In the midst of the
shock. In the middle of the galley

Miguel Ángel Velasco cmf 

Psychologists talk about the grieving process
and the progressive awareness of a significant loss. When something hits hard
in the life of a person, a group, or an entire society, one enters a situation
of shock. The first phase of reaction to what is happening is DENIAL: in
reality, what has happened is not so bad; one continues to act as if everything
were the same. In the second phase, one enters into the RECOGNITION that the
event significantly changes one’s life and interpretation of things that one
had before. In a third moment, the clash of internal feelings and the lack of
clarity about what to do leads to a crisis in which THE CRY can become
present. From this moment, it is necessary to FACE the new situation from an
analysis of reality: WHAT HAS HAPPENED; WHAT TO DO FROM NOW? We must BUILD a
new meaning for existence; we must redefine the objectives, forms, and goals. If
what has caused the SHOCK is really relevant, the creation of a new PARADIGM OF
INTERPRETATION OF REALITY that leads to ACTION is imposed.

 Listening to the interventions of the president
of ECOSOC, the Secretary-General, and the speakers at the HLPF 2020 (High-Level
Political Forum) on Agenda 2030, I have the impression that the UN is at the
moment of ACCEPTANCE: something catastrophic has happened. The pre-pandemic
recovery processes have been disrupted; COVID-19 has absolutely dislocated the
world we have built so far. Yes, we have the Agenda 2030 roadmap of Sustainable
Development Goals, but is each country ready to react in the line of
transformation towards humanity in solidarity proposed by Agenda 2030? The
ambassadors to the UN of the countries involved are open to this. The effective
political decision of each government is lacking.

SDG2030. Report 2020

The situation in each area of the world with respect
to the COVID-19 shock is different. We cannot talk the same way about Brazil
and its president, about Latin America, about Europe and its conflicts towards
unity, about Africa in its diversity or about mysterious North Korea, China, or Russia. One cannot take advantage of a pandemic to trample on human rights
or to entrench government authoritarianism. We could say that countries are at
sea, in the middle of the galley, and are not able to look for the fleet but
only for the ship itself. The UN is proposing a roadmap, but it is itself in
the process of a structural review that should lead it to be more effective.

The general lines represented by Agenda 2030
appear as a logbook or “compass rose” in the galley. The parallel
seminars to the HLPF offer some truly useful reflections and lessons for the
future. We have to wait for the wind to die down and the waves to subside, but
we have to start putting an order, a new order, in our fleet, not only in our
ship.

The need for a world that needs: multilateral
global governance; new development that is sustainable and respectful of nature
and human beings; solidarity among countries and areas of the world; work for
all; education that opens up new horizons; the disappearance of corruption;
universal digital development; a new impetus for human rights. We must continue
to be attentive to the new paths that are offered to us every day at the HLPF.

Miguel Angel Velasco cmf

 cmfUNteam member

Translated with
www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

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