MANIFIESTO ACORDADO EN EL PRIMER COLOQUIO LATINOAMERICANO DE SISTEMOLOGIA INTERPRETATIVA [Manifesto agreed in the First Latin American Colloquium on Interpretive Systemology]

I am sorry that in my previous message I forgot to add the names of those
who signed the Merida Manifesto.

The undersigned, university professors from different Latin American
countries and participants in the First Latin American Colloquium on
Interpretive Systemology carried out in Mérida Venezuela (1-4 October,
2001), consider of primal importance to let know systems thinkers in
particular and the public in general, the following reflections on the
current world crisis.

Jorge Dávila (Venezuela), José Daniel Cabrera (Colombia), Ramsés Fuenmayor
(Venezuela), Lilia Gélvez (Colombia), Eduardo Ibarra (México), Jorge
Ishizawa (Perú), Bruno Jerardino (Chile), Edmundo Leiva (Chile), Hernán
López Garay (Venezuela), Hugo Marroquín (Perú), Alejandro Ochoa
(Venezuela), María Teresa Santander (Chile), Ricardo Sotaquirá (Colombia),
Roldan T. Suárez (Venezuela), Miriam Villarreal (Venezuela);.professors
from different Latin American universities and speakers in the Primer
Coloquio Latinoamericano en Sistemología Interpretativa.

 Mérida, octubre de 2001

In the last four days, participants in the Colloquium have presented their
research projects on and debated about a number of Latin American
organizational and institutional problems related to: education, justice,
social welfare, community organizations, poverty, technology and society,
cultural diversity in peasant communities, managerial technologies and
organizational phenomena.

Beyond the obvious underlying and connecting theme -the systems approach as
applied to institutional problems-another theme emerged that gathered our
thought and reflections in this Colloquium. It has become clear at the end
of our meetings that a crucial problem unfolded by our research is the
growing devastation brought about by several anti-cultural forms that high
modernity (or postmodernity) has made possible.

These anti-cultural forms -which are present in such areas as the
ontological ground of technology, the media, the lack of an authentic
education, organizational phenomena, neo-liberalism, and in the strong
sway that the market and the instrumental rationality of our time holds
over our lives- pose a serious threat to the basic cultural practices
(proper of a culture in "good condition") of nursing, raising and caring.

The violent devastation of cultural soils that we are experiencing in the
present, as the result of the widespread of these anti-cultural forms, is
leading to a meaningless world; a world under the serious threat of various
forms of nihilism and violence; a world subjected to a deep and growing
process of desolation.

A clear manifestation of this process is the response given by the
governments of so called "developed world", led by the United States, to
the tragic events that took place in New York and Washington last
September 11.

In this context, and bearing in mind the anti-cultural phenomena previously
mentioned, the undersigned systems thinkers want to make public the
following manifesto:

THE MERIDA MANIFESTO

1. We add our name to the large list of peoples that condemn the terrorist
attack which regrettably took the lives of thousands of human beings last
September 11. It is a defining feature of our humanity to be able to
empathize with other fellow humans (i.e. to have the ability to put oneself
in the position of other human being) and thus experience something close
to the grief and sorrow they may be undergoing in the United States.
Nonetheless, we must also add our name to two other lists. These, unlike
the first are, perhaps, much shorter.

2. We join the short list of those who clearly and strongly condemn the
international behaviour of the United States government and other
imperialist states in the last century and the beginnings of the twenty
first. As a matter of fact, such unjustified behaviour has been, directly
or indirectly, the cause of the death of millions of children and innocent
people in general. We do not have to go too far in this history of State
violence to see its real proportions. Just recall the criminal behaviour
of the United States government at the end of the Second World War when the
murder of hundreds of thousands of people in Nagasaki and Hiroshima was
perpetrated. Examples of similar behaviour in Latin America abound. We
recall for instance the death of more than seven thousand people in Panamá
as a result of the illegal military invasion carried out by the USA army
to capture General Noriega, a man that had previously worked very closely
with the CIA. Let us recall also the bloody dictatorships set up by the
USA government in Chile and Argentina during the seventies and eighties.

Another example of the criminal foreign policy of USA is the long embargo
this government has led against Iraq and which has resulted in the death of
more than five hundred thousand Iraqi children. These examples are but
a few of the many outrages and great injustices perpetrated by the USA
government around the world, the proof of which are nowadays even provided
by the CIA itself! It is clear then, that such a State violence -which is
conducted with the active involvement of other governments such as Britain-
is breeding violence all over the world. This is not to say that we
justify in any way the violent events that took place in New York and
Washington last September 11. However, we equally disapprove the violent
and murderous response of the USA government against the people of
Afghanistan (regretfully with the support of the majority of world
governments). Therefore, we must add our name to a third list.

3. This list is formed by those people who reject and condemn the brutal
retaliation carried out by the USA government -joined in this
irrational and inhuman task by its allies- as a response to the
aforementioned events of September 11. It is brutal because it rallies a
coalition of the most powerful armies of the world to bombard Afghanistan,
one of the poorest, most ravaged war-torn nations of the earth. Millions of
Afghans are fleeing their country at this very moment, seeking refuge and
starving in the process. The response is brutal also because as one can see
from declarations of the White House and other government officials, they
reveal a flagrant contradiction of the most cherished principles and
ideals which constitute the legitimating foundation of the power of a
modern democratic State, as the governments of the USA and their allies
are supposed to represent. These ideals are none other than those of
justice, democracy and freedom!

According to those principles, these governments led by the USA should seek
and bring to justice, to a fair trial in an international court of justice,
those who committed the murderous attacks of September 11. However, in
order to accomplish this task, they ought not launch a war to massacre
innocent people, as they are doing it right now, and risk the lives of
millions more (including those of their own people) who inevitably will be
dragged into this war.

We must also denounce the unfair and quite disproportionate significance
given to the terrorist attack of September 11 by comparison with many other
terrorist acts carried out around the world -many of them performed by the
US government. Let us imagine this attack had been launched against
Bolivia, Nicaragua or Iraq rather than to the USA. It is not hard to see
that the response of the developed nations and their friends would have
been completely different. Another example of such unfairness is the fact
that on September 11, the very same day of the terrorist attack -and
something similar can be said of any other day- according to statistics
offered by international organizations, thousands of children died of
starvation in so called underdeveloped countries, in some cases as the
direct result of economic policies enforced by the USA government through
the IMF and the World Bank.

Should not we regret with equal sorrow the unjustified dead of these human
beings? Yet there were neither special 24 hour editions of CNN for several
days lamenting this tragedy nor marches in several cities showing their
solidarity with the families of the victims, much less a minute of silence
in Wall Street for them. How come? Why the billions of dollars being spent
in the bloody revenge of the USA government against Afghanistan and other
countries are not destined to feed and take care of millions of starving
children in this world? Is it not here, in such a great unbalances, the
key to find a peaceful solution to world terrorism?

We hope these reflections will make clear why we add our names to three
lists which most people would consider incompatible. Their common thread is
their underlying notion of justice and the perhaps more and more uncommon
ability nowadays to empathize with the grief and suffering of other human
beings, regardless of whether they are US citizens, Colombians or Chinese,
or whether they are Christians, Muslims, Buddhists or simply atheists.

 Mérida, octubre de 2001
Received on Mon Oct 22 18:38:39 2001