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Call for United Action
ARTICLE | April 5, 2011 | BY Heitor Gurgulino de Souza
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Heitor Gurgulino de Souza
Very warm congratulations on the new journal - it certainly has a role to play in today's world.*
Over the holidays I had an opportunity to read some of the well-written articles in the first issue of Cadmus. I also read and liked "OUR VISION" published on the second page in which you requested "my ideas" regarding this new endeavor.
WAAS completed fifty years in 2010, Club of Rome reached its fortieth anniversary in 2008, and the Pugwash Movement completed 50 years in 2007. I happen to be a Fellow of WAAS as well as a member of the Club of Rome and I believe all three organizations have done a very good job since their creation.
But my "new idea" is that the three organizations – WAAS, Club of Rome and the Pugwash Movement – should sincerely join forces and act together, so that we can fully utilize our collective experience, intellectual capacity and foresight. Together, we will have a much stronger voice to get our good messages out to the world and be listened to by policy makers, parliaments, governments, academics and all societies in general, in both the industrialized and developing economies.
If we really want to "Promote Leadership in Thought that Leads to Action" our three organizations should join our minds, our visions and our hands to accomplish it. Isolated, as we have been and still are now, we will not be able to do it as effectively as we can as a single body. And I know it will require much courage and a strong commitment from all in order to create a NEW and hopefully, much stronger endeavour for the future of all mankind.
I follow closely the university world. In Europe, up to a couple of years ago, there were two very similar European associations of universities, doing similar and parallel work for a very long time. They have finally decided to join forces and "merged". Today there exists only one European Association of Universities, which is much more active, objective, and efficient, with a much stronger voice in Europe, larger than the two earlier ones and already having impact across the world.
I know it will not be easy. Possibly it will mean a long journey ahead for us, but that is my "new idea" I wish to share with all of you. While that happens – and until it happens – I plan to continue to work and contribute to all, as much as I possibly can, within my "limits", and in my hopefully still long remaining years on our lovely small planet Earth.
In my ten years of living in Asia I have learned an oriental proverb that says: "for every long journey there is always a first step".
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