Al Jazeera Forum: Lula da Silva

[bemildred]

It is a great pleasure for me to be back here to Qatar, where I was already here twice as president of the Republic. In March of 2009 to participate in the 2nd summit meeting of Arab and South American countries and in May of last year on an official trip for business meeting between Brazil and Qatar. On these two occasions I was received by my friend the Emir of Qatar and it is a great pleasure for me to be here in this event that is being promoted by Al Jazeera, a very important broadcasting company not only for the Arab countries, but also for the rest of the world, for which I have given nothing less than four interviews as president of Brazil.

I could not refuse the invitation made by Al Jazeera to participate in this forum in such a crucial moment where the peoples of so many Arab nations raised their voices and stand up to demand democracy, social fairness and the creation of opportunities.

In a moment where Al Jazeera has played and continues to play such a relevant role in informing about these events demonstrating high regards for these facts and great tuning with the feelings and demands of these people, and more giving first hand the Arab viewpoint about the unfolding events, in the Arab countries without the need of third party mediators, and how good that is for the world to have that viewpoint.

I came here to learn with all of you, to get to know your experience, to feel what happens in your hearts, especially from the young people, the youngest ones, that with great enthusiasm, experience and courage are writing a new page in the history of this region.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/opinion/2011/03/2011313842452274.html

[rabs]

1. Thank you for posting this

First read the entire text. Then watched the video (Lula begins speaking at 20 minutes with pretty good English translation).

Was watching the faces of the Arabs and others and wondered what they were thinking all the time Lula was speaking of the need for more democracy around the world. Faces looked somber for the most part (Qatar is ruled by an emir).

Especially liked the part where he speaks of the U.N. Security Council (the "1945 Club" in the year 2011). Lula says how is it possible that China, India, Brazil, no nations from Africa, the Middle East or Latin America have even one seat on the SC.

All in all, good speech. Thanks again for posting.

[bemildred]

3. My pleasure. You don't get something like that every day.

:hi:

[Judi Lynn]

2. Very impressive. Hope Lula will stay very active. He has everyone's respect. K & R.

:kick: :kick: :kick: :kick:

[Bacchus39]

4. Lula supports the democratic movements in the Middle East

unlike other leaders in Latin America.

So what happened in the Middle East many people can say that it was a spontaneous movement. A lot of people can say whatever they wish. It's too early for us to have the exact dimension of what's happening in the Middle East. The only thing that we have certainty is that if a fruit is rotten in the tree after a certain period, the political leaders also, they reap and the fruit gets rotten when time is overdue for changes. And possibly, this maybe has been the determinant factor so that at the same time so many people decided to shout out and stand up, and this happened in Brazil in the 1980s.

We only managed to overthrow the military regime when millions and millions of Brazilians went to the streets and to shout out and stand up for direct elections for the presidency, and that's when we managed to achieve democracy.

These were workers in the streets going on strike, we had students going on street demonstrations, women complaining, the youngsters in the streets struggling until the moment we managed to achieve democracy in Brazil.

So dear friends, I would like to say to all of you that what is happening now in the Middle East is something easier to understand if we understand that the world needs more democracy. The world needs more freedom. And the world needs more equality.

In each one of our countries, as you are demonstrating now with your struggles, courage and willingness to confront sacrifices, I believe that the world needs and could end up with social unfairness, our economies would become stronger and not weaker, when everybody has the same opportunity.
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And they should not see the opposition as the enemy. The opposition should be seen as a citizen who is not happy with what the leader is doing and that change is necessary.