The future of the Mediterranean
Sommary
di Yana Mintoff Blond
It was a beautiful, warm Spring evening, on April 14th, 1986. My three- year-old daughter and one year old son were sleeping in blissful innocence, and I was resting lightly, the way young mothers do, ready to be at their side if they cried. Suddenly, I was awakened by a distant roar approaching us so fast that I sat up alarmed. No sooner did I recognise the sound of fighter planes, than they screamed overhead. I went to the children's room. My daughter had begun murmuring in her sleep. I bent to kiss them, wanting so much to protect them. I realised, in that moment, that men and their war games would never bring peace and security to our children and their children's children of the Mediterranean. This may be apparent at first. The Comiso cruise missile base has been closed. The cold war has ended, and so has Soviet warship activity in the Mediterranean. Peace talks between the Israeli and Palestinian leaders have advanced. North-South Mediterranean dialogue has progressed; and associate membership has widened in the European Union. However, such changes are fairly insignificant when compared to the deepening socio-economic crises in the Mediterranean states. Rapidly increasing unemployment, part-time or seasonal employment; rising national debts; increasing expenditures on armaments, accompanied by decreasing social expenditures despite rapid population growth, have characterised Mediterranean economies to a greater (or lesser) extent over the past decade. Resisting the capitalist logic of neo-imperialism in its Mediterranean periphery, many Arabs have been attracted to the independent passion of Islamic fundamentalism, while Catholic and Jewish hierarchies have also benefited from the despair and hopelessness prevalent among their congregations. The Gulf War further divided Mediterranean people and diverted needed resources from social to military purposes, whilst presenting yet another reason for Israeli to be supermilitarised and imperialist. Since the US/NATO invasion of Libya on that Spring night, women of the Mediterranean have become increasingly aware of the pain inflicted on women and children by military "heroism", by the patriotic, patriarchal "solution", and by arms-drugs dealing. We have become increasingly ware of our responsibility to break vicious circles of violence and destruction. We have realised that there can be no lasting peace without justice, and that justice has a special meaning in the lives of oppressed women. Its meaning includes no false dichotomies between mind and body, nature and nurture, reason and passion. It excludes no people, ethnic group or age group, and it precludes no widening of embrace in time and space. In the Association of Women of the Mediterranean Region, we have many points of view and members from many different backgrounds. We have economists, psychologists, teachers and peace educators, social workers and scientists, health workers, artists, and peace activists - from the Pillars of Hercules to the Straits of Bospherus. And with this extraordinary mixture of committed women, we have deepened our analysis of the Mediterranean trends and crises, and strengthened our belief in justice, equality, self-determination, and peace, both in the Mediterranean and the world as a whole. I personally realised on that evening in 1986 that only when caring women, embracing equality, respect, and peace, unite against false barriers of racism, nationalism, and intolerance, will our children ever be safe. I realised that if women could not achieve these critical aims in the Mediterranean, with a history of so many thousands of years of communal experience, a region where the passion for justice runs so deep that it has spawned at least three world religions; and where the spectre of genocide, rape, and ecological destruction is threatening our daily lives - I realised that if Mediterranean women do not rise to meet these enormous challenges, then there will be little hope for our children and grandchildren. Personally, I do not believe that en are solely responsible for the downward spiral into world-wide violence and destruction that has characterised our era; although the elite that enjoys the bounty of exploitation, repression, prostitution, and enforced dependence is predominantly male. The roots of military madness and ecological destruction seem to go much deeper than difference of gender. They go back to the very beginnings of oppression and societal decay - when a few privileged people allowed private greed to outweigh the collective needs of society. It began when elitist individuals and groups privatised resources and undermined communal tradition by repressive means. Soon the rich were recruiting and arming mercenary soldiers to repress the rebellious slaves and dispossessed people, while courting religious leaders in order to sanctify their injustices. The rise to predominance of inequality, exploitation and violence has corrupted society. National and class struggles are waged again and again to oppose inequalities and repression; but each seeming victory becomes a defeat because the majority of people - the women and children - continue to be kept in an oppressed and unequal condition. When a society's operative definition of justice excludes half the human race, it is but a small step to the callous disregard of other species, and destruction of the ecosystem in it delicate complexity. The Association of Women of the Mediterranean Region is an attempt to raise the voice of women and children in the Mediterranean. Our region is one of the most militarily menaced areas of the world. Conflicts in Cyprus, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and former Yugoslavia, and the continuing embargo against Libya, are destroying traditional values and the quality of our lives. Women and children suffer the most from armed conflicts: as refugees and victims of violence, poverty and disease. In all countries of the Mediterranean, women are denied sufficient legal, educational, employment, and health rights. Polygamy, genital mutilation, and even life and death power over women, are extreme examples of oppression. Many women cannot get surgery, obtain a passport, or buy a house or car without their husbands' written permission. Such patriarchal attitudes are major obstacles to progress and freedom. Meanwhile, the Mediterranean Sea has become one of the most polluted in the world. Every year, oil spills amounting to 17 Exxon-Valdez disasters defile this once bountiful and beautiful sea. The health of the people of the Mediterranean is seriously threatened. In 1991, the world Health Organisation estimated that about 40% of people swimming in the sea fall ill, and that children are especially at risk. Cancer incidence is on the increase (Malta has the highest rate of breast cancer in the world), but little progress has been made in enforcing the pollution-control agreements unanimously passed at the 1975 Barcelona Convention. In 1992, after seven years of networking, our Association was founded. Its aims are to unite women from all countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea in order to reverse the escalating militarism and environmental devastation; and to promote justice, equality, self- determination, and peace. Although the 120 million women of this region have been at the forefront of the many struggles for freedom, their voices have seldom been heard. The Association - a grassroots, non- profit, non-governmental organisation - is alive and growing, and working to raise the voice of the oppressed.