WORLD OF WAR AND DIVISION CRYING OUT FOR A NEW GENERATION OF TOLERANCE
Remembering Desmond Mpilo Tutu: 7 October 1931 – 26 December 2021
Statement from Dr Mamphela Ramphele, chair of the Archbishop Tutu IP Trust, and Mr Niclas Kjellstrom-Matseke, chair of the Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation…
7 October 2024
WORLD OF WAR AND DIVISION CRYING OUT FOR A NEW GENERATION OF TOLERANCE
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who would have turned 93-years-old today, was among the last of a generation of tolerance that emerged after World War Two to fight for a more just and equitable world.
A generation that understood the necessity to establish a world body to gird the rights of all people regardless of colour, culture or creed.
A generation that dared to dream it was possible to change the course of history after centuries of conquest, seizure, and domination by those in power on the day.
A generation with the courage of its convictions to prosecute the struggles for equal rights and dignity, without regard for identity, in the US, in South Africa, in Myanmar, in South and Central America, in Australasia…
Most of this cohort of great leaders are gone, spared the agony of witnessing the global regression to intolerance, identity politics, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and survival of the militarily-and-economically-fittest.
On this day, a year ago, Hamas insurgents invaded Israel, killing nearly 1200 people, and taking more than 200 hostage. Israel’s genocidal vengeance led to 40 000 Palestinian deaths in the 10 months to August 2024, according to the United Nations, and the almost total annihilation of infrastructure in Gaza.
Most of the dead were non-combatants, and a large proportion were children and women.
Now the hatred is rippling outward, threatening to engulf the region – and infect the world.
We mark this anniversary of the birth of our beloved late South African Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu, by reminding ourselves that he was a man of peace with an extraordinary grasp of human affairs and the human condition.
Tutu understood with great clarity that Israel/Palestine was no ordinary patch of land. Due to its history, and centrality to Christians, Muslims and Jews, events there weighed particularly heavily on the world, he said.
The development of technology has shrunk the world into what some call a “global village”, but people in the village have yet to develop the skills to live in a sustainable community. They continue to regard each other as competitors, rather than collaborators.
Archbishop Tutu said all human beings were sisters and brothers in one human family, which he called God’s family. He supported the struggle for justice in Palestine, as he supported the struggle for justice in South Africa, because he viewed the oppression of one group of people by another as a sin. A free and equal Palestine would benefit all of humanity, not least the people of Israel, he said.
The biggest tragedy that has unfolded in Gaza, broadcast live across the world, is that nobody has stopped it.
We call on all nations to re-avow their support for the United Nations, and its democratization after more than 75 years of veto domination by a handful of powerful countries. Its present dysfunctionality places humanity at risk.
And we call on those who are presently in positions of power to remember their shared humanity, and tone down the rhetoric of identity politics. They must be held to account because they are teaching our children to hate one another.
If occupants of the global village don’t quickly find tolerable means to resolve their differences and build common purpose, what chance do we have of resolving the greatest existential threat of our time: Climate change brought on by greed and consumptiveness?
Ends…
Distributed for Dr Ramphele and Mr Kjellstrom-Matseke from Desmond & Leah Tutu House, Cape Town, South Africa. For more information: Benny Gool (082 5566 556) / Roger Friedman (079 8966 899).