Here is Thatcher and Gorbatchev in 1984
Room XVII, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
12 October 2021
“GOOD PRACTICES, SUCCESS STORIES, LESSONS LEARNED AND
CHALLENGES IN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
— WITH A SPECIAL FOCUS ON INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AND SOLIDARITY, AND FROM A HUMAN RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE”
In the middle of October 2021, MUAC Pres. Michele de Gastyne participated in the annual Social Forum of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. There she had the enormous opportunity of not only being present for important speeches and panel discussions. But also, the unexpected honor of expressing her own opinions, without warning and for about 2 minutes.
This moment was recorded on the official UN Web tv, seen here at the mark of 57 : 35 at which time the moderator introduces her with the name of her association « Musique Universelle Arc-en-Ciel. » which you may notice the automatic translator kind of gave up on . It shows ARK instead of ‘ARC’ etc … 😉
Below is the link of UN Web TV for the entire afternoon of October 12th 2021, during the Social Forum of the Human Rights Council…
https://media.un.org/en/asset/k11/k119exvp17
« 4th Meeting » Social Forum
But here is some background behind this anecdote in Michele’s own words :
‘This was a particularly important moment for me… First of all, because I was asked to give my own opinion : it was most unexpected ! In fact I had only a minute to reflect on what I was going to say and because it was so sudden, I even forgot to take off my mask.
However, I believe the lack of preparation was good finally, because what came out were my pure sentiments. And also what I had been thinking about for hours already at that point. (By the way – this all happened in the interactive dialogue AFTER the panelists had given their prepared presentations, and some people present in the hall were being solicited).
In any case, here is what I said verbatim in case it is helpful to understand the video recording, because the automatic transcript you see on the bottom of the screen made a few errors in the context’ :
Moderator : Now we’d like to hear from Ms. Michèle de Gastyne of Musique Universelle Arc-en-Ciel.
Michèle de Gastyne : Can you hear me ? (as I adjust my microphone).
I’m not well-placed to be saying this perhaps, but in response to I think all of the speakers this afternoon, I can’t stop thinking about the long article written by Mikhail Gorbachev at the beginning of August this year (2021), which was put in Russian and in English on the website – well, you can find the connection on the Gorbachev Foundation website. https://www.gorby.ru/en/
It is now (also) in French on my blog. https://humanisticeducationblog.wordpress.com/2021/09/14/perestroika-et-new-thinking-une-retrospective/
In any case, it’s the first time I’ve seen, from A to Z, an explanation by Mr Gorbachev (of) why he did what he did, when he did… And he was calling for a new Perestroika, a new Glasnost, and new Restructuring and a new New-Thinking.
That is what I feel we are all talking about in a way…
Between 1945 and 1948, the world got together and made the impossible, possible (note : creation of UDHR, the UN…). And we can do it again. At that time it turned out to be the 5 « winners » of WWII*. But mostly, the West, and mostly the United States.
Now the world is not dominated by the United States, and must not be for the rest of the 21st century and beyond. As everyone has said, we cannot be OK unless we are all ok.**
So I just would like to throw that out to ask for any reactions to that, and I wanted to plant a seed. Because I truly believe that what Mr Gorbachev has to say is correct. Thank you.
*Here I was referring to the fact that the United Nations system was created, including financial institutions like the World Bank/IMF, and the Universal Declaration was agreed upon against all odds in 1948. But also, this new system was finally an unbalanced and undemocratic one, with the 5 « winners » of WWII having more power than other countries (the veto) and being put on the top of the UN structure in the Security Council. In other words, the UN itself did not reflect a universal approach to collaboration, hoped for by the original visionaries.
** I heard several speakers during this 2-day event, evoking the reality that COVID-19 has shown that we can all find solutions if we work together. Or if not, we can all sink because we refuse to collaborate, referencing this virus which does not discriminate and does not respect borders.
