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English version
| The shaping of a common future |
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| RUSSIA, GEORGIA, THE UKRAINE and the EUROPEAN UNION
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The Cicero Foundation has assuredly lined up an impressive list of programmed speakers for this Great Debate Seminar scheduled for 9-10 October in Paris. But, when I read the titles of the programme, what gave me serious pause for thought was the subtitle: Shaping a Common Future? For, assuredly, up to the current date of writing, the several and many more, parties to the Caucasus debacle are not anywhere near thinking of shaping a common strategy, let alone a hopeful scenario for the future. It is more a matter of adversarial situations about oil and gas and pipelines, with all the festering bitterness and hatreds complicating the highly charged scenarios affecting each inter-ethnic relationship; something only to be expected as power-blocs manoeuvre for advantage.
Notice, please, that I am deliberately overlooking the ‘in the box’ meaning of a common future, insofar as it is sought by European defence strategies, because, whatever these currently turn out to be, the future they project is always one based on past developments and the antagonisms that have led to them. Such strategies only perpetuate the mutual distrust that divides people from those who should be dealt with as neighbours.
I think we tend to forget what underlies the whole process of shaping the future: the hope of living at peace, in harmony with not just our next door neighbours but with their neighbours as well. This entails Renewal Strategy as the integral facet of present and future developments of relationships with other peoples. The core, permanent considerations inherent in such a strategy are Hope and decisions to have No Fear of implementing projects that take the commandment to Love Our Neighbours as their governing principle.
This is in no way simply naďve or even ingenuous idealism. We have to recognise how different proportions of greed, envy and fear motivate the attitudes and foreign policy stances that are adopted by groupings of people in contention with one another. When we do so, we can surely also recognise that the only way to defuse the bitterness and hatreds is by accepting the viability of the Christian message. It is the Truth that, as a Christian, I am bound to announce and, indeed, can do with great confidence.
Not practical, you say. Yes, it is. Then it isn’t practicable. Yes it is. But won’t it stunt economic development rates? On the contrary, practices of Deep Cooperation tend to enhance economic development rates along parallel paths for each cooperating entity.
President, Lisbon Ciivic Forum e.V.
Just imagine embracing the common interests of Russia and the West on a regular and consistent basis to transform the existing atmosphere of mutual animosity into one of ever-increasing cooperation and Hope. Taken step by step, this process is destined to produce the first several steps that convert Greater Europe to a cohesive collection of neighbours.
This is Good News that requires but very few attempts to confirm its validity. Political leaders and statesmen can easily detect how effective this practice of the Christian good neighbour principle proves to be; as long as they do not harden their hearts.
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