Tribute to Mario Benedetti....

Yesterday, the 17th of May, one of the greatest poets of Latin America passed away. Mario Benedetti (September 14 1920 – May 17 2009) was an Uruguayan poet, journalist and novelist. He lived in exile during the military dictatorship in Uruguay from 1973 to 1985. He wrote for his country, for love and for revolution. He was a proclaimed leftist who actively struggled against the military dictatorship and firmly defended and supported the Cuban Revolution. Mario Benedetto, indeed a great loss for Latin America, and for all those who aspire and fight for freedom and justice everywhere. Mario Benedetti joined his comarade Pablo Neruda, and the ranks of all the great poets who recently left us such as the great Palestinian Poet Mahmoud Darwich.

Like all who spoke, wrote and worked for freedom, and social justice, the words of Benedetti will not be forgot and will be constantly repeated by all who still believe in equality, revolution in the brotherhood of Man.

I post here one of his most famous poems, Te quiero (I love you) and i have also translated in english...

Te Quiero

sus manos son mi caricia 
mis acordes cotidianos 
te quiero porque tus manos 
trabajan por la justicia 

si te quiero es porque sos 
mi amor mi cómplice y todo 
y en la calle codo a codo 
somos mucho más que dos 

tus ojos son mi conjuro 
contra la mala jornada 
te quiero por tu mirada 
que mira y siembra futuro 

tu boca que es tuya y mía 
tu boca no se equivoca 
te quiero porque tu boca 
sabe gritar rebeldía 

si te quiero es porque sos 
mi amor mi cómplice y todo 
y en la calle codo a codo 
somos mucho más que dos 

y por tu rostro sincero 
y tu paso vagabundo 
y tu llanto por el mundo 
porque sos pueblo te quiero 

y porque amor no es aureola 
ni cándida moraleja 
y porque somos pareja 
que sabe que no está sola 

te quiero en mi paraíso 
es decir que en mi país 
la gente viva feliz 
aunque no tenga permiso 

si te quiero es porque sos 
mi amor mi cómplice y todo 
y en la calle codo a codo 
somos mucho más que dos.

I Love You

Your hands are my caress 

My everyday chords 

I love you because your hands 

Work for justice

If I love you it is because you are

My love, my accomplice and everything

And on the street, side by side 

We are much more than two

Your eyes are my spell 

Against bad days 

I love you for your eyes 

Which look at and sow the future

Your mouth is yours and mine 

Your mouth is never wrong 

I love you because your mouth 

Knows how to shout rebellion

If I love you it is because you are

My love, my accomplice and everything

And on the street side by side

We are much more than two

And for your sincere face

And your wandering gait

And your tears for the world

Because you are the people I love you

And because love is not a halo 

And neither a candid moral 

And because we are a pair 

Who knows it is not alone

I want you in my paradise 

That is in my country 

Where the people live happily 

Even if it is not allowed

If I love you it is because you are

My love, my accomplice and everything

And on the street side by side

We are much more than two

Uruguayan Parliment votes against amnesty law...and Lebanon?

In an impressive turn of events the Uruguayan parliment voted against the amnesty law that has been protecting the military officers who instaured a dictatorship in the country between 1973 and 1982. This vote comes in the context of an investigation concerning the assasination of the communist militant Nibia Sabalsgaray, hence a judge has asked the parliment to say a word about this amnesty law. The parliment voted that the articles concerning the law unconstitutional.

I find this vote important, since most countries after ending a dictatorship issue an amnesty law protecting those who violated human rights during this dark period, and this is often in the name of forgiveness and national unity. Thus this amnesty law dismisses the rights of the victims of the dictatorship, and infringes dangerous damages to the collective memory of the citizens of the country. Hence the victims suffer a double inustice: the first one is inflicted by the practices of the dictatorship (prison, torture, assassination), the second one is inflicted by the post-dictatorship regime which refuses to recognize their rights to see the criminals accounted and on trial, which is must in order for the victims to regain a part of justice and in order to heal the collective memory from the wounds of criminal regimes. Amnesty laws in favor mass murderers and dictators should never pass!

Reading the piece of information about Uruguay made me make the parallel witht the Lebanese context which is more dangerous and twisted. After the end of a 15 year-civil war during which massacres were committed, hundreds disappeared and thousands mutilated, those same warlords voted on an amnesty laws to protect themselves from any punishment. What is twisted about this vote, is that the same people who committed massacres, where also the legislators who passed the amnesty law! Thus denying the thousands of war victims the right to reparation, to see their victimizers on trial, to get recognition for the suffering inflicted upon them. Moreover, the collective memory of the lebanese society suffers amnesia: the war is vaguely mentionned in history textbooks, the same warlords are building peace in the country, the victims are following the criminals. The immediate victims of the civil war are the ones who disappeared, were killed or mutilated, nevertheless they are the only ones who are not benefiting from the peace building if it exists. No peace building could procede without giving justice to those people.

The Lebanese don't seem able or willing to revisit the civil war period, not even for repairing the injustice inflicted upon them by their current political leaders. Hence the internal conflicts of the country seem cyclical, and recurring. How can we avoid another civil war, when we don't recognize that it actually happened (there is a wide belief that it was the war of "others" on the Lebanese soil)? how can we prevent it if the same people who perpetuate it are leading the country to salvation? more importantly how can we avoid the war when it is absent from our collective memory, and when the victims are not recognized as such and are not given any sort of justice?