Jody Williams: “The importance of making the right questions”
“I have cried everyday for five years because I got the Nobel Peace Award. I really feel that if I didn’t do anything I am co-responsible”.
Jody Williams, born in the USA, teacher, pacifist and Nobel Peace laureate in the 1997, said in the first day of WSNPL.
She was the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL), which was formally launched by six nongovernmental organizations in 1992. Now that project counts more than 1,000 NGOs in more than sixty Countries.
With a big smile and a simple mise former hippie-girl look like, she enters the room of the workshop called “Building sustanaible peace more than simply ending a war”.
Walking to the speaker position, she shook the everyone’s hand present in the room, greeting every single person.
After half an hour spent talking about how to avoid war in practice, she asks “I am sweating: would you mind if I take off my shoes? Don’t care about my terrible pedicure”.
She is, if possible, way more credible now, barefoot in the superb congress room of the University of Barcelona. Because she is a woman who goes directly to the point, she looks at the essence of the things and doesn’t care about people who don’t like her. Because, when you are different in a positive way, you will always get negative and non productive critics but she suggests a very wise thing: “Know who you are and don’t be afraid of you”.
In spite of the relaxed atmosphere, the topic of the workshop is not easy: how can people avoid war and live in peace in everyday life?
“It’s a matter on the table of work everyday. Everyone must participate in the change of the world. If all the people would have a passion for something, like the WSNPL volunteers, imagine the world. Things will not change fast but they will”
According to Jody Williams is extremely important that people create strong groups to counterbalance the affirmed stability established by governments, military forces and economic balances even. People will be able to make the difference all around the world only following this vision, and starting from their everyday lives.
Her issues were the importance of freedom of expression and the commerce of weapons as main problem that we should face. “Armament are not made to protect a soldier but to destroy the enemy” said to us during an interview after the meeting.
She was always interested in landmines because they can’t distinguish the difference between a soldier or a civilian. “Now war is harder than before, for instance I would add more scaring details: men build machines that are able to destroy people by target”, she said.
“Have you ever thought about the fact of who sells weapons? The art of critical thinking is the most gift a teacher can give to students. Teachers must not be afraid to ask questions”.
