A subtle change in the news?

[Artur F. Silva]

Hello all:

I have noticed yesterday a very interesting change of "focus" in the
news about the terrorist attack in the Portuguese newspaper I normally
read ("O Publico"). Until Saturday, the news were the ones you all
have seen on most newspapers and TV news. But yesterday many
articles were trying to analyze the profound causes and were asking for
peace and justice in terms very close to some texts we saw on this list.

There were at least five articles from writers of all over the world
(some also published in foreign newspapers) advising against
revenge and pointing out the dangers of an unjustified war, even
if that conclusion was reached from many different perspectives.
That trend continued today with an article from an English
author and professor.

I have tried to see if the same trend was present in other Sunday
newspapers but I could not confirm that - the English, French and
Spanish newspapers I have tried were more information oriented than
oriented toward interpreting the events and searching for new
solutions for the real problems (if you want to do a comparison by
yourselves you can try the addresses of many Daily Newspapers at
http://www.cheetah.net/~beta2/papers.html)

I would appreciate to have information on what is being written in the
newspapers of other countries (and continents). Maybe some others
are also interested or can use that information...

I will not summarize the articles from foreign authors as I suppose you
can find the same or similar articles in other newspapers. But there
was also an article from a Portuguese author that I think it can
be interesting to share with you (the beginning).

Lourdes Pintassilgo (the author) is a 60-to-70 year old lady, that is an
important member of the "Catholic Movement for Peace" (for more than
40 years, I think). She has also been the Portuguese representative near
UNESCO for many years and for a short period has been the Portuguese
Prime minister (she is independent of all political parties). She has also
been a (defeated) candidate for President of the Portuguese republic.

She wrote: (sorry again for my English translation -- that I will not even
have time
to correct -- if you can understand Portuguese or use an automatic
translator the
article will be available during one week at:
http://jornal.publico.pt/publico/2001/09/16/Destaque/X01OPI01.html)

"Everything has changed in the world. But that didn't happen on September
11th. The world had already changed. But only now everybody noticed. All the
years 90 were a very quick process of change from the world we knew to a
new one.(...)

That big and multiple transformation has been unnoticed for two reasons.
On one side, we have continued to analyze the problems with the mental
categories and models of the past. On the other side, attention has been
concentrated only on the consequences of the fall of communism, being blind
to a transformation that largely exceeded what has been called the "economical
and political transition" of the ex-communist countries. (...)

A sign of that transformation has been clear in all the rebellions that have
been growing up during the last ten years of the 20th century. Where we
were used to hear only the categories of development we began to see
the constant criticism of the globalization in its effects on new divisions
between peoples and regions. We are many in the world that wants to find
solutions that minimize those effects and don't allow the growing
marginalization
of persons, peoples and nations. But we have not found yet the correct way
to make the political leaders of the world accept the solutions that are
already on the table. We have not been able to do that on time. But
we have to continue to work hard to understand the complex causes of
so inhumane acts" (...)

I don't know if I found Lourdes' article so interesting because it matched
so well with what I have been thinking these last few days... I would like
to complement her reflexions with some comments from my own. But I will
delay those comments not to mix them with Lourdes' quotations.

Regards

Artur
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