Support
Ask your question
Search
Visual Collection
Popular Questions
- Is organized religion the root of all ... latest post by Subzero | 200 responses
- Why don't schools teach us to form our... latest post by rwt | 20 responses
- When will someone ask STUDENTS what th... latest post by rwt | 10 responses
- Who Protects Us From Them? latest post by Subzero | 5 responses
- Will human beings really ever understa... latest post by Subzero | 47 responses
Popular Topics
Most active users
- Thai sean 1272 posts | member since Nov 11, 2007
- treeless 17 posts | member since Dec 9, 2011
- cyberworldukltd 16 posts | member since Feb 7, 2012
- thedoc 1381 posts | member since Sep 10, 2006
- GDiFonzo 10 posts | member since Nov 9, 2011
Profile of Sihem Bensedrine
Hatred, anger and violence are different [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Hatred, anger and violence are different things. Anger is something healthful as is allows to a human being to react to a situation, to a fact, and this reaction is inherently healthful. It is normal and healthful if people react. Anger is sometimes provokes reformation, its a good consultant, as it do not provokes hate but an adjustment of behaviours and of attitudes of our counterpart or our partners counterparts. On the other side hate is a very bad consultant. Because if you feel hate, you can not control your reactions no more, you can a lot of harm as you become yourself something uncontrollable as you are dominated by bad vibrations. And it is very important to control yourself and not to develop hatred because hate never meet positiv things but only negativ things, as you feel hate you are frightened, and as you are frightened you become violent and as you are violent you do a lot of harm. Violence is only the effect of these perceptions its not a perception on its own. So I think that hatred and anger are contradictory and that hatred is a bad consultant.
Sihem Bensedrine:
This could possibly be paradise but if you [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: This could possibly be paradise but if you examine the actual thinking, the actual tendances and the fact that the leaders of our world are not showing any will to proceed in this way I can hardly imagine how capitalism could disappear. So I have no idea how to proceed in this way but I try my best as I try to wipe of this mortgage of our fortune, to erasure these restraints which avoid a normal development of humanity. I hope there are others, I hope there will be enough maturity, enough wisdom in the world to abandon these systems one day, which are making out of human a kind of predator.
I think that globalisation has no direct [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that globalisation has no direct impact on dictatorships or democracies. I think that the question of dictatorship and democracy is more related to the world's centers of power, to lobbying, and to groups of interest, rather than to the question of globalisation. The globalisation itself can have positive effects as it can provide an approximation of people, encourage communication and exchange. But it can certainly have a negative impact, namely in the economic field, by impoverishing the poorest even more, and by [...] those people who are disadvantaged by these disfunctions, they are the victims of this globalisation. In any case, I am sure that in the region where the highest concentration of dictatorships survives, which is my region, the arab world, the dictatorships are not a result of globalisation, but they are the result of a colonialism which has survived the colonial era which has persevered, and which has made possible that the powers in place never be powers elected and chosen by their citizens, but by lobbies and superpowers which are taking our countries hostage. In my opinion, the question of democratisation of my country and of the countries in in my region is rather related to the question of foreign powers than to the question of globalisation.
There are aggressions which accumulated over [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: There are aggressions which accumulated over decades which create the violence in the ghettos. It's not an inherent violence, the violence does not has its origin in the genes of the ghetto residents. There is a history of violence and this history is about multiple aggressions these ghetto residents have been confronted with. Today we face the harvest of this irresponsable politics towards the immigrated population. There has been the attempt to put them into ghettos, a problem that the public did not take seriously enough and which refused them a development comparable to the development of the other citizens. And I am convinced that if you take these kids of the developed and rich districts in Paris and put them in the same conditions you would face the same phenomena of rejection and violence. The violence has not to be examined in its manifestations but in its origins. And if we are desire the violence to stop, we have to fight these origins who caused a marginalisation in all areas of the kids living in the ghettos concerning free time activities, cultural infrastructures, educative infrastructures which brought up the tinderbox which is on fire today because we grow up powder and set it on fire.
I think it deserves our high regard to [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think it deserves our high regard to defend a nation which is discriminating and oppressing you. But it's not only a deserving gesture, but a useful gesture, as by this gesture the discriminated and rejected person refuses to conform to the logic of marginalisation in which the system of his country wants to put him. So this is an excellent way to break out of this logic of rejection - you are rejected, you reject those who reject you, and this way, a vicious circle of violence emerges. The fact of loving your country and of rejecting to accept your status of a rejected, of a minority, is the first step to fight back in the most effective way discrimination and rejection, and I think the best way is, indeed, not to resort to this reflex of rejection and isolation.
If you consider the wastage in the world [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: If you consider the wastage in the world concerning the military industrie, and the militarian industrial lobbies, you see that an unbelievable amount of money is provided to wage wars, to wage wars against others to make these industries work, to make them function so that they produce arms, arms which are responsible for the death of millions of people. If these amount would be spent on humanity, on development of the humanity, on culture, on things that make the human being unfold, we would have another kind of humanity and we would live on another planet.
For more than 50 years there is no peace in [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: For more than 50 years there is no peace in the Middle East yet as there is a state, Israel, which occupies the arabian territories and as this state do not want to make peace with the other arabian states. And all this because of a persecution complex as they feel encircled by vitriolic Arabians who want to erase Israel. And history showed off, that it was the state of Israel and not the arabian states which refused the Oslo agreement, which refused to execute it, which refused to apply it after signing it, which hijacked members of the democratically elected government of Palestine. Today Israel has the right to kill, to assassinate with impunity, there is no international dissapproval and the palestinian people has only the right to shut up, to accept being opressed and to choke on this dramatic situation. And it's the international community and the Europeans which is asphyxiating this state and its people, which bars them from eating, which bars them from living as they are unlucky and voted a governement which does not appeal to Israel. And as long as Israel refuses to make peace there will never be peace. As nobody can make peace alone, there have to be two who want to make Peace and Palestine showed its will to make peace. And there were always the israeli government which shipwrecked the peace indentures which the international community tried to install. So if we want peace, the Israelis, the part of the Israelis which wants peace, has to assert itself. The israeli citizens have to demand their government to live in peace with their neighbours and to stop waging wars against those who surround them and to choose living in peace.
That depends on the governement. There are [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: That depends on the governement. There are democratically elected governments and there are governments which are imposed on societies. Concerning the democratically elected governments, the solution is very simple. You have to mobilise the society so they are not reelected and you have to create a anti war lobby which every time when a government decides to go to war, mobilise the people to protest in the streets and that they exert pressure on their government to avoid going to war. And thats totally feasable. Concerning the non elected states, the dictatorships, its much more difficult as they are imposed to the society, as they are in power against the will of the society and as they wage wars against the will of the society and as they make politics against the will of the society. And thats a more general combat as it is about fighting dictatorships and to overthrow alltogether the autocratic states with a minimum of losses, which means with a minimum of violence. So this question is much more complex but concerning the elected governments they have to understand that they won't be reelected and that those who elected them won't reelect them if they compete once again. And the example of Spain is a good example as we see it quite plainly. The government Aznar lost the elections becauset it engaged its country into an unjust war, the Iraq war, which was totally injustified and unjust.
I think the human dignity is [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think the human dignity is indivisible. It can not be divided into corporal integrity, moral integrity and civil integrity. The human dignity is indivisible and can not be fragmented. Every human deserves its whole human dighnity and every human deserves that its dignity is respected. If today so many man and women are deprived of their human dignity its not because they do not deserve it, as they slipped up or something, but because there are interests of certain regimes within society and I'm talking about my society, the tunisian society. So there are people which have the job to violate this dignity, to erase it and to avoid its evolvement. And these attempts are not due to a question of deserve but they are related to interests. These regimes fight this dignity as they are afraid of people who dispose of their entire human dignity and benefice from it to become free man and women. Thats the problem.
In our world there is a enormous production [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: In our world there is a enormous production of food, we are not living in a world whith a food deficit. The problem is the distribution of food, how the ressources are portioned up, how those who are the main producers can benefit from their production. There is the most fondamental disfonction in the world which causes that the producers are disqualified, that their production has not the price it deserves. And those who control the world market, provoke a situation which which is unique in history, which is poverty and famine in a world where there is opulence and wealth, a richness like never before. That do not comes from the peoples incapacity to produce but from the domination exerted from the northern hemisphere on the southern hemisphere. A southern hemispehre which has no control over her ressources, her production, the products she produces, all this is controlled by the countries of the northern hemisphere and that is the main disfunction. phere
The governments of the whole world installed [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: The governments of the whole world installed the League of Nations, the ancestor of the United Nations and as they installed after the two murderous wars, where there have taken place the biggest horrors accomplished in the name of civilisation, they installed the United Nations. And the entire humanity as the international community thougt this would by a form of global governement. Every nation gave up a part of its sovereignty to give it to the collective government, to United Nations, so that the UN plays the role of a global government and to avoid that the horrors of World War II repeat themselves. After the breakdown of the Eastern Block there has unfortunately been a disequilibrium as there where the unilateral United States which lead the whole world to new wars and new horrors of which we thought they would never come back. And what happened was, that the United States disqualified the United Nations and in this way a collective government as its decisions have never been respected as they marginalised its decisions so that these decision had no value. Otherwise the United States took very wicked decisions on their own, like to engage in Iraq and in Afghanistan and which will continue in Palestine. So this american unilateralism did a lot of harm and everybody backed up facing this will to govern the world and I think this did a lot of harm to the whole world. So today we have to give back to the United Nations the role they deserve and which they have to play as Europe has to counterbalance the american unilateralism so that the global decisions are more balanced.
Yes, I think there is a corruption that is [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Yes, I think there is a corruption that is quite high today. The corruption in Southern countries is not the most important because the systems of corruption are systems which come with the multinationals, and these multinationals are producers of corruption because they include in their investments margins of corruption and like this they managed to put themselves centres of interest in the countries as they wished, and this way they managed to make these systems very efficient and very permanent because they corrupt administrations that are the partners of the Northern countries from the Southern countries. Like that, they integrate in the economic system and in the political system this scourge which today is very handicapping for Southern countries, which is one of the major handicaps to development because these corrupted persons are not persons who respect the structures to which they belong, who respect the rules they should, who are there in order to respect, but they are there in order to serve other interests and consequently to deregulate the national economic systems. They are therefore creating the basis of what is underdevelopment and they are entertaining and alimentating the systems of underdevelopment. I think that we can combat corruption. It is absolutely possible to do it. It is a question of political determination and decision.
I think that terrorism is indefensible and [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that terrorism is indefensible and not to justify no matter what the motivations are. To use the earth to impose one’s will is something embarrassing and not to justify anyway. No matter if it comes from states, no matter if it comes from armed groups, it does not give them advantages and legitimation. However, what we call terrorism, a resistance of people against their occupation, against killing, against deportation, against asphyxiation, against everything that a state can do to you, an organized society, like things are actually happening in Palestine, is something that arises from the semantic war. At this moment we cannot speak of terrorism anymore but of trials to hide something with words that are to reject and that are unacceptable, which is completely legitimate which is a resistance to an occupation. When the state of Israel attacks another country like it happened in Lebanon this summer and we called this self-defence, even there it’s a matter of a war of words and not [???] on which the whole world can agree. Because it is unacceptable that terrorism that is actually executed by Israel, can be called self-defence and it is not acceptable that today, the resistance of Palestine against the occupant can be called terrorism.
We are very far away of old patterns during [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: We are very far away of old patterns during the roman epoch or the Chinese cadre epochs when there was a political governer who decided to make war, who led it and who took the risk himself to die on a battlefield because he was convinced of the correctness of his choice. Today, those who decide about wars and conflicts are never in front of the scenery. They send civilians to play the role of […], they provide them with arms when they deal with interethnic conflicts. They provide the two sides with arms, sometimes cynically. They push, they decide that this population has to pay for something whereas no one knows the real motives and they are never available to pay the bills, they never die. It is always the civilians that pay the largest bills for the wars of ideas, made by those who are sitting comfortably in their armchairs in their offices and who – concerning these kind of decisions- accept and do not measure the damages they cause and they are only interested in the profit they can run-in by deciding these wars.
I consider that today, there is a real [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I consider that today, there is a real extortion of the security that obliges the citizens, especially in the occidental world, to exchange their liberty for their security. I think that this burden that weighs on the occidental citizens and that forces them to abandon their liberties in favour of the sacro-holy security, is an insupportable extortion; it is an unjustifiable extortion because there is not one viable society without respecting the civil rights, with the respect of fundamental rights, without the respect of the law, without the respect of all the values that make the occident offer his democratic model to the whole world. What we are going through today in the occidental countries is a real regression of the civil rights and this regression is not only harmful to the occidental countries themselves, to the citizens of the occidental countries themselves. But it is also harmful to us as far as this philosophy of universal values… some human rights are today already disqualified in the name of this conflict of civilizations, that one tries to sell us in the name of security. It is a real cheating that those who govern the world today are leading us through, especially the American administration but also the European countries who force the citizens of the world to abandon their liberty in the name of security. The best mean to continue to weaken this society is to unsecure the citizens concerning their liberty by confiscating their liberty, by removing the guaranties of human rights of which they are actually profiting. In my opinion, it is very, very important not to walk into a trap and to say that it is evident that security cannot exist without respecting the civil rights, without respecting the guarantees of the law and the guarantees of the universal values of the civil rights.
I think this is a question that should be [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think this is a question that should be demanded the other way around. First of all, one should ask why these countries are dictatorships. Who supports these dictatorships? What is the origin of these dictatorships? And I think that it is very important to identify the responsibility of the occident nations concerning the political oppressions that the southern countries have to bare, like Tunisia, where I am from. Almost the absolute majority of the Arabic countries live under dictatorships and these regimes were installed one day after the independences. They were installed by the former colonists in order to continue satisfying their interests. This connection that links the occidental countries to ours and makes that we do not have the right to choose our governers, that we do not have the right to have a minimum control over our resources, either over our material resources or over our human resources, divides our society and causes that our societies are held under the yoke of dictatorships which are the supporters. These dictatorships are supported by the occidental countries. The biggest supporter of these dictatorships is the American administration which pretends today the wish to democratise the Arabic world whereas they were the supporters of these dictatorships; they helped them to hold out and they are still supporting them today. If these problems of rejection come from Arabic societies (I am talking of the region where I am living); they precisely exist because there are a lot of resentments and a lot of conscience of the occidental responsibility, coming from a politically and culturally underdeveloped society in which we are maintained. So one should probably ask about the origin of these dictatorships before considering them as matter of fact.
I think that it is not a utopia to dream of [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that it is not a utopia to dream of such a world. It is absolutely possible to have an order. Man is not a predator, first for himself, then for his environment and for all that lives on earth. I think that this is a question of political decision and determination. Today, this determination is poor because those who govern us are motivated more by questions of private interest, of clan interest and of group interest than by the interest of humanity. Some time ago, the human motive, the fact of considering man as ultimate object of our actions, was pushed away a little bit, and group interests, clan interests were advanced. Today, this causes much blame to humanity, for instance in armed conflicts where lives are wiped out and killed without any really valuable reason. Reasons for killing a person are never good. And on the other hand, the damages done to our planet in the field of environment, for which we currently pay hard, can easily be prevented by developping ourselves. It is not true at all, it is not evident at all that development corresponds to the predation of our environment. On the contrary, all this is possible, we only have to have the determination. But today we are governened by systems which don't have this determination, which don't have this motivation, which don't have this objective on their hierarchy of priorities.
I think that responsability and profit are [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that responsability and profit are not necessarily antinom contradictory. It is absolutely possible for a company to constrain itself to respect an ethic, an ethic which corresponds to the field of activity in which it stands. This is not at all generating a non-profit situation for it. It is enough to have the will to constrain itself to follow ethic rules for a company to find that the best means to be absolutely within the norms of growth and of economic success etc. is to [...] the ethic need of environment, whether it is human or natural environment. So I don't think that there is conflict between the two imperatives, the profit one and the ethic one. On the contrary, I think that entrepreneurs should be encouraged to have an ethic preoccupation and to seek for the best mean for making profit without being a predator.
Indeed, I think there can't be a balanced [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Indeed, I think there can't be a balanced human development in our societies as long as women are excluded from power. This exclusion from power is not only detrimental to women, it is detrimental to the whole society. I take the example of the arab society to which I belong. It seems that men have a point of honour to confine women to the private field, and they make a religious canon out of it. In my opinion, this place of women in the arab society is not at all a religious canon, a religious imperative. It is an imperative where the interests of men have been pushed forward and dressed in a religious dress in order to maintain a secular domination because women are frightening. Women, when liberated from their chains, will compromise the masculine privileges which in men's opinion are eternal and profitable for their development. In reality, these privileges are a kind of straitjackets in which men put themselves and which seem to give them self-confidence, but which have perverse effects on themselves and on the whole of our societies. I think that allowing womn to have access to all spheres of power of a society, whether it is political, economic, social, cultural or any other power, is something that will favour in our societies a better development of the whole society. The loss of masculine privileges is not at all synonymous with loss of human dignity for men. On the contrary, it will be a regain of dignity for men. When they allow women to dispose of their entire ...
I'm not sure at all that Africa is [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I'm not sure at all that Africa is genetically incapable to develop. I think that Africa has been one of the civilisations which were promising, which radiated on the world and one only needs to have a look at the history of [...] The only thing is that the time in which we live today is a time that threatened this Africa, namely in the last century and the preceding century, during the two centuries which preceded us. It left Africa in a position of domination. Africa had been colonized, Africa had been looted, its human resources and its natural resources had been looted, and the North has been developed at the expense of this Africa. And today, this system which has disqualified Africa is still ]beyond] the less apparent, more opaque models, but Africa continues to be tied to its ancient mother countries by the same bonds which permitted its submission, and this produces the situation of today: Africa is less developed and Africa is not going towards its development, on the contrary, it is hampered today in its development by its own sons who are the first servants of interests which are not African interests. That is the big difficulty of African development.
It's another reason to fight these scourges [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: It's another reason to fight these scourges who are ruling the world, precisely because there are people who base their behaviour on intentions which are more honorable and less egoistic than those of these man in power. These people have to make some efforts and to take action to eliminate those from the leadership who are real predators. So it is another reason to express solidarity and to cooperate when you have common goals.
I think everybody should have a right to [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think everybody should have a right to choose and I think the declaration of human rights in 1948 proclaimed this principal which is a major principal of human rights. Today it is a great pity that hesitant society have the bad habit to built fortresses to avoid the circulation of human beings and in this way to refuse to human beings to live where the would choose to live. Once again fear is the origin of these hesitant politics, these security politics which occur mainly in the european countries and which we call today the fortress of Schengen which avoids the circulation of man between the North and the South. Its the worst invention Europe ever made and its a denial of european history. Europes construction was based on diversity, it has been created and has been enriched by the integration of different people coming from all over the world, from Asia, from Africa, from the United States. Even the United States are a product of a human movement coming from Europe and elsewhere and thats the way new societies were born. If today you try to deny the contribution of immigration the contribution of human movements all over the world by hiding yourself behind your secured frontieres you built a kind of prison as the europeens actually do. And a think a good illustration of these politics is the israeli wall which Israel built around itself. This wall imprisoned the israeli people and this imprisonement is not in favor of peace but in favor of hatred as it do not advantage the exchange of humans which is at the origin of all progress of humanity. And human exchange is the possibility for all human beings to move and to resettle and to live where they have chosen to live, where they decided to fly their flag.
It's not about blaming the consumers. But [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: It's not about blaming the consumers. But every consumer is in this way or another an accomplice of the consumer goods producing system. But the problem is not about the consumers but about the system which produces enormous amounts of consumer goods. The occident depends on more and more goods whereas the South at the same time has an enormous deficit and is suffering from famines. We have to reconsider this system and the societies we are living in and to divide the wealth in a more fair-minded way. Blaming the consumers will not change their behaviour. And that because their behaviour stands not at the beginning of this system but its the system in the northern hemisphere, a multinational system which oblige these countries to an overproduction and an overconsumption. We have to return to a simplier behaviour, a more economical behaviour concerning consumer goods. Thats an evolution which already takes places in the northern states which tend towards a way of less consumption, of more natural consumption which corresponds to the real needs and which breaks up with being subordinated to an industrie which is forcing us to consume.
I think the enslavement of Africa which was [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think the enslavement of Africa which was at the origin of the creation of the United States has been something which disassembled Africa which constrained Africa and its human ressources and which deprived it of its equilibrium. I think that today we would live in a better world if these awful things never happened in the United States but also in Europe and in the arabian states. The development of the United States and of Europe would have been more harmonically.Their would be states where the human being is not supressed and where the individual is at the origin and at the end of all human consideration.
Its becomes advantageous to disrespect the [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Its becomes advantageous to disrespect the law if the law becomes an instrument of injustice, a negation of justice. It often happens in our countries and I refer to Tunesia in this case, that a dictatorship uses the law to undermine to oppress justice, to disentitle the law of every sense of justice, and in such a case it becomes necessary to not subordinate yourself to these inequitable laws, which are oppressing liberty. This civil contumacy is a beneficial act if the valid law is unjust, as it oppresses people instead of liberating them, as it erases people instead of protecting them.
I don't think that there are values in any [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I don't think that there are values in any religion which are against human development or against the respect of human rights. In constrast, I believe that many religions gave an eternel and holy countenance to their vital interests so they are beyond doubt. And I do not think that the values of human rights and religious values are antagontistic and especially in my religion, the islam, there is no antagonism at all. Those who turn against the respect of human rights are not the religions but the policies that are established in our societies, in my country, in the arabic societies, those who are violating human rights and who try to avoid their divulgence are not the religious facts but dictatorships and regimes that are installed to kill human beings and this is the real obstacle. And what is dramatic, is the fact that certain "promotors" of these human rights in the northern hemisphere are also obstacles to the development of human rights which are inherent in customs, usages and religions as they perfectly know that the origin of the obstacles are the regimes in power and their own interests.
I think democracy is the best invention [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think democracy is the best invention humantity ever made concerning the control of a society of its own destination. But it do not suffices to install a democratic system to think that everything goes well. The democratic institutions also have to function. The criterition is consequently how these institutions function and if the function in the right way. So its better to ask about how democracy functions than to ask about the democratic system itself. If it do not functions in the right way the system can generate bad results. In order that it functions in the right way it is very important that there are countervailing powers who are able to exist parallel, that these coutervailing powers can also proceed in the right way, that their free expression is assured and that they are not discouraged to express themselves. Thats the only way to ensure that those who are leading a countries are on the right way and that they try to make that democracy really exists and that it do not remains just a word without any institution which make out of this word a running democratic state.
In my opinion, a holy war does not exist. No [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: In my opinion, a holy war does not exist. No war merits the notation of “holy war”. When the notation is a tribute, it means that we need a legitimation. It creates what […] is completing. I think that the crusade came from Mister Bush, what he called his “holy war” and the “total war for the area” is something totally illegitimate because it is made for the profits of the industrial lobby and the oil barons and it pretends to have a humanitarian motivation and a superior motivation, a respectable motivation. The same thing is what kills innocent people on the pretext of religion, especially the Islam who requires this, which is completely unjustifiable and I think that religion is innocent of their auto-proclamation. However, I consider that justifiable wars exist. When someone occupies your country, when someone attacks you, when a state subjects you to its will, when a state subordinates you […] of your citizenship and your right to […], then a war is justified. And it is correct to lead it against the occupier. But this does not justify all the abuses. This means that it is unacceptable that the aim justifies the means and that even the justifies wars are allowed to be led without respect for the citizens and without respect for the norms of the Geneva Convention and nobody – however justified his aim is- has the right to violate these conventions and to justify the unjustifiable.
I think that it is possible that the [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that it is possible that the changing is peaceful but this does not mean that those that keep the power give it up voluntarily. They have to be forced to give it up and therefore we should only have the possibility to abolish the mechanism that makes them rule and we have to act against this mechanism that the changing becomes imperative, that these people are forced to go. The fact that they are forced to go does not necessarily mean the use of force and of violence. But it can simply signify the institutional exercise of a pression that makes the mighty ones give up the power and those that are actually the bandits of the world will not be any longer bandits and those that have a worldwide responsibility for the questions of war and of peace are responsible and smart people that think before acting and really think in favour of the world.
I think that the terrorism in terms of armed [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that the terrorism in terms of armed groups is not a benefit for the people terrorism pretends to defend. The most outrageous example is the example of the terrist attacks on the world trade center on september eleven. These attacks have been accomplished in the name of the islam and those who were the first victims of these attacks and who suffer until today, who have to pay a big price are the people of the islamic world. And that because these terrorists killed innocent people, and justified in that way the adoption of counterterrorism politics which are themselves a form of terrorism and that above all concerning the Bush administration. And these politics were above all harmful for the arabic world because this arabic world pays and payed and continues to pay a terrible price for these actes she is not responsible for, she never wanted or approved. But anyway the arabic world is blamed for them and we, the citizens living in this part of the world still have to bear the consequences of these acts and I think it is just as criminel to instrumentalise these attacks to justifie attacks against citizens, to justifie the restraint of liberties in these countries and to justifie a lot of violations of human rights which are carried out in the name of the war against terror.
I think this is unevitable. But it seems [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think this is unevitable. But it seems that brands are more powerful than some gouvernments. That can be the case for some countries of the southern hemisphere but concerning the northern hemisphere I'm not sure at all. There is rather an international network of complaisance which leads to an international laissez-faire policy. There are the lobbies which defend this status. And in these states of the northern hemisphere the brands seem to be a kind of hostage-takers of the governments. The elected do not try to change the situation but rather to appeal to the lobbies. Thats in fact a kind of vicious circle. More the lobbies are powerful, more they succeed in taking the governments as hostages and these governements rather try to stay in power than to change the situation. But as I said before I do not consider this situation as uninevitable.
Courage is to capture the position of the [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Courage is to capture the position of the cross current of the common sense, of what is politically correct. And to be a part of the cross current is the acceptance to take the risk of being marginalised, being excluded, being rejected. I think it is very important to upvalue this courage as there are other grounds to break, differing ways, ways which dare to cross the red lines which are created sometimes and its due to this that there is an exchange. You have to accept to be a minority, that there are not many partisans and that the way of change is always the way of the minority and it is important to pick up courage to accept the fact that you are not like anybody.
Its the question we are asking ourselves [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Its the question we are asking ourselves overall in the arabian world. Me as a defender of human rights I would prefer that no country has the bomb and I think that the atomic bomb is something very dangerous which should not be confided to politicians. But which is alarming, is the fact that on the one side there is a hughe debate about the iranian bomb which do not exists yet and on the other hand, there is hughe acceptance of Israel, Russia, India and Pakistan having the bomb, that the iranian state is encircled by states which have many bombs and not only one bomb and in this way that it seem to be normal to only demand to the Iran to disarm. That is imbalanced and unequal. So we can only achieve the worlds peace with the disarming of all states and not only with the disarming of one of them. So what I am asking for is that the atomic bomb has to be banned all over the world and that all countries bind themselves not to dispose of the atomic bomb.
These international enforcement mechanisms [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: These international enforcement mechanisms exist but whats missing is the will of the countries to apply them. So its an attempt to deprive these mechanisms of their efficiency and this will has been clearly signalised by the american administration which is doing everything to deprive these mechanisms of their efficiency. To solve this problem there is no use of challenge the universal law, the international law which is a respectable law, a good law but on the contrary we to strengthen this law so that the employment of these mechanisms is more effective. In this way we have to put the screws on the american administration instead of playing to the United States as Europe actually does. And whats really alarming as you put an eye on the aggression of Libanon is the fact that Europe acts as an executor of the american will instead of acting as a counterbalance. So Europe has a heavy responsibility to give back to the international machinery its whole efficiency.
Violence is an instrument to impose a [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Violence is an instrument to impose a political will to someone. If negociation fails, its violence which takes its place. Politics has intentions and reasons in transparant societes as well as in our societies which are not clear at all. And as there is no transparancy the dialogue and the possibility of negociation disappear. And as this dialogue disappears, it is the violence which can take its place. It doesn't matters if the violence comes from the state itself, or from groups within the society, that do not changes anything about the fact that it is an attempt to impose with compulsion your point of view, your will. I think it is possible at any rate to hold off violence, to hold off any possibility to use violence. That will do concerning these countries and before all concerning the arabic states which are actually in power. The use of violence within these states is systematic and if these states would stop using violence against their own citizens there would be a niche and a place for dialogue which is in favor of a better negociation, a better cohabit, a better coexistance. Violence evokes violence, it is because of the state using violence that marginalised groupes are using violence and they are using violence because our countries, and I'm talking about Tunisia in particular, the state refuses to give a chance to negociation.
Thats the major paradox of the countries of [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Thats the major paradox of the countries of the northern hemisphere. On the one hand they consider their economical growth as absolutely legitimate and beyond all question but on the other hand they are not willing to accept that the same thing happens in other countries. They are too accustomed to consider themselves as the only ones who have a right to develop and thats what leads them to consider it as abnormal which is actually happening in China. From our point of view which is a little bit beyond all this, we think that the development actually happening in China is an excellent lesson for the Occident to have a more critical view on his own behaviour and to restrain perhaps what he considers as absolute thruth. But it is in fact this system of a double standard in judgement which is represented the most and exported the most from the western countries.
Colonialism in its ancient form has of [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Colonialism in its ancient form has of course disappeared. The direct colonialism, the direct domination with political intervention but colonialism itself continues to exist in other ways, in a more diffused way as the regimes in power are installed by the ancient mother countries which act as intermediary between the former mother countries and the former colonies to represent the interests of these former mother countries instead of administrating their countries, instead of regimenting their countries, instead of leading them according to their own interests. They are dissassembling the economie of their countries, they are oppressing the population to assure the interests of the former mother countries and the new colonial masters which can be states or multinational companys who are dictating their will to these countries. So I think a new colonialism exists and it its the origin of the fosse which exists between the north and the south and its the origin of the hopelessness of the south concerning its own development.
The sense of this word is universal and if [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: The sense of this word is universal and if the sense of the word freedom really is universal there is no reason why there should be different meanings because of different circumstances or because of different countries. For me the sense of the word freedom is universal and all attempts who are trying to attribute particular contents or a unique content to the word freedom in order to adopt it to interests and political wills, are dangerous because every freedom has to be an entirely freedom. Every man is born freely, every man needs freedom to live and to develop. And all the attempts which are trying to attribute a unique sense to freedom are attempts which have a hidden agenda which can not be justified because of any difference in religion, in culture or in geographical location. Freedom can not be challenged, it can not have different meanings. Because if you try to attribute different significations to the word freedom you also try to control this freedom and every attempt to limitate and to restrain freedom is an annihilation of this freedom.
Individual freedom has to be protected by [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Individual freedom has to be protected by the general public. It is totally unhealthful if the general public slows down freedom or restrains individual freedom. But on the other hand individual freedom has to be exercised within the limits of the general public, within the limits of a respect of the general public. I think laws are actually defining these limits of individual freedom but in reality peoples themselves enforce these limits. And this kind adjustment between laws and reality has to be made in a dynamic way as the laws have to create the basic conditions but at the same time the inviduals have to dispose of enough responsibilities to, on the one side protect this freedom and not to endanger the general public and on the other side provide justice to every individual. So it is unalienable that the legal base defines the standard and that the individuals, in the context of associations or corporate expression, administrate these limits in a dynamic and positiv way as they have to avoid that any individual is crushed but at the same time they have to keep a given individual in the limits of its own freedom so that it do not restrains the general public and its rights.
There are different systems in different [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: There are different systems in different countries. There are good system and bad systems. In my country, Tunisia, the system is rather a bad one because this system does not bear a youth who is not able to integrate in his own society and to make his own contribution to his society but it creates a futur adult whi is only able to receive informations, to agonise and accept the will coming from above. In this way it creates futur adults who are subordinated to the will of the strongest. If I compare this system to what you expect from an educational system I consider it as really disastrous. In other systems like the scandinavian ones the futur adult gets prepared to account responsibility, to be proactive to be self-confident and to be an adult who is able to make a contribution to his own society. And the opposite is happening in my country. It is a system which bears adults who are deprived of their immunity, of their capability to account responsibility, of their capability to react. So it depends on the system.
This deals with the same problem as the [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: This deals with the same problem as the question before. If you allow to Africa and to the whole southern hemisphere to develop in a free way there won't be this level of inequality of chances and welfare in the world. The occident developed at the expense of the South and it goes on in this way. The occident makes out of the south a kind of odder of richness, as it imports on the one hand the south' masterminds and as it exports on the other hand the north' waste. There is a real problem of inequality in development and these disfonctions between the North and the South are the origin of the south' backwardness and its underdevelopment.
Actually we have to notice that some lifes [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Actually we have to notice that some lifes are worth more than others. Its not right that they really worth more but international institutions, the medias, the democratic countries want to make us believe that it is worth if some lifes are carried off as if others are carried off. Today children are dying daily in Palestine, children are deprived of their life and thats not even mentioned, thats considered as something banal. But if in Israel there is a life carried off and no life deserves to be carried off, that constitutes a problem while some kilometers further the same life which is carried off constitutes no problem. Consequently the problem is about this double standard concerning human lifes value which has to be reproached to the system of human values, to the totality of human rights, which has the tendancy to attribute a bigger value to certain lifes than to others, depending on the geographical sphere and the countries in whitch they are born as well as the ethnical affiliation of these countries. So I think this can be reproached to the whole philosophie of human rights, thats something which should not exist and which we have to fight with all resoluteness.
That is not the right question. There is [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: That is not the right question. There is always a tendency to domineer the states of the southern hemisphere. These underdeveloped states have to find out on their own how to solve their problems and how to improve their development. This problem can not be solved from above or from outside these spheres of production. It's up to these people to decide which is the right way of development for them, what corresponds best to their needs. And none of the systems is exclusive. You can easily combine the two of them, or even consider other funding methods, but the problem is to leave the logic of domineering, and to give these countries and societies the chance to choose their methods of financing and development.
It's because of our patriarchal heritage [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: It's because of our patriarchal heritage that we do are not able to overcome this problem and these patriarchal mindsets, these customs cause that women are still excluded of power. Not only of the political but also of the economical power, cultural power, power in all its ocurrences. And the fact that women are excluded allows to create and to keep up these disadvantages. But its not an unreversible evolution but on the contrary, there is a tendance to modifie this situation since about 50 years. There is a tendency of an emergence all over the world and the womens NGOs, the womens lobbies and the United Nations did a good job until today to reverse these tendency and to make it possible for women to acces the centers of power which allows to modify the virtualities so that the situation of disadvantage will not last forever. When I'm talking about disadvantages I do not always want to name the women victims but I want to refer to the fact that women are not starting with the same possibilities. It's because of the less of opportunities which is the origin of the disadvantages. It's not an inevitability, things can change, things are already changing and a think this can also modifie the face of the world.
I am a defender of human rights I take my [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I am a defender of human rights I take my choice for a pacifistic fight but I understand that in some situations this choice do not suffice in a situation of the occupation of a countries territory for example. It is clear that the pacifistic fight is absolutely necessairy but it is also insufficant, it its sometimes the proof of powerlessness if it do not accompanied by an armed struggle reponding to an armed aggression and which is able to compensate this armed aggression. Unfortunately something both of them are useful. I prefer the pacifistic fight everytime the situation justifies it, demands it, but I understand at the same time that in certain situations, in the case of Palestine for example, armed resistence is necessairy to fight back an armed aggression. Because today as we consider the situation of the Palestinian gouvernement, of the Palestinian parliament which has been democratically elected, in which situation do they are? They are hostages of an aggressive country, Israel, and nobody is talking about these hostages, it has been forgotten that some members of parliament have been hijacked and that is not shocking for nobody. We talked about it on the first day later it has been forgotten whereas on the other side there is a hoopla about the hijacked israelien soldiers. And there is exactly the failure of a the pacifistic fight as it do not suffices all time to make your voice heard and it is perhaps the voice of armed struggle which enforces a voice of resistance even if it hopes to be pacifistic.
I don't think that the drug consumption can [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I don't think that the drug consumption can not be waived itself. We should not ask about the drug itself but the reasons whitch lead the people to drug consumption. The drugs function is to alleviate the suffering which the society evoques. Its a kind of escape because these people abandon theirselves to drugs to affront the origin of their suffering more effective. It's certain that the fact that so many people fall back on drugs is sypthomatical for the bad circumstances in our societies and if we succeed in making our societies more worth living, more pleasant, more human, the youth would not be keen on taking drugs and would not have the desire to fall back on drugs.
This problem is not about guilt. Concerning [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: This problem is not about guilt. Concerning this disease its not the right way to ask about guilt. I think this disease is a plague, something that arrives and which you didn't want to arrive. We would better ask about the people who do not want to fight back this plague, who do not provide the necessairy instruments which exist and which are on our command. Thats the bad that we have to fight. It's not the birth of the disease or its outbreak. It does not matter how the desease was born or how it broke out. What matters is if we are willing or not to fight it back. And it is this this missing will, these big industrial trusts, the pharmaceutical industrie, who are the origin of this lack of will. Because they are not searching for a solution of this problem but they are searching for profits and if profit comes to the fore it is evident to search there for the guilty ones.
My heroes are all those who saw in the human [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: My heroes are all those who saw in the human being the human dimension, and who knew to pay tribute to this humanity, who knew how to pave their path in a world where the material predominates and who tried to make humanity and human dignity of great worth, as being the first value. They are numerous, it is necessary to know how to see them as especially to get them by our side in the fight that we lead.
I don't think that pantents are blocking [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I don't think that pantents are blocking innovation, on the contrary creativity is protected by patents as they protect the intellectual property rights of the creators. IF these rigts would be immediatly exploited by every kind of industrie at this moment those who create are not payed for their creation and those who strive for profit could proceed whithout ask them for their opinion. So I think it's very important to protect the author who creates and to protect its creation, but this means to revise the patent law in a way that they are no longer a handicap for the majority of the people to take advantage of them and consequently I think we should better loosen the patent law than to abolish it.
There are many ways to achieve an economic [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: There are many ways to achieve an economic growth which respects the ecological limits. And its possible to respect these limits if those who govern take the decision to respect an ecological limit and as they oblige everybody to respect this limit and you will see that the industrie is perfectly able to conform to this limit without putting at risk its growth at all.
I am not sure if the internet could by an [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I am not sure if the internet could by an instrument to infiltrate privacy because nothing bars you from switching off your computer when you want it and at the moment you want it. But on the contrary to dispose of this technologie allows you can enter from your home the rest of the world and I think thats a great gift of modern society and the positiv aspect of the internet. But this positiv aspect can be turned into a negativ aspect concerning cybercrimes as for example paedophilia. But I think we have the instruments at our disposal to fight back these tendencies, the legal instruments exist and the required institutions also exist. But the fact that an instrument is used for criminel activities should not at all lead us the restrict the internet which has so many positiv and enriching aspects. So I think it depends on us, it depends on what we want to do with the internet which allows us to enter the whole world from home without being obliged to pay a lot of money for it.
Sihem Bensedrine:
I think if this question would have been [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think if this question would have been asked a century ago we would certainly have the beginning of an answer. Today we have to come to grips with the dammages these men caused and especially with this disequilibrium of consumption of ressources and availability of ressources. And this disequilibrium is due to an attitude of men which is totally irresponsible and which has been dominated by an overuse of ressources, geared by profit seeking. If this question of a sustainable use of ressources would have been asked earlier, the situation would be another. But I don't think it's too late and it would suffice if those who caused the damages would be hold responsible and had to pay the price, it would be perfectly possible to balance the availibility of ressources and their consumption.
Its the one ressource life depends on and a [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Its the one ressource life depends on and a number of conflicts all over the world have their origin in the control over water. That the case in Jordania for example where Palestine and Israel and the other arabian states around battle for water and where the question of acces to water looms large concerning the contiuity of the conflict. But I think human beings should be responsible enough to solve these problems in the way of negociations. There are always ways to dispose of water without evoking conflicts, without evoking armed conflicts and without falling back to domination and occupation of territories.
I don't think that you could qualifie an [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I don't think that you could qualifie an instrument as bad or as good, its the man who with his use, makes out of the same instrument and the same technologie a good thing or a bad thing. And the ability of man to control this technologie exists and it depends on the institutions which are controlling these technologie and it depends also on ethnic rules cocerning the use of these technologies. So every instrument can be used in a bad and a good way its not the instrument itself where we have to seek the bad thing or the good thing.
Sihem Bensedrine:
Today, as the medium television more and [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Today, as the medium television more and more develops we are struck that there is only little space for information but all the more space for trivial things whereas the important things are more and more cancelled. And I think thats the choice of the editors as the media are controlled by lobbies which do not want the citizens to have an awareness and an objective view of events happening in their countries and in the other countries. And thats the way how disinformation works. It's about admitting little time for important information on the one hand and on the other hand to complete the program with trivial things which allows the people not to focus on problems and grievances which are really important in our century.
Concerning genetically modified organisms I [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Concerning genetically modified organisms I think it is wrong only to have attitudes of rejection and only to show a fundamental reaction of rejection concerning this question. But on the contrary I appreciate the fact that there are ecological movements who fight against the use of these organism only to make profit out of it without any control of certain food processing industries. But on the other side I do not understand people who only have a extremistic point of view concerning the control of the people who want to use these organisms and who try to make a profit out of it, concerning above all the medical use who tries to react to environmentally risks. So I think it is again a problem about the use of the genetically modified organisms and not about genetically modified organisms themselves.
Science do not has to be objective. Its not [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Science do not has to be objective. Its not its aim to be objective. Science tries to enhance the knowledge which the man has about its environment and science approaches by trial, which means what it discovers today it adjusts tomorrow as its level of knowledge enhanced and is it could adjust its first point of view. So I think the objectivity of science is not a real problem as science do not has to be objective but its objective is to exist, to do its work. We cannot demand on science to bring up absolute truths, and I think thats the problem as the people always want science to bring up these absolute truths and to give an answer to their existential fears but this is not the function, this is not the role of science. We have to accept the real role of science and not to demand from it which it is not able to bring up.
There are simple things to do, simple acts, [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: There are simple things to do, simple acts, simple gestures like not to be a super consumer of energy sources or above all not to be a super consumer of fossil fuels. If there is one mean, we have to advise the youth not to have a car on their own and not to use their own cars to move but to use bicycles instead and we can ask the people to use ventilators instead of air conditioning. With these simple gestures we can in real terms make a contribution to the reduction of global warming which is harmful for everybody and for which the whole mankind pays the price while those who are producing the global warming, who are polluting the earth, who are the culprits, are not necessarily those who pay the price. A demonstration of this matter of fact is the fact that the United States which are the biggest polluters of carbonic acid gas and the biggest consumers of energie are not the ones the pay the price but that it is the rest of mankind which has to do so.
There is effectively a very big unbalance [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: There is effectively a very big unbalance between the demand of natural resources and energy and the availability, and currently this unbalance is being developed in favour of the strongest. That is to say, in occurence, the United States consumes a lot of energy and are finding means to give lessons concerning the limitation of consumption to the others. The problem should not be limited to the necessity for each country to only consume a portion; the problem is once again to find a world mechanism of structures to reform the set of partners so that what mankind needs should be distributed fairly and not merely according to the military power.
Architecture has a role which is much more [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Architecture has a role which is much more important than the role we accord to it actually as architects built the cubes the youth of the suburb of France have been plugged in and we all know the impact of their work today. Its violence, it is rejection, nearly all the problems of the suburbs. So architecture is not totally innocent, architecture has to respect not only the economicaly needs of people but also their cultural and social needs. And it has to give to the individual a space to develop and not simply to offer a roof to somebody. So the responsibility of architects is not only about flavor or costs and I think is very important that architects are instructed in the analysis of the effects and the impact of what they construct and of what they design as they are designing the everyday life of people.
I have dreams of a future for my country, [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I have dreams of a future for my country, for my citizens, for my fellow citizens where each Tunisian could walk freely in the street without being worried by the police. I have dreams of a Tunisia where the youth could freely have a good time or go to the mosque if they wish it without the police coming to collect them. I have dreams of a Tunisia where each citizen could undertake any economic activity without undergoing the control of the tax office or any other authority because he did not submit to the wills of clans ruling the country. I have dreams of a county where each citizen will feel that his dignity is guaranteed and protected the state ruling that country, where each Tunisian citizen would be happy to live at home, can benefit from this beautiful country and that should not be a country where only foreigners feel good to live in.
I think because of the media and the [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think because of the media and the development of the media our societies were able to approximate and to be visible. And its also curious to be able to watch conflicts passing thousand kilometres farther, to be able to witness them nearly live and to have live information about what is happening. But the danger is that sometimes the pictures do not reflect reality but that they are masking reality. This is an existing danger as the media are sometimes tendentious as they disinform instead of informing the people and because they are controlled by lobbies. In our southern societies is the government which controls the media, its the government which tries to avail itself of the media, of this powerful instrument of communication, to use it as a propaganda platform. But in the northern societies where things are much more sofisticated, where at the moment there is a concentration of property of the media which is the reason for a captious form of domination, the editorial guidelines are not at all times made by journalists but on the contrary they are imposed on the journalists, so the journalists are no longer able to do their work correctly but they have to conformed to an order and these orders often have a hidden agenda.
And I think it would be very severe to treat [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: And I think it would be very severe to treat the humain brain or the human body like a machine. To my mind it is very important to protect the integraty of the human being, to protect its spontaneousness to protect its free will to connect itself to his environement or not to do so and to protect above all its freedom. To treat a human brain or a human body like a machine is very bad and it can result in totalitarianism and thats someting that we have absolutely to avoid.
I think decent education has nothing to do [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think decent education has nothing to do with ressources but with a political choice. For us who are actually living in autocracy and who are deprived of our liberty, the first step to make is to reach for a education system which is a place which allows the people to express their protest. The other countries which do not have this type of problem can help us if they try to establish a bond between their educative systems and our education system. And thereby, by this kind of exchange, a decent education can be installed and its in the context of this freedom of exchange that this kind of education can be assumed.
The number is not always the sign of power. [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: The number is not always the sign of power. We can be very numerous and might is still right, that is to say, to be marginalized and it is for example the case of big marginalized groups like women, blacks, the Arabic, the Moslem. They can be very numerous and still be in a situation of loneliness because they are broken away from the world surrounding them and are ignored. It is in my opinion what makes lonely or not, this is not in relation with the number.
I think that the access to the internet is a [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that the access to the internet is a powerful instrument to reconnect the disadvantaged social classes to the economic life, to the cultural life, and to the social life of a society. And it's very important for the youth to have access to these technologies, in order to integrate themselves in society and to be no longer isolated in ghettos. This is not only true for disadvantaged social classes, it is also true for disadvantaged countries which are underdeveleped. For these countries, the internet is a powerful medium to reconnect to the world and, above all, to the global economy. Therefore the example of Tunisia is of a double interest, as on the one hand, the people use the internet to improve their economic position, as many little corporations are able to showcase their services to an international audience, and without the internet they would never have been able to do so. On the other hand, in enclosed societies like Tunisia, the internet is a window to the world which allows to breathe, which allows to see a piece of blue sky in a universe which is sometimes dark, and so the internet is a way to stay connected to the rest of the world and to be informed about what's happening in the world, and at the same time, it is a plattform to express yourself. So I think the new technologies are a way to overcome the trench between developed and non-developed countries, between rich and poor, and between democratic societies and enclosed societies, such as dictatorships.
It is injustice which enrages me. In all [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: It is injustice which enrages me. In all its facets and all its forms. And as I realise this feeling of rage concerning injustice I am able to go beyond my own limits and I am no longer able to rate things as I am no longer able to leave some things undone to not endanger my self. I think in similar situations you don't have to think about yourself but you have to think about what you are able to do. And every individual no matter where it is, is able to do lots of things at the moment it thinks to be capable of doing these things so thats a question about the belief in the strength of your own motivation, in the potency of what you can do. And at this point every resistance will break.
Effectively it is a part of our reality [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Effectively it is a part of our reality today; it is that this culture of consumption makes everything appears peculiar to either be bought or sold. And this simplification is due to the fact that reality is being decorated with an image that seems to be simple but that is actually a distortion of reality and I think that it is quite possible to resist this culture by imposing oneself lucid gestures. The first gesture consists in switching off television at certain hours. To only switch it on when we have really chosen to do so and to buy or consume only if we have really specified our choice. In my opinion, this is not ineluctable, it is sufficient to refines our habits, it is sufficient to decide to control our behaviour so that things begin to change, that our look on things can change. It depends on us, this is neither a fatality.
The human being is capable of everything. He [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: The human being is capable of everything. He is capable of the worse and capable of the best. The main thing is the context in which he was born, the culture surrounding him and the type of customs in which he is settled. And if there is a preoccupation to live in harmony with the nature in the system where he lives, then, he is capable to live in harmony with nature and to be most respectful to his environment as it is the same if the system in which he lives is predatory, he is consequently going to develop a predatory tendency to overconsumption and a relation to his environment that makes that he is going to destroy the environment, that he will no longer be able to live in harmony with this world that surrounds him. The matter is not an issue of human nature, the issue is that of what type of human culture we are capable to instil in our children and even ourselves. What system generates this type of culture today and what kind of system generates the opposite?
I think that it is a valid question for [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that it is a valid question for developed countries where simple gestures, natural gestures are distant to the human through a tendency to impose a little bit a society of consumption to everybody. I think that this could not be verified in the same way in other societies where it is a little easier to turn a faucet on and have some water than to have a coke. Even though it is a tendency to overconsumption and manufactured products that are beginning to invade us at home, we are not yet so far that simple gestures like taking a glass of water from a faucet are eliminated to the advantage of gestures of consumption and overproduction and a distance towards the nature and towards oneself.
I think that what we can learn from Africa [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that what we can learn from Africa is the simplicity, the simplest relation to nature, the capacity to be happy with three times nothing. It is also the capacity to produce music, to produce arts that can appear to be primitive but that are if not less a big beauty. And, this capacity to be in harmony with the nature, I believe that the African preserved much better than other populations of more developed countries. Maybe development moves us a little bit away from our nature, maybe we should learn again to be more close to what we were , to forget the sophisticated gestures of the modern civilization and to learn again the simplicity Africa offers us here[one...]
I don't believe that there is a conflict [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I don't believe that there is a conflict between having a specific cultural adherence and an adherence to the world community. On the contrary there can only be a world community if this community integrates all the diversities included in mankind. While trying to erase differences, while trying to standardize cultures we are killing the human in us and on the contrary we are not developing a world culture. We are denying it, for me, there is no conflict therefore and on the contrary one nourishes the other. A good approach, a correct approach of a world culture necessarily contains the integration of the cultural differences and the cultural diversity.
I think that the best way to make an idea [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that the best way to make an idea being heard, that seems to be right for us, is to repeat and repeat it again; to never give up placing it whenever we have the opportunity to do so and one day it would be heard, there will always be a moment when someone, a group or an institution will hear it and make divulge it.
Sihem Bensedrine:
A right answer can just be different, it is [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: A right answer can just be different, it is right to the degree that it is in the logic of the answer, that is to say, it is in the act of answering or reacting to the question but it can vary, it can be multiple, therefore, an answer is not in the quality of its content, it is in the quality of its convergence the question that required it.
This idea, in my opinion the most important, [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: This idea, in my opinion the most important, is that nothing lasts, that nothing is forever, that all those who believed that they had the eternity ahead and well didn't have anything. That, whatever the extent of justice, whatever the length of the time, let it lasts, it always comes to an end, and whatever the arrogance of the greatest who dominate this world, they will end up leaving.
It is true; it is paradoxical, the more we [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: It is true; it is paradoxical, the more we win time, the more we arrange means to win time, and the less we have time to do what we want to do, and to simply live. And this paradox originated from the rhythm in which we are living, we have an extremely fast rhythm and this rhythm puts us in a permanent kind of competition; we are running everyday and if we stop to run and ask ourselves: But why are we running? What are we going to have at the end? What are we looking for? Often, as soon as we ask ourselves the question, we become aware of the ridicule of our behaviour. So I think our stressing life style nowadays cannot continue if we decide to modify our rhythm, if we decide to be no more subjected to the surrounding atmosphere and to no longer submit to parameters imposed by the others, that are not motivated by our own needs and as soon as we manage to disconnect that rhythm and well things can go greatly better; nothing is serious, the world would not stop turning if we did not do as much thing per day as we have liked to do. We are not essential; we always think that the things in which we don't participate are condemned. It is not true, things can go on without us, so it is sometimes sufficient to break this dynamic so that we should not feel stressed anymore, so that we can have more control on our live, on our society so that this society should not have a hold on us.
It is necessary to recognize that the [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: It is necessary to recognize that the military industry and the needs of the market unfortunately played the role of stimulant for the creativeness and for the creation of these new technologies and what it should have been necessary to wish is that the scientific institutions should have arranged useful means to develop this technologies not with military goals or non laudable goals rather than to make it under this pressure, therefore it is clear that the use of these technologies and the boom of these technologies is not bound to this market but it can have other stimulants and I believe that the mankind would get worked up if this creativeness had to be applied to murderous industries.
That's a captious question as it supposes [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: That's a captious question as it supposes that there are others than the population who are responsible for the ressources of a country. So this is dangerous as it concerns what the United States are actually doing as they consider themselves responsible for the distribution of ressources of others, for example for the oil in the Middle East. And this mindset is responsible for the neocolonialist attitude, for the warlike attitude and for every form of violence which is exerted in the name of the protection of the global ressources. So I think that the question about global ressources has to be solved in a pacifistic way by negociations between the different states who own these different ressources and not by subjugating these countries by subduing them to your will and to keep these states under authoritaritan regimes which have to protect your own interests which are presented as the interest of the whole world.
Sihem Bensedrine:
I think genetical manipulations can be [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think genetical manipulations can be tolerated and that they can even be desirable if they help to fight against genetical diseases of embryos but we have to be very mindful as the abuse is always possible and as abuse is very easy. So we have to install a certain control concerning this issue and we have to proscribe manipulations.
I think it's very difficult to be objective [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think it's very difficult to be objective today as there are masses of informations the journalists are forced to produce and we talk about very important informations and in this way it is very difficult to be totally objective. That means that a journalist can be loyal as he reproduces what he really saw or he can use in a discriminating way to abuse it. And nobody owns the truth. We all possede parts of the truth and as a journalist reproduces these parts of truth in a loyal way, the auditor or the spectator or the reader can recreate this truth in a sage way. But if the facts are collected in a unloyal way, as they are torn out of their context or if they are manipulated, at this moment you can call it disinformation, at this moment you can call it intentio not to be loyal to this kind of journalistic work which is very difficult. So I think it is possible for the journalists to do their job in a loyal way is it is possible for them not to be loyal in this job which is extremely difficult.
It's important to teach a child the sense of [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: It's important to teach a child the sense of justice, of human dignity and the sense of freedom. These three values are imperative to create a child who shows respect for itself and who is able to move within an environment where it doesn't figure as predator and where nobody else figures as predator and makes it suffer.
Freedom is the most important subject which [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Freedom is the most important subject which deserves to be brought up and which has always been brought up by the artistic and literary production. So I think human freedom is the most precious thing we have and which deserves all the attention we pay to it.
What moves me in my life, it's the sight of [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: What moves me in my life, it's the sight of injustice, of human pain, the sight of attempts on the human dignity. That's something which makes me revolt and which makes me move and react and which enables me to react without even reacting sometimes.
It's true that myths played a decisive role [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: It's true that myths played a decisive role in the crystallisation of ideas in human history and some ideas have been fixed by myths and have been transmitted till today so the role of the mythologie is very important. We realised it as the myth are powerful levers to transmit ideas. To cogitate to create myths is surely a good way to fix ideas and to transmit them to the youth. So everybody can create them but not everybody can play a decisive role in creating them. These myth have to be the myth of a humanity which is exempt from arrogance, of its affection to erase others, of a humanity which tries to live in harmony with its environment instead of living in conflict with its environment. And its the function of the artists to create these myths and to broadcast them so they will live longer than us.
Sihem Bensedrine:
I don't think thats true everywhere as the [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I don't think thats true everywhere as the national frontiers a more and more abolished as people more more recognize the other as a human being and as a part of their own humanity but on the other side I think the notion of humanity evolute itself and to become something which allows to differents citizens of different countries to consider themselves as equal and as participants of the same possibilities which the human existence offers. The problem is that there are powers which try to contradict these tendences and these powers are backward minded as they have their origin in states where the nationalism exists in a historical way or where there is a new way of nationalism like the one Mister Bush wants to impose to us. And I think we have to be very vigilant concerning these nationalisms which are enchaining the citizens instead of opening their minds towards others. That doesn't mean that we have to efface the identities. The identity is something important and as you are someone or something it's easier to approach to others, if you are nothing or nobody you are not able to do anything. So accepting its identities doesn't mean to be nationlistic and not to accept the other but it means to approach to the other starting from a culturally defined territory which allows you to enrich the other instead of diesteeming him.
I'm not sure that everything we consume is [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I'm not sure that everything we consume is of a bad quality. I choose what I consume and I think everybody has to make a choice. This choice exists fortunately. Fortunately we, the underdeveloped states are not occupied by the genetically modified food and we still dispose of naturally produced products and we are in this way better off than certain developed states.
I think that God's religion consists in [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that God's religion consists in asking people to respect the human being he created, that the human being in his turn respects the environment in which he lives.
And I think it would suffice if the persons [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: And I think it would suffice if the persons in charge concerning architecture and urbanism in cities would impose rules of architecture and rules of construction on everybody and make everybody respect them. That supposes firstly municipal representatives which are democratically elected to defend the will of the suburbs and secondly they don't have to be corrupt as they accept some people to violate the architectural rules if they pay for it. And if the rule applies for everybody, its absolutely possible to preserve the architectural identity of the cities everywhere in the world.
If people are talking about the colour of [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: If people are talking about the colour of the skin or about races, this goes beyond the physical aspect. It's simply a way to symbolize discrimination. And their are many white people who are perfectly able to put theirselves in the position of a black person and to defend the black or the yellow person as they asked themselves how if feels like to be a minority, to be marginalized. But even they can take the credit for this, the disruption between black and white do not disappears as in the United States the afro americans continue to be a minority, a minority not concerning their number as they are quiet numerous but a monirity concerning they attitude of white people towards them as they are considered as inferior. And as people talk about this disruption their aim is not to aggravate the disruption or to make it more real but to better identifie the disruption and to be able fight it in a better way. So the Afro americans are not simply americans like all the other americans but they are americans which are deprived of their citizenship every day.
Sihem Bensedrine:
Once again we are incriminating the tool [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Once again we are incriminating the tool instead of incriminating the subject that uses this tool. Internet cannot only enhance communities but can also enhance any kind of sectarianism or sects but it can also be used to fight this sectarianism, these communities; therefore it is once more not the tool that is decisive but the usage of the tool and it is about really identifying the target in order to act.
I think that our cities have grown, have [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: I think that our cities have grown, have developed like mushrooms, that the modern civilization is the civilisation of cities but due to a more and more present conscience of our predatory habits just at the level of cities, and well, we are currently observing movements back to the countryside and it will be sufficient to take concrete measures at the level of political decisions in order to avoid an uncontrolled development of cities so that the countryside can regain its inhabitants; In this way, the inverse movement could release if sensible encouragements to develop this movement exist in the politics. I think that there is no fatality in it; it would be enough to have a long-term vision to be able to act on the over-development of cities at the expenses of the countryside.
Why don't we ask the Europeans the same [...]
Sihem Bensedrine: Why don't we ask the Europeans the same question? Why don't we ask why every Italian wants to have his own Fiat? Why don't we ask why every German wants to have his own Volkswagen? Why don't we ask why every Scandinavian wants his own car? Why do we only ask the Chinese this question? There are still these mechanisms to go over the top with your own anguish and to consider the demand of others as less legitimate than your own demand. So I think we have to ask the question in another way: How can we make the car industry reduce its worldwide production, and encourage the bicycle industry to raise its production? How can we strive for an extension of public transports and for a limitation of private means of conveyance? And this should be a guideline for everybody, not only for the Chinese people. This question would then deserve being posed and would deserve answers everybody can benefit from.
