>
number of attacks. Wars are state terrorism,
which feeds and<br>
is fed by private terrorism.<br><br>
Recent figures have shown signs of a recovery in
the economy<br>
of the United States, with growth returning to a
satisfactory<br>
level. Many experts agree that this growth would
be much<br>
weaker without funds released in connection with
the war in<br>
Iraq. Invading Mesopotamia was great news for
the US economy.<br>
It was not such great news for those who died or
their<br>
relations. Which makes more sense: the economic
statistics or<br>
the voice of Spanish politician Julio Anguita,
speaking as a<br>
grieving father, who said "a curse on this
war and all wars"<br>
(1)?<br><br>
The five largest arms producers are the US,
Russia, China,<br>
the United Kingdom and France. They are also the
countries<br>
with a veto in the United Nations Security
Council. It<br>
insults common sense to make those who provide
the world's<br>
weapons the guarantors of world peace.<br><br>
These five countries are in charge. They run
the<br>
International Monetary Fund and all (except
China) are among<br>
the eight countries that take most key decisions
at the World<br>
Bank and the World Trade Organisation, where the
right of<br>
veto exists but is never used. Surely it would
be common<br>
sense for the struggle for world democracy to
begin with the<br>
democratisation of international organisations.
But common<br>
sense hardly has a chance to be heard, let alone
vote.<br><br>
Many of the worst crimes and injustices on earth
are carried<br>
out through these three international
organisations: the IMF,<br>
World Bank and WTO. Their victims are the
disappeared - not<br>
the people who vanished under military
dictatorships but the<br>
things that have gone under democracy. Over the
past few<br>
years, my country, Uruguay, has seen jobs,
decent wages,<br>
pensions, factories, lands and even rivers
disappear. The<br>
story is the same all over Latin America and in
many other<br>
regions. We are even seeing our children
disappear, reversing<br>
their forebears' emigrant dreams and heading for
Europe and<br>
elsewhere. Does common sense tell us that we
have to endure<br>
avoidable suffering and accept these tragedies
as the work of<br>
fate?<br><br>
Little by little, the world is getting less and
less fair.<br>
True, the difference between a woman's salary
and that of a<br>
man is not quite the gap it once was. But at the
current<br>
sluggish rate of progress, wage equality between
men and<br>
women will not be reached for 475 years. Common
sense does<br>
not advise us to wait for it to happen: as far
as I know,<br>
women do not live that long.<br><br>
True education, based on common sense and
leading to it,<br>
tells us we must fight to regain what has been
taken from us.<br>
The Catalan bishop Pedro Casaldaliga (2) has
worked for many<br>
years in the heart of the rainforest in Mato
Grosso, one of<br>
the poorest states in Brazil. He says that it
may be true<br>
that if you give a man a fish you feed him for a
day while if<br>
you teach him to fish you feed him for life; but
there is no<br>
point teaching anyone to fish when the rivers
have all been<br>
poisoned or sold.<br><br>
A circus trainer teaches bears to dance by
hitting them on<br>
the neck with a spiked stick. If they dance
correctly; the<br>
trainer stops hitting them and they get fed. If
not, the<br>
torture continues, and the bears go back to
their cages<br>
hungry. The bears dance for fear of blows and of
going<br>
hungry. To the trainer, this is good sense. But
do the bears<br>
see it that way?<br><br>
After the second hijacked plane of 9/11 hit the
second tower<br>
of the World Trade Centre, it began to
disintegrate; people<br>
rushed to the stairs to get out quickly. A
Tannoy message<br>
ordered all workers to return to their desks.
Workers had to<br>
use their common sense: no one who obeyed that
order can have<br>
survived.<br><br>
To save ourselves, we must work together. Like
ducks in the<br>
same covey. Collective flying works like this: a
duck sets<br>
off and makes way for two others, who are then
followed by<br>
another pair, whose energy inspires a fourth
pair to join,<br>
and so on, so that the ducks fly in an elegant V
formation.<br>
Each duck at some time flies both at the head of
this V and<br>
at its tail. According to my friend Juan Diaz
Bordenave (3),<br>
who is no palmipedologist but still knows what
he is talking<br>
about, no duck ever felt like a superduck when
it was heading<br>
the V nor like an underduck flying at the tail.
At least<br>
ducks have kept their common sense.<br>
________________________________________________________<br><br>
* Eduardo Galeano is a Uruguayan writer and
journalist. His<br>
(Memory of Fire<br>
trilogy (1985-89) was published in English by
Quartet, London<br>
and WW Norton, New York. His most recent book
published in<br>
English is Upside Down: a Primer for the
Looking-glass World<br>
(Picador), New York, 2000.<br><br>
(1) Julio Anguita Parrado was the son of Julio
Anguita, the<br>
former leader of Spain's Izquierda Unida (United
Left); he<br>
was a journalist for the Madrid newspaper El
Mundo, embedded<br>
with US soldiers in Iraq. He was killed by an
Iraqi missile<br>
in Baghdad on 7 April 2003.<br><br>
(2) Bishop Pedro Casaldaliga, born in 1928, has
held the<br>
bishopric of Saõ Felix de Araguaia for 35 years.
In 1992 he<br>
was nominated for the Nobel Peace
Prize.<br><br>
(3) Juan Enrique Diaz Bordenave is from
Paraguay, an<br>
essayist, media expert and author of
Comunicación y Sociedad,<br>
Busqueda, Buenos Aires, 1985.<br><br>
<br><br>
Translated by Gulliver Cragg<br>
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