European Development Days
Responsible Europeans
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- Responsible Europeans
Since the dawn of the new technological age, all of us have been living in two worlds at once. There is the world of our daily life, which starts the morning with breakfast in the family, the commute, work, then back home, the family dinner and an evening in front of the TV or the computer.
The TV and the internet have become our windows to the second world, the one where there are wars in Africa, tsunamis in the Pacific, major bankruptcies in North America, coups in South America, and child exploitation in Asia... But we regard the world news as though it were fiction. This is understandable - it is all happening thousands of miles away so we feel as though it cannot touch us. But this is just an illusion.
We had this feeling when the great waves of immigration began to hit the West several decades ago. Millions of people fleeing war, repression, poverty or even slavery sought refuge in a West that offers rights, liberties and a certain standard of living. The West has received all these people (not always a hospitable manner), integrated them (not always successfully), but the issue of immigration quickly turned into a serious social problem.
The two worlds slowly began to mix. In the evening on TV we saw the total destitution in Africa’s refugee camps, sitting in the permanent shadow of war, famine and disease. On the street in the morning, we encountered the compatriots of these refugees, better dressed and better fed for sure, but their faces always marked by the countless tragedies they had left behind.
Paradoxically, as the worlds began to mix, the gap between them grew even wider. In Europe, there were more and more cars, computers, mobile phones, luxury, and consumption... In Africa there were more and more wars, displaced persons, and people without access to drinking water, not to mention the growing number of people affected by the disease of poverty.
The West has been very late in starting to tackle these problems. We realized too late that it is impossible to build real and effective prosperity when billions of people are suffering from poverty. We realized too late that poverty is an epidemic. It spreads gradually and ultimately affects even those who think they are immune.
Finally Western leaders, citizens, and public organizations have realized the need to confront these problems and that the only solution is a continuous commitment to sustainable development. They understand that, as citizens of the world, we must get involved, not just because we are the only ones who have the resources to deal with these problems, but also because our culture, our traditions, and our European values require us to do so. We are Europeans, and therefore responsible. Because, in reality, there are not two worlds...
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