A value, or phylosophical or moral precepts are, by definition, statements that we receive from the kingdom of all that is unmaterial, from the universe of pure reason, from the apparently deceptive field of things that don’t touch or see each other.

Therefore, it is quite clear that many people, young and not so young, find hardly attractive, ideas or proposals derived from the field of doctrinal or moral speculations.

A young man or an adolescent, who usually face challenges or commitments by touching the most urgent resources of their vital experiences, probably, are not very interested in confiding on meditation as the ultimate reason that ennobles human behaviour.

Hence, the difficulties that parents, teachers and communication systems from different ambits stumble on, when they try to defend and praise definite conducts or values in the presence of one or more young listeners.

How can we achieve that the abstract become attractive and convincing, in a world that never tires in favoring specific things, like the urgent, the ”here and now”, what is near and can be touched and material things?

But one day the unexpected happens, daily reality disrupts and blows up in pieces. A horrible and unexpected piece of news lands on us; in a high school situated in a city in the south of the province of Buenos Aires, a fifteen year old student burst into his classroom grasping a gun and has killed or hurt quite a few of his schoolmates.- Those last lessons that seemed abstract and remote, all of a sudden have taken on, a pathetic and visceral reality.

It is terrifying that the price to pay for the accelerated trip from abstraction to reality, from remoteness to the inmediate, has been a monstrous crime very difficult to foresee or immagine. What until recently seemed too ”theoretical” or ”weak” to compete with the young people’s daily needs, has occupied, tragically, the center of the scene.

We always go back to our values. But to which values? By chance, principles that are encouraged and defended from a definite frontier of thought, are they the same as those glorified from the opposite slope? Are there no points of dissent and opposition between one ideology and another, one religion and another and between a cultural conception and another?

Yes, this is true. But pluralism and disimilarities disappear when superior values turn up, the only ones compatible with respect for life and dignity of human beings.

Cultural tradition of humanism would have no value whatsoever if it hadn’t left us this basic lesson. One might imagine that such an important lesson is reserved for supreme levels of abstraction. It is not so; history teaches us every day that nothing related to mankind is, strictly abstract or different from reality.

And even those basic lessons need to be transmitted and reasserted day after day,- in the classroom, in the home, in the manifold forums of social communications- with powerful strength and unavoidable passion.

All communication media- and LA NACION is included in the list before any of the others-play a leading role in the task of transmitting the supreme values of humanism to the new generations.

Journalism, either graphic, by means of the radio or television, must exercise self-criticism to know if he is fulfilling this mission or if sometimes it is accomplished with frivolity, lightness, sensationalism or with inexcusable ambiguity.

Translation: María Pensavalle

PREAMBLE

Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world,

Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people,

Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law,

Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations,

Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms,

Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,

Now, Therefore THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY proclaims THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.

Article 1.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Article 2.

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Article 3.

Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

Article 4.

No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.

Article 5.

No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 6.

Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Article 7.

All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

Article 8.

Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

Article 9.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

Article 10.

Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.

Article 11.

1. Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
2. No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.

Article 12.

No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.

Article 13.

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
2. Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.

Article 14.

1. Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
2. This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 15.

1. Everyone has the right to a nationality.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.

Article 16.

1. Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
2. Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
3. The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

Article 17.

1. Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
2. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.

Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

Article 20.

1. Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
2. No one may be compelled to belong to an association.

Article 21.

1. Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
2. Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
3. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.

Article 22.

Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.

Article 23.

1. Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
2. Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
3. Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
4. Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.

Article 24.

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.

Article 25.

1. Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
2. Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Article 26.

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
3. Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Article 27.

1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.

Article 28.

Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.

Article 29.

1. Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
2. In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
3. These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

Article 30.

Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.

For Sarmiento, his self-realization was centered on that struggle, on the verb ”to do”, and that has been the rule by which all the good Argentine politicians have always abided, and this is the case with many of our contemporaries. What spurred them was the importance of public service and the moral recognition they deserved. But this would have lacked sense if society itself would not have regarded these values as the leading factor. How can we describe ourselves today?

A few weeks ago the French magazine L’Express devoted its cover article to the happiness recipes of the French population. And the numerical part of the article was based on a survey carried out by Scan for Lab’Ho among 1006 persons. Since France is a self-indulgent society (89 per cent of the responses), I checked these data in order to try to establish a correlation between their public welfare and their individual values. It is not my intention to attach more significance to the information, to the detriment of the journalistic side, but it is worthwhile.

Within a multiple-choice system, when asked about which was the most important resource to attain success, 87 per cent chose ”to have will”, whereas only 37 per cent mentioned ”to have good luck”. Between these two options we find those who said ”to be sustained by the environment” (62 per cent); ”to have financial resources available” (44 per cent); ”to be intelligent” (42 per cent); ”to have undertaken a good career” (42 per cent). It is interesting to note that the last item, ”to have social connections” was mentioned by only 33% of those surveyed, which shows a society where a ‘useful connection’ is unimportant. The will, the environment (a society that serves as protection and a financial system that grants low cost credits) as well as apprenticeship seem to conform a golden triad.

The true construction of a nation

The other fascinating study was the analysis of the question: ”Which are your success models?”. Pay attention: ”the researcher”, 59 per cent; ”family mother”, 57; ”the honest and responsible employee”, 55; ”the creator of enterprises”, 30; ”the high-level sportsman”, 32; ”philosopher and thinker”, 30; ”artist”, 27; ”show business star”, 8; ”political career”, 7; and ”the seducer”, 5 per cent.

My initial temptation was, simple, to reverse both charts and ask myself whether, when turned upside down, they did not represent the Argentine society. I am not at all sure that deep inside we also feel that willingness, environment and apprenticeship are the really significant instruments, and that good luck and good connections are the trash that the mass communication media sell us.

But the second chart is still more dramatic. It is a long time now that the revered Manuel Sadosky and other scientific friends are alarmed at the decrease of vocation for the ”hard” sciences among our secondary school students, which fell from 30 to 15 per cent in less than twenty years. I am sure that ”the researcher” does not have among us the same promise of future that his counterpart has in France. Besides this, we have witnessed a proliferation of ”entrepreneurs” which look for beautiful faces whose ambitions are set on the show-business, and the audiovisual media stupefy us with the lives, the millions and the whims of football players. I am very much afraid that in the case of this second chart the reversion I suggest will prove true, unfortunately. We look at our lives and our future in exactly the opposite way as compared to the Frenchmen. And let us not forget that even though we may win the next football world championship, which is a possibility, nothing will change as to our daily frustrations, our unemployment rates and our lack of hope!

Isn’t it about time that we start working on our crisis of values? What is the meaning of ”the never-ending struggle” for life, among us? Sarmiento gives us a clue which, when observing more advanced societies, seems to have lost nothing of its validity. And he himself is a good example, for he took pleasure in living: he had a gratifying sex life, and ate with delight all that his attending plysician had banned for him: pork barbecue, cucumber salad, and chicha wine brought from his province – San Juan.

If we do not open this discussion, I feel that we have not started to debate the future of Argentina. Since many years before the terms of Carlos Menem we had already installed in the public thought a series of extravagant values, bordering magic: ”Argentina world power”, ”the defeat of Great Britain”… Afterwards we became ”First World” and decreed that ”one peso equals one U.S. dollar”… I am not going to write a whole list. The common factor of all these dreams is that, in order to truly construct a nation, they have been countervalues, since in lieu of willingness they placed good luck, and in every case they demerited the constant and silent effort of researchers, which is a good model.

We know that we are faring badly. But for the time being we are telling a tale of errors, bad foreign friends, bad luck and lack of illuminated men. And what about the values? Had they nothing to do with sacrificing one’s life to attain independence and continue offering one’s own life to fight tyrants and then devote the existence to the construction of a nation that will soon be 200 years old?

And what about discussing again the values, from now onwards?

*The author is a writer and an economist.

Translation: Josefina Prytyka