Júlíus Valdimarsson’s speech following the setting of The Parliament of the Street in Iceland
Iceland voters reject repaying $5 billion foreign debt
(March 6th 2010) Dear comrades – fellow countrymen – courageous people who stand here in Austurvöllur!
Congratulations with this day! This is a day to celebrate – the day of the first referendum in accordance with our singular Constitution and the day when the people united against the powers of money and greed.
Maybe this day – 6th of March – will be our new National Day in the future, the day when the people of Iceland took direction towards a real democracy, a real freedom amongst nations.
One beautiful morning in January 1996, some 14 years ago I put on to he paper a personal declaration which I called “I envisage a Human World”. What I wrote there was somehow bright and clear in my mind and this vision has not faded in spite of the difficult times we are facing. Not the least my faith is strong in the young people who are creative and in great spirit as we saw clearly in the Revolution of Pots and Pans last year and which could not have happened without them.
I will now share with you my Personal declaration:
“I envisage a Human World, I want to be a humanist and I have decided to dedicate my life to the meaningful project of humanists all over the world to make it human.
I envisage a human Iceland that can be a model for other societies for a better society for everyone.
I envisage how this will happen……
I envisage the people meeting to compare how they feel, their sorrows, their disappointment, their hopes, their longings, only for a happy life without anguish, misunderstanding and suffering for themselves and for those that they care for.
I envisage people in all neighbourhoods, all schools, all workplaces in all associations and unions beginning to compare their longings for a society where people are not running around all over the place seeking unimportant things as a compensation for meaningless and colourless existence.
I envisage people all over the country beginning to meet every week and regularily to compare their common longing for all this suffering, because of the unjustice, greed and individualism, to be surpassed.
I envisage people discovering, when they begin to meet one another, when they begin to consult with one another, that their deepest longings are the same.
I envisage how people will discover between them that we only want happiness for ourselves and for those that we care for.
I envisage how everywhere, when this starts to happen, people will discover a surprising force, a surprising common wisdom, happiness and joy……
I envisage how people will be able, with this human organisation, with a human network of common intention, to easily take their destiny, take their situation into their own hands. All the knowledge is in the many, all that which is produced and runs the day to day world comes from the contribution of the many. It is only so that all the power, all fountain of greed, all the means of media and influence is in the hands of a few greedy and inconsiderate men of money and power. They have no knowledge, they contribute nothing and the world runs quite smoothly without them.
I envisage how people will easily, without violence and catastrophes, take the power into their hands…I envisage how people will open a new road, a new history so very unlike the history of man so far…..I envisage a real human being, being born….
I envisage Iceland as a human country.
I envisage Iceland as the first country in the world that can reach this goal. This is not because in Iceland people are better or more able, because in all other places on the planet, people have the same longing and work for the same goal. Iceland, on the other hand, is a very small country, but at the same time it composes of all the same elements as the bigger nations. All the institutions are here like everywhere else. Most races and nationalities are represented here and are a part of our nation. All the currents, all the “isms” are here. All the prejudice, all the lack of faith, all the loss of hope, all the isolation, all the mistrust, all the injustice, all the inconsideration, this is all here just like everywhere else. All those things that have to be solved are here like everywhere else in the world. But we are so intimately few and it is so easy for us to meet personally and regularly. It is so easy for us to form a human net that will reach to every street, all the neighborhoods, all the villages and little towns, all the schools all the workplaces and all the organizations. This is so easy for a small nation. This is easy just as it is easy for the architect to build a model of his big and beautiful building on a little table in his office. As easy as it is for the architect find all the solution in the small and neat model on his table, as easy it will be for us to solve the problems of building our social model. This model can then be repeated on a magnified scale all over the world.
This will be our contribution to a Universal Human Nation”
This how I felt 14 years ago and still this vision, this hope for a new future gives me a reason to rise up bright in the morning. On the other hand I am sure that that which I say in my declaration is nothing different from what many, even most of you have felt or envisioned at good moments of your lives. It is just that we do not always step onto the square to announce this, even the things that are most precious within us. And I believe that deep inside we are all humanists, even though we differ sometimes as to how we think we can bring about a human world.
The Argentinian Silo, the founder of the Humanist Movement said in the Humanist Document from the year 1993: “…a wall has arisen between humanist aspirations and the realities of today’s world. The time has come to tear down that wall. To do this, all humanists of the world must unite.”
I want to end by sharing with you the Humanist Song:
Revolution we make
our minds are awake,
we are humanists all in our hearts.
We are Movement of people so fully aware
how the changes will urgently start.
See how big is our dream we will grow as a team
building future with peace force and joy.
Our time has arrived,
our future is bright,
full of freedom and hope, all for you!
Thank you – A Human Future!!
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