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S. Mesi: Address to Summit 2022, Session IXa
Written by H.E. Senida Mesi, deputy prime minister, Albania (2017-2019)
Saturday, August 13, 2022
Address to Summit 2022 and Leadership Conference,
Seoul, Korea, August 11-15, 2022
Greetings, everybody. I'm thrilled to be here. It's the first time for me participating in such a big event of the Universal Peace Federation. In fact, I would like to thank two special persons who introduced me to this excellent network, one of whom is sitting in front of me. Thank you very much, Jacques Marion [UPF co-chair for Europe and the Middle East]. And special thanks also to Mark Brann [UPF vice president for Europe and the Middle East], who was my first contact with the Universal Peace Federation.
I heard a lot of speeches today. I cannot promise that I heard all, but some of them remain in my mind, and some of them remain in my heart. They remind me of how the human race developed through all the years and of a specific moment when humans developed from a hunter-gatherer society to an agricultural society.
There can be a lot of reasons, but one of the reasons why they settled down and began discussing together was that between them there was a fire. Because of the Ice Age, they sat down around a fire and they started to communicate. If you read history, you see that suddenly they moved from simple communication into more complicated languages.
That reminds me of what we are doing here, because at the end of the day we are listening to each other, we are creating circles of communication. But I do believe that the fire, the passion that we have here is because everybody here is a peace lover. So definitely this brings us to not simply talk with each other, but through this talking to communicate even what we love the most and how we can proceed further.
Going a little bit back in the panel, I would like to thank all the panelists and also the moderator, Dr. Thomas Selover. I listened very carefully and read what Thomas McDevitt presented to us. Gerard Willis went into a little bit of detail into the economic models, and a businessman, Jim Rogers, expressed the connection of economy and the media.
Everybody can say what the role of the media is. At the end of the day, however, the role of the media is to inform, to seek the truth, to fight for the truth, and always present the truth. The media have a huge impact on different spheres and dimensions of our lives. They have an impact on governmental issues and political issues. They can help a lot of politicians to win votes.
Politicians have a love-hate relationship with the media. If the media are saying good words about us, then we love the media. If the media are saying bad things about us, then we hate the media. But if media are saying the truth and seeking the truth, then definitely we respect that kind of media.
Media have a lot of impact even on the social component. They give information to people not simply how to behave, but where to seek opportunities. And this is creating more and equal development. People have much more information through a very much developed and very professional media.
Definitely the media have an impact on the economy. They give accurate information about investments. Mr. Rogers already gave us a lot of good approaches, and I took some notes on where to invest. But even good media can do that, if you trust that media. But the problem is that you need to read a lot of media in order to really get your own truth. This is sometimes very tiring, because you need to read a lot—not only locally but also regionally and internationally—to really find the truth.
As they say, the devil is hidden between the lines. So you need to read a lot between the lines. The media can facilitate economic development. They can give information about the monitoring of economic policy development and show which economic policies and strategies are effective and which are not.
The right question is: Are the media informing or are the media focused on infotainment? Actually, the media are much more interested in gossip, in giving sensational news, because they need the “clicks,” they need the readers, they need the “likes” in order to grow. The dilemma in this case would be that if you don't read the media, then probably you are uninformed. But if you read certain media, then probably you are misinformed.
I heard a quote once from Reverend Moon in which he said that The Washington Times is not part of the media but is a crusade. And this is the question that all the media need to ask themselves: What is my role? What is the purpose—to seek the truth and to fight for the truth, or to become the next corporation? Thank you very much.
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