http://www.normangirvan.info/the-right-to-delirium-eduardo-galeano/
The Right to Delirium, By Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Galeano's consummate history, The Open Veins of
Latin America, made Amazon''s #2 bestseller after Hugo Chavez
gifted President Obama with it, two weeks ago. Chavez performed the
same salutory service in 2006 for Noam Chomsky's Hegemony or
Survival in a speech at the United Nations. -Ed Pearl
From the Spanish original, "El derecho al delirio", in the journal
Archipielago: Revista Cultural de Nuestra America. No. 22/23,
March-June 1999. Informal English translation by Norman Girvan.
The new millennium is upon us! We shouldn't take it too seriously:
after all, the year 2001 of the Christians is the year 1379 of the
Muslims, 5114 of the Mayas and 5762 of the Jews. The new millennium
starts on January 1st thanks to the caprice of the senators of
Imperial Rome who decided one fine day to break with the tradition of
celebrating the New Year at the beginning of spring. And the annual
count of the Christian era derives from another caprice: one fine
day, the Pope of Rome decided to fix the date of the birth of Christ,
although nobody really knew when He was born. An invitation to flight
Millennium comes and millennium goes, but the occasion is an
opportunity for the worshippers of that terrifying word to
pontificate on the destiny of humanity, and for the spokespersons of
the wrath of God to announce the end of the world and generalised
destruction, while everything continues as before, the rest of us
must shut up and continue our long march through the mystery of
eternity.
And yet, arbitrary though the date might be, few of us can resist the
temptation of wondering what the world of the future will be like.
And somebody will be there to know it. We can be certain of one
thing: in the 21st century, if we are still here, we will all be
people from the past century and worse still, from the past
millennium!
Although we cannot foretell the future, at least we have the right to
imagine what we would like it to be. In 1948 and in 1976, the United
Nations proclaimed an extensive list of human rights. But the vast
majority of humanity has no other rights other than to see, to hear
and to keep quiet. What if we were to exercise the as yet undeclared
right to dream? What if we were to fantasise, even for a moment?
Let's project our vision beyond the current world of infamy and
imagine another possible world: a world
Where the air will be clean of every poison that doesn't come from
human fears and human passions;
Where in the streets, the automobiles will be run over by the dogs;
Where people will not be driven by the automobile, or programmed by
the computer, or watched by the television;
Where the TV will no longer be the most important member of the
family, but will be treated like the clothes iron or the washing
machine;
Where people will work to live and will not live to work;
Where there will be a law that makes it a crime to be stupid, which
is defined as living for the sake of possession or of gain, instead
of living for the celebration of life itself, like the bird that
sings without knowing what it sings and the child who plays without
knowing what game it is playing;
Where no country will make prisoners of young men who refuse military
service;
Where economists will not call the level of consumption "the standard
of living", nor will they confuse the quantity of things with the
quality of life;
Where cooks will not believe that lobsters just love to be boiled
alive;
And historians will not believe that countries just love to be
invaded;
And politicians will not believe that poor people just love to live
on promises;
Where solemnity will not be a virtue and nobody will take seriously
those who cannot jest;
Where death and money will have lost their magical powers, so that
thieves and oppressors do not magically become gentlemen of virtue
merely because they have died and left a great deal of money;
Where no one will be thought to be a hero, or a fool, for doing what
she thinks is right instead of what is convenient;
Where the world will not be at war with the poor, but against
poverty, and to ensure victory the military industrial complex will
need only to abolish itself;
Where food will not be a commodity, or communication a business,
because food and communication will be human rights;
Where nobody will die of hunger, because nobody will die of
indigestion;
Where street children will not be treated like garbage, because there
will be no street children;
Where rich children will not be treated like money, because there
will be no rich children;
Where education will not be a privilege of those who can pay for it;
Nor will the police be the curse of those who cannot buy them;
Where justice and liberty, Siamese twins now condemned to live apart,
will once more be joined together, cemented, shoulder to shoulder;
Where a woman, black, will be President of Brazil, and another woman,
black, will be President of the United States; where an Indian woman
will rule Guatemala and another, Peru;
And in Argentina, the "mad women" of the Plaza de Mayo will be seen
as exemplars of sanity, because they refused to forget in a time of
compulsory amnesia;
Where the Holy Mother Church will correct the printing errors in the
Tablet of Moses, and the Sixth Commandment will be an injunction to
celebrate the body;
Where the Church has also added another commandment, which God
forgot: "Love thee Nature, of which thou formest a part";
Where the deserts of the world are reforested, as are the deserts of
the soul;
Where those who despair have hope, and those who are lost are found,
for they who despair are those who hope for much and they who are
lost are those who seek for much;
Where we are the compatriots and contemporaries of all who want
justice and beauty in the world; no matter where they were born and
when they lived, without the slightest regard for the boundaries of
time and space;
Where perfection will continue to be the absurd privilege of the
gods, but in this untidy and messed-up world, every night is lived as
if it is the last and every day as if it is the first.
Note: This essay by Eduardo Galeano was used in a Tribute to
Professor George Beckford delivered at the Conference of Caribbean
Economists held in Martinique, November 1999.
***
http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2009/04/28-25
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2009
CONTACT: Progressive Caucus, Black Caucus, Hispanic Caucus,
and Asian and Pacific American Caucus
CAPAC - Gloria Chan - 202-225-2631
CBC - Nicole Williams - 202-226-0323
CHC - Miguel Ayala - 202-225-2410
CPC - Bill Goold - 202-226-4055
Caucuses Unite Behind Public Health Insurance Plan Option
WASHINGTON - April 28 - In an unprecedented initiative, the leaders of four
prominent groups in the 111th Congress - the Progressive Caucus (CPC), the
Black Caucus (CBC), the Hispanic Caucus (CHC), and the Asian Pacific
American Caucus (CAPAC) - have sent a joint letters to President Obama and
the Democratic Leadership of the House and Senate stressing that 'our
support for enacting legislation this year to guarantee affordable health
care for all firmly hinges on the inclusion of a robust public health
insurance plan like Medicare.'
Together one hundred seventeen Members of the House and Senate belong to at
least one of these four congressional caucuses. Hence, their unity in
pushing for inclusion of a public health insurance plan like Medicare as
part of comprehensive health care reform legislation is a formidable
development in the unfolding policy debate inside and outside of Congress.
"As the debate on health care moves forward, we stand together with one
voice for the communities that most need this reform," said Congresswoman
Nydia Velázquez, Chairwoman of the 24-Member CHC. "With one out of every
three Hispanics in our country likely to be uninsured and with so many
Latino small business owners, we have to provide all Americans with the
choice of a public health insurance plan."
"The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does
not provide universal health care," said Congresswoman Barbara Lee,
Chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. "In a nation with 46 million
uninsured individuals, it is time we put in place high quality comprehensive
care for all. As we develop healthcare reform legislation, a public health
insurance plan like Medicare and Medicaid must be included in order to
guarantee equal access to quality affordable healthcare for everyone."
"The importance of this issue is shown through the unity of the four
caucuses," said Congressman Raúl M. Grijalva, Co-Chair of the CPC. "We
represent the most underrepresented communities, in which livelihoods are
paralyzed due to health care being set as a privilege. We stand united to
ensure health care is a right. A right that is fair and guaranteed for all."
"The American people are united in declaring that our health care system is
broken, and that we need to fix it," said Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey,
Co-Chair of the CPC. "With this letter, more than a 100 Members of Congress
are sending a message that we share the public's outrage, and that we are
committed to confronting this problem and developing a health care system
that doesn't leave anyone out. That's why we need to make certain that any
final healthcare reform legislation includes the option of a public health
insurance plan to ensure that everyone has access to high quality,
affordable care."
"For too long, insurance companies have dictated the quality, quantity, and
accessibility of healthcare to the American people," said Congressman Mike
Honda, Chair of Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC). "A
robust public health insurance plan will ensure true competition with those
companies that reap egregious profits, and will present the opportunity to
make deep, lasting changes in our healthcare system. A public plan will also
provide a framework to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities in
some of the most underserved communities."
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