 Nobel Laureate Lambastes Violence
Calling for an end to the united states’ war on terrorism, the creation of a United Nations international criminal court to try terrorists, and the construction of a new “conscious order” of democracy and justice, Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel outlined his vision of a peaceful global community in a speech at the University of San Francisco on Oct. 9. And that was just the beginning.
“One type of terrorism does not justify another,” Pérez Esquivel said, in a broad critical thrust against the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. “No kind of violence is legitimized.”
In a speech that was three-quarters passionate lecture against the evils of violence, militarization, separatism, and unabashed capitalism and one-quarter encouragement to “seek the silence” of faith and meditation, Pérez Esquivel was unequivocal in his analysis of humankind on a tightrope between promise and destruction.
“Militarism is a reflection of our fragility as human beings,” he said. “What society are we building and what for?”
Instead of many nations building up arms and military bases, he said, people should push for a strengthening of the United Nations as a credible source of international order. Describing modern society as “lost” in a sea of “anti-values,” Pérez Esquivel wove together malnutrition and inequality within the theme of terrorism, describing hunger as “the silent bomb that causes war.”
“Terrorism has different faces. Faces that can commit different, heinous attacks. There is state-sanctioned and economic terrorism,” he said, adding that a United Nations report delivered Sept. 11 stating that more than 30,000 children had died that day from malnutrition was a “structural injustice, which has to do with terrorism.”
Globalization, he warned, could institute a uniform mindset that would accept violence as the ultimate answer to problems. “We have to distribute, to share; we have to make an effort to give so we can receive,” he said.
A former architecture professor and sculptor from Argentina, Pérez Esquivel won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1980 for his non-violent defense of human rights throughout Latin America. He is the eighth Nobel laureate to visit USF (see box, page 1). His organization, Servicio Paz y Justicia, or Service, Justice, and Peace, today coordinates a network of local groups throughout the continent in their work for peace. In 1977, Pérez Esquivel was imprisoned without trial in Argentina because of his recording of human rights violations by the military regime there. He was released one year later.
After his speech, Pérez Esquivel answered questions from the audience. Prior to the speech, he held a press conference for local media. He was also available for a question-and-answer period with students the day after his speech.
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