La Voz de Galicia – September 23, 2022 →
And just like that, suddenly, autumn is here. Tonight was the equinox, and with it began the cycle when we start to collect ourselves, to prepare for winter. A winter that, according to the data we are getting daily, will be difficult. The cost of life does not stop rising, inequalities are increasingly clear, and as António Guterres, the UN’s Secretary-General, augured this week at the General Assembly, «a winter of global discontent is on the horizon.» And he did not stop there. Guterres continued with the notion that «we are paralyzed by a colossal global dysfunction.»
Listening to his words, one can’t stop wondering about many things, among them the cumulus of reasons that cause us to live this chapter of our history with more than considerable fear, when uncertainty is as real as it is palpable. But above all, I wondered about the tools that are in our hands, in the hands of citizens, to be able to stop this «dysfunction.» Because listening to his speech, and even though he referred to the global leaders present there, one could not stop feeling a great sense of responsibility, almost culpability, about something we know that unfortunately, we mortals can’t control.
Without a doubt, they as well as we have «the duty to act.» But it seems that neither them nor us know how. And even though Guterres’ words were as gray as the winter for which we are preparing, I will remember the most luminous phrase he pronounced: «We live in a world where the logic of cooperation and dialogue is the only path to follow.» And I will try to practice it every day because the other solution he proposes, «the world’s coalition,» feels as far as it is intangible.
