“I present this to the authorities presented here in all the organizations represented here, very much. And our thanks go to the people of brazil and their president. Thank you also goes to the United Nations.
EASTERN REPUBLIC OF URGUGUAY TO ADDRESS THE CONFERENCE,
MR. JOSE MUJIC
A – “I present this to the authorities presented here in all the organizations represented here, very much.
And our thanks go to the people of brazil and their president. Thank you also goes to the United Nations.
As all speakers I think have spoken before me have said, they as well have expressed their willingness as
governments to assist all of these agreements that we subscribe to. But having said that, I think we need to
do some thinking out loud and ask ourselves some questions.
All afternoon we have been talking about sustainable development. And we have been talking about
bringing huge numbers of people, huge amounts of people out of poverty.
So what are we thinking about in all of this?
Patterns of productions and Consumption that we have at the moment are those of the rich societies.
Now, what would happen to this planet, I ask myself if the Hindus were to have the same numbers
of cars per family as the Germans do?
How much oxygen would be left to breathe?
The world has today the material elements that it needs for people to … Does it have the resources
to be able to spend as much resources as the rich societies spend and use or not?
We need to have a discussion about this. Our civilization has to do with competition and the market.
Material an expressive process but the market has produced market societies.
Explosive and it’s led to this global globalization. Which now gives us a planetary wide view of events,
but are we governing globalization or is it governing us?
Can we talk about solidarity and that we are all pulling in the same direction when you have
economies based on unfair competition?
Is that really all about fraternity? Now, I am not saying any of that to deny the importance of
this event, don’t get me wrong on the con vary. The challenge that we have before us is so huge,
so encloses colossal. The great process is political man does not govern today…
Does not govern, is not master of the forces they have… man has released. It’s the other way
around. Those forces are governing man and life because we didn’t come to the planet to develop
ourselves in general terms. We came in … we were given life to be happy because life transitory.
It’s very short. Life is what is fundamental. But, if I … if life is going to run away from me, if all
I am doing is working to but things to get more if society of consumption is the energy of everything,
where does this go. If consumption is stopped or reduced, then the economy slows down. And if the
economy slows down, then there is stagnation. But consumption is the very thing that is consuming
the planet.
And people want to sell more and more. An electric light bulb can’t last more than a thousand hours.
Some of them. But there are … we could have lights that could last for longer but they would cost so
much we couldn’t afford them. And so we are in this vicious circle of the throwaway society. These
are political issues. We need to fight for another kind of culture. We don’t want to go back to a
caveman existence we need to be governed by the market. We need to govern the market itself.
That’s where I say the problem is really a political problem. And in my humble opinion, I would say
that the thinkers of old, I’d be curious, Seneca said that a poor person is not someone who doesn’t
have very much but the person who really is poor is the person that continues to need more and more
and more and desires more and more and more.
So it’s a cultural concept. So I salute the efforts that have been made here and the agreements that have
been concluded. Some may not be popular but we have to be aware of these issues.
The water -
The water crisis for example degradation of the environment these aren’t causes the cause is our model
of civilization that we ourselves have set up and what we have to revise is our own way of living: my
country has three million inhabitants. Little more. 3,200,000. But we have some of the best cattle herds
in the world and sheep herds. The best in the world. My country exports meat and milk.
Milk products. L. almost 80% of Uruguay has land that can be used for farming. My brother workers
were formerly working 8 hours, now they only work 6 hours. But they … then they have to have two
jobs so they end up working more than before because they have to pay for all of the things that they
have bought, the cars, and other objects. It’s like rheumatism that’s taking over the body and taking
away the life. Is that … is this the destiny of human life? Development cannot fly in the face of
happiness, it should promote human happiness, love, human relations, relationships between parents
and children and friends life is the most important treasure we have and when we fight for
environment, the first element of the environment si human happiness. That’s what it’s called.
Thank you.