Obamas tal: A World that Stands as One

Obamas tal A World that Stands as One inför 200 000 (!) åhörare i Berlin slår an ett nytt tonfall för vår värld. I en senare av det här blogginlägget kan ni läsa det som jag tyckte var de viktigaste delarna av hans tal. Obamas huvudbudskap var att det finns stora uppgifter i världen som USA och Europa måste ta sig an tillsammans. Exemplet Berlin visar vad som är möjligt när USA och ett demokratiskt Europa samarbetar och det samarbetet behövs i lika hög utsträckning i en värld där vi blir allt mer beroende av varandra.

Inför talet hade det spekulerats om han skulle försöka efterlikna John F Kennedys tal och yttra något minnesvärt på tyska (som ”Ich bin ein Berliner”) men istället spelade Obama delvis på ett tema från Ronald Reagens tal i Berlin då Reagen uppmanade Gorbatjov ”tear down that wall”. Obama talade nämligen om att det finns nya murar som måste rivas: murar mellan USA och Europa, rika och fattiga, olika etniska grupper och religioner.

Men mest av allt handlade talet om hur vi påverkas av vad som händer i andra delar av vår planet och att vi därför har ett gemensamt ansvar:

The terrorists of September 11th plotted in Hamburg and trained in Kandahar and Karachi before killing thousands from all over the globe on American soil.

As we speak, cars in Boston and factories in Beijing are melting the ice caps in the Arctic, shrinking coastlines in the Atlantic, and bringing drought to farms from Kansas to Kenya.

Poorly secured nuclear material in the former Soviet Union, or secrets from a scientist in Pakistan could help build a bomb that detonates in Paris. The poppies in Afghanistan become the heroin in Berlin. The poverty and violence in Somalia breeds the terror of tomorrow. The genocide in Darfur shames the conscience of us all.

Även om 1900-talets berlinmur fallit pekade Obama på att vår tids utmaningar kräver att vår tids murar faller.
Americans and Europeans alike will be required to do more - not less. Partnership and cooperation among nations is not a choice; it is the one way, the only way, to protect our common security and advance our common humanity.

That is why the greatest danger of all is to allow new walls to divide us from one another.
The walls between old allies on either side of the Atlantic cannot stand. The walls between the countries with the most and those with the least cannot stand. The walls between races and tribes; natives and immigrants; Christian and Muslim and Jew cannot stand. These now are the walls we must tear down.

Och det finns goda exempel som visar att det är möjligt:
We know they have fallen before. After centuries of strife, the people of Europe have formed a Union of promise and prosperity. Here, at the base of a column built to mark victory in war, we meet in the center of a Europe at peace. Not only have walls come down in Berlin, but they have come down in Belfast, where Protestant and Catholic found a way to live together; in the Balkans, where our Atlantic alliance ended wars and brought savage war criminals to justice; and in South Africa, where the struggle of a courageous people defeated apartheid.

I sitt tal redogjorde Obama för förvånantsvärt långtgående ambitioner: en värld utan kärnvapen, att USA behöver agera med samma allvar som Tyskland för att minska koldioxidutsläppen.

Talets allra starkaste del var när Obama talade om vilken gemensam uppgift vi har:
And this is the moment when we must give hope to those left behind in a globalized world. We must remember that the Cold War born in this city was not a battle for land or treasure. Sixty years ago, the planes that flew over Berlin did not drop bombs; instead they delivered food, and coal, and candy to grateful children. And in that show of solidarity, those pilots won more than a military victory. They won hearts and minds; love and loyalty and trust - not just from the people in this city, but from all those who heard the story of what they did here.

Now the world will watch and remember what we do here - what we do with this moment. Will we extend our hand to the people in the forgotten corners of this world who yearn for lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and justice? Will we lift the child in Bangladesh from poverty, shelter the refugee in Chad, and banish the scourge of AIDS in our time?

Will we stand for the human rights of the dissident in Burma, the blogger in Iran, or the voter in Zimbabwe? Will we give meaning to the words "never again" in Darfur?

Will we acknowledge that there is no more powerful example than the one each of our nations projects to the world? Will we reject torture and stand for the rule of law? Will we welcome immigrants from different lands, and shun discrimination against those who don't look like us or worship like we do, and keep the promise of equality and opportunity for all of our people?

People of Berlin - people of the world - this is our moment. This is our time.

Detta inlägg är pingat på intressant.se. Andra bloggar om Obama och Berlin