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STERN AND UNYIELDING IN DEFINING THE BOUNDRIES OF HATRED
Education International Conference - "Democratic Societies -Living and Learning Together"
Address by the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Milan Kucan
Bled, 9 November 1997
 Education and upbringing "may also be a highly complicated process, in which there is a strong likelihood of someone losing, and that principles will lose out, if there is not a climate of coexistence and diversity, if there is no encouragement of tolerance in human relations, if the state is not democratic in its social conscience,"
"Where there are no such boundaries or where it is possible to transgress them with impunity, violence becomes acceptable overnight, indeed it even becomes desirable, and it can become a state ideology. This is the lesson history teaches us. This is also the lesson we learn from certain ideologies that still speak today of genetically determined enemies", said President Kucan at the opening of the conference, organized by the Education International.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am honoured, Madame Mitterand, and distinguished participants of this conference, to be able to welcome you here to your working consultation on such an important subject for today's world. For living, learning and working together, all of us different yet at the same time equal, only this can represent a democratic society and only such a society can afford us a secure path towards the human civilisation of the coming millennium.
I see this new age, this new civilisation, primarily as a time in which there will be less and less political elitism and exclusivity, less and less poverty, social oppression and lack of prospects, less cause for aggressive nationalism and fundamentalism, xenophobia and all other forms of extremism which encroach on the equal rights of others and of those who are different, and which deny these rights through words and aggressive actions. The tragic events in the area of the former Yugoslavia, particularly in Bosnia-Herzegovina and certain other parts of the world, serve as an eloquent reminder of just how bloody and fatal the consequences of such policies, such concrete behaviour, such intolerance and denial of rights can be.
Indeed such thinking and behaviour are in the most strident opposition to the values of modern European civilisation, and moreover to the kind of civilisation desired by humankind on the threshold of the new millennium. For the fundamental value of our future is still respect for the unique nature of every single human being, his or her life, dignity, rights and freedoms.
History is a stern teacher. If we listen to it, it will tell us that in the past Europe was never immune to xenophobia, racism or anti-Semitism. This may help us to understand the roots of current forms of intolerance. Over the centuries, when Europe dominated the world for better or worse, by imposing its civilisation it used the rest of the world as a source of wealth and power. It subordinated the rest of the world spiritually, economically, politically and militarily. Europe imposed its superior worth on the world. And it saw the differentness of others as their inferiority. It is then only a short step from seeing differentness as inferiority to the crude elimination of such differentness. And Europe, too, made that short step. Yet that was, I believe, the Europe of the past.
Today's Europe, that is, the Europe which is gradually emerging from the world of ideas to one of concrete action towards a linking together in the common European home, towards security, political and economic integration, based on a commitment to the same values and the same democratic, spiritual tradition, this can only be a different Europe. I see this Europe as a place of coexistence, of competitive cooperation of diversity.
This and such a Europe I see merely as one of the developmental centres of the emerging human civilisation in our globalising world on the threshold of the third millennium. Eurocentrism is over. The time of Europe's domination of the world is irrevocably gone.
In this new age, humankind - and along with it Europe - is presented with an extremely simple question. Will we compete and cooperate for the common good, or will we have to struggle for primacy in the increasingly unified market, environment and information systems of the world? Will we cooperate and compete amongst ourselves as different, but equal, players; or will we see competition as a warcry for our own interests and for their supremacy and ultimate destruction of other, different interests? This is the dilemma of our future, of our security and peace and also signifies the flourishing or collapse of the future human civilisation.
This is the dilemma involved in recognising differences and their coexistence, their meeting and cooperation as equals, or else their eradication, again with the crudest means of violence.
Ladies and gentlemen, many of the great European thinkers have been aware of the problem of racism, and of all forms of enmity towards what is different. This has been the subject of writing by Claude Levi-Strauss and by Michel Foucault. And it has been addressed by many other intellectuals. Much has been underlined and much has been said, but much remains to be completed. Here, too, in Slovenia, although in principle we are all working together for the coexistence of diversity, for the right to be different and for a respect of difference.
In the morning during the week, when young mothers set off for work, you might find in the middle of Ljubljana a white mother taking her little boy - who is black - off to kindergarten. And the little boy loves going there. He knows and feels that there is nothing wrong because he is different. Nobody criticises him for being different. He lives by the same rules as everyone else, he plays the same games, he cries and laughs just like the others. And it is no different for those Romanies who live here and who have adopted the civilisational norms of life in this country. Nor is it any different for those people from the Balkan nations who have settled here in Slovenia and who have also adopted the norms and ways of Slovene life. Problems arise when someone wishes to live in a way that is civilisationally different from the majority. Then there are inevitable tensions, and these are especially pronounced in a small country, and they can only be resolved through goodwill and readiness on both sides. I wish to say that tolerance begins only when the majority and minority recognise the right of differences to exist, and when the majority is prepared to protect the minority, while the minority is prepared to respect the differentness of the majority and its civilisational norms. It is then possible to take a step forward and to seek wise solutions for the equal meeting and expression of differences, without anyone being deprived of the right to remain a singular and unique person, as all of us indeed are.
Ladies and gentlemen, education and upbringing for tolerance and acceptance of other or different people, is first and foremost upbringing for tolerance within ourselves, for the ability to open our own egos to what is different. This is one of the paths that can lead us safely to away from hate. And it is also important that we instil self-confidence and self-respect in all those who are different. They should be aware of their human worth and rights, they should have the courage to resist hatred, in the name of their own worth and rights. This is also borne out by practical political actions.
Yet this may also be a highly complicated process, in which there is a strong likelihood of someone losing, and that principles will lose out, if there is not a climate of coexistence and diversity, if there is no encouragement of tolerance in human relations, if the state is not democratic in its social conscience and therefore not stern and unyielding in its definition of the boundaries of hatred, and when it sanctions violence and incitement to violence. Where there are no such boundaries or where it is possible to transgress them with impunity, violence becomes acceptable overnight, indeed it even becomes desirable, and it can become a state ideology. This is the lesson history teaches us. This is also the lesson we learn from certain ideologies that still speak today of genetically determined enemies.
School is undoubtedly still an important institution in the struggle against racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism. Yet on its own the school system cannot bear the entire burden. If schools operate in an environment where hate is the tool and weapon of the elite and the daily bread of a people from whom the elite have taken away their prospects in life, then the work of teachers and educators is but a cry in the wilderness.
All people who are gifted with intelligence and conscience have their own school of understanding, tolerance and coexistence. This is the school of proper attitudes towards the handicapped, towards minorities, Romanies, immigrants, indeed to anyone markedly different. This is the school for everything that I understand as treading the path from hatred or discomfort at differentness towards coexistence and solidarity, towards tolerance and a life which is not a life of one against another, and which is more than a life of one over another; it is a life of one with another.
Ladies and gentlemen, Slovenia is honoured by this international conference and by your participation in its work. We are delighted to welcome the conference here in our country, and there are many reasons for our pleasure.
The substance of your conference is connected to the harsh experiences of my homeland, and to the bloody and genocidal events in the direct vicinity of Slovenia, in the territory of the once common state that is now no more. The annihilation of civilians, rape and murder of children, the destruction of churches and mosques, the razing of cultural monuments; this was the final tragic result of intolerance and non-respect of diversity, of the ruthless violation of other and different people's rights, of the hegemonistic violence against those who are different in their faith, language or customs.
We are also pleased to welcome your conference for ourselves, and because of the circumstances and spiritual situation in Slovenia. We were able to avoid the destruction of war when we created our own state with its modern, democratic order. Yet still, and not without some difficulty, our everyday life and conscience is haunted by the need for tolerance and respect of all kinds of diversity. Years of thought and behaviour patterns from various forms of exclusivity still burden us in the present day.
Occurrences of xenophobia, anti-Semitism and racism arouse our concern for the entire area of the former ideological and political Eastern and Central Europe. They have their roots, and these must first be identified before this evil can be eradicated.
The processes of globalisation in the world are unstoppable. These processes bear the future of humanity. Let us compete and cooperate for the common good. Let us also be tolerant amongst ourselves and let us respect difference. Let us use it as an advantage of the modern world. Then we shall all be richer.
Your own work is also built into the path that leads towards this goal. You therefore have my deepest respect.
I wish you every success in your work. And to all those guests from abroad, may I wish you a very pleasant stay here in Slovenia. Please come again. It would be a great compliment for us.
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