“The main threats to peace in the world are climate change and nuclear war, but another worrying phenomenon is emerging, the greatest concentration of wealth in the world product of technology”, said the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize and former President of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, while opening a conference during the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates that takes place in Mérida.
“We see that all the treaties to reduce the nuclear arsenal are falling apart and simultaneously a problem arose that was not present when the United Nations Organization (UN) was created, but that today is the biggest problem, the most dangerous threat to the survival of humanity: climate change, which is no longer a possibility like nuclear war, but a reality, and if we don’t do something about it now, we will all disappear from the face of the Earth, ”he warned.
During the plenary conference called “Leave your mark for social and economic development”, Santos Calderón considered that another phenomenon arises that he described as the “breeding ground” for war: “We are seeing the greatest concentration of wealth in the world, like we had never seen before, product of technology and other factors, but at the same time, we see the destruction of that world order that during the last 60 years was built to preserve peace, ”he said.
The former Colombian president pointed out that this combination: greater concentration of wealth in the world and a destruction of institutions to preserve peace, is what must be corrected as soon as possible, “Especially climate change, if we want to live in peace towards the future,” he declared.
The governor of Yucatan, Mauricio Vila Dosal, also participated in the plenary conference, and said that 60 percent of the Yucatecans live in poverty and that the big challenge is how to reduce these rates, then he added that the State has to act in a subsidiary manner to solve the basic needs of the people and how to see that children go to school and do not stop studying because of their families’ lack of economic resources.
In the same panel, Lech Walesa, former president of Poland and Nobel Peace Prize 1983, said that if the world society follows the tendency not to participate in the elections of its rulers, “tomorrow only those who are contenders will participate, and the rest will stay at home, and will not have the will to get involved because they are not properly organized. ”
He added that capitalism has been effective, while communism has not been effective. “Capitalism consists in competition, in a rivalry.”
Meanwhile, Jody Williams, Nobel Peace Prize 1997, said that the world’s economic system needs to be restructured in the face of inequality in the income of workers.
“The amount of money spent worldwide on weapons, military systems and armed forces is an obscenity,” he said.
For his part, Leymah Gbowee, Nobel Peace Prize 2011, said that citizens have to think about how to recover the reins of power and stop thinking that peace is something abstract, but it has to be seen as an everyday issue.
The Yucatan Times Newsroom