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H. Benedetto: Address to World Summit 2022, Session VI
Written by Hon. Humberto Benedetto, Member of Parliament, Argentina
Saturday, February 12, 2022
Address to World Summit
February 11-13, 2022
First of all, I want to greet those who are participating in this international event and thank the UPF of Argentina and South America for allowing me to be part of this panel. I also want to especially greet the Mother, and the great team that accompanies her, through whose efforts and beyond all circumstances, we can be part of this wonderful global initiative.
In my country, the Argentine Republic, there is a tango that says that 20 years is nothing. It may be true, but what is certain is that 70 years is a long time, since for many it is a lifetime. In these 70 years the world has experienced changes that those protagonists of the Second World War would not have even imagined: the disappearance of ancient empires, the division of countries by incomprehensible walls, the restructuring of communities where families were divided by a decision of third parties, rather than by the determination of their peoples.
In these 70 years the Cold War began and ended, understood as the unstable balance of superpowers that decided to divide up the world by ideologies and interests, rather than by the values they claimed to defend.
They were years in which the ends justified the means, and in that context everything was valid regardless of the consequences. Not taken into consideration were the victims or the risk to all of humanity through an absurd arms race that took many resources, which could among other things, have put an end to hunger and poverty throughout the world.
In these 70 years, man began the conquest of space, revolutionized forms of communication with the internet, and even achieved the cloning of species. Science found new ways to produce food and energy in a sustainable way. And the world is currently suffering from a pandemic like no other due to its global nature.
The conquest of territories, historically the way to expand empires, has been left behind, giving way to the conquest of markets. Borders, once permanent reasons for dispute, have become relative due to, for example, new geopolitical forms, such as the European Union and Mercosur. These developments not only guarantee peace in their regions, but also express a multiculturalism that is superior to its parts.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world has gone from dependency mechanisms to interdependence mechanisms and the ideological began to be relative. Neither are the capitalists so capitalist, nor are the communists so communist. The central countries no longer dispute so much the territory, but rather the supply of resources and the position in the markets.
In this world, which has changed so much in these 70 years, the last conflict of the Cold War still survives. This conflict is the division of Korea through a fictitious border, which separated entire families for 70 years, not for cultural reasons, not for religious reasons, not for natural borders, but for ideological and geopolitical reasons. The Korean people of one side and the other of the 38th parallel were not asked if that was the destination they longed for, if those were the economic models they wanted, and if that were the cultural forms they dreamed of.
Now, in this world, where conflicts are beginning to be more commercial than territorial, and where extreme ideologies re-emerge, we believe that the reunification of Korea would be much more than a symbol for humanity. The reunification of Korea will tell the world that peace is possible, that life can overcome death, that cultural and moral values are more important than ideologies, and that with peace we can fully realize the dreams of each of us, the inhabitants of this planet.
As representatives of the peoples, more than governments, at the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace we believe in the power of love, more than in the love of power. We believe in the power of reason, more than in the reason of power, and we can only think of the Korean people and their suffering after 70 years divided by a sad fence that prevents them from being unified.
From Parliamentarians for Peace we are, were and will be willing to spread to the world the urgent need for the reunification of Korea and the end of the conflict that, like all peace, will bring prosperity to its peoples and tranquility to the region.
To conclude, I would like to remind the powers that have an impact on the resolution of the dispute, the leaders who have the greatest responsibility for this anachronistic conflict, the words of a poem by Joan Manuel Serrat, which says:
Behind, there are the people, with their little issues, their little problems and their little loves. With their small salaries, their small campaigns, their small exploits and their small mistakes. Each one in his own way, each one with his ways; behind we are all, you, me and the one in front. Behind each date, behind each thing, with its thorn and its rose, behind each wall, each armed conflict, behind each treaty, behind is the people.
Thank you very much!
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