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Date
: 08/06/2005
Source: The Presidency
Title:Mbeki: Special sitting of the Senate of the Republic of
Chile
Address of the President of South Africa, Thabo
Mbeki, to the special sitting of the Senate of the Republic of
Chile, Valparaiso
Mr President of the Senate
Mr President of the Chamber of Deputies
Ladies and Gentlemen
The geographers have told us that 9212 kilometers separate our two
capital cities of Tshwane/Pretoria and Santiago de Chile. But they
also tell us that the ancient European cities of Athens and Rome,
famed for many achievements and extraordinary contributions to
human civilisation, are nearer to us than is our sister capital
city, Santiago de Chile - the one separated from our capital by
7059km, and the other by 7675km.
Spanish Madrid of the Conquistadores and Cervantes, the creator of
the outstanding anti-hero, Don Quijote, is but a mere 8054km away
from our capital city.
Even distant Moscow, known for the icy winters of the North and the
creative dreams of great writers such as Alexander Pushkin, Leo
Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Maxim Gorky, Vladimir Mayakovsky, and
Anna Akhmatova, is at 9101km, closer to us than Santiago de
Chile.
Polish Warsaw that brings back memories of the heroic uprising of
the Jewish people against the Nazi genocidaires, is but a mere 8
695km away from our own capital city.
To reach Santiago de Chile, close to the western shores of the
great Pacific, and Valparaiso on the Pacific, we left Africa from
Cape Town, the southern-most city on the eastern shores of the vast
Atlantic Ocean. Even in the mind's eye we can see that the
Mediterranean waters that separate us from the European cities we
have mentioned, are but a great intercontinental lake compared to
the oceans that separate and help to define our countries.
You will ask why I come to this important representative assembly
of the will of the people of Chile to speak to you about geographic
distances among the capital cities of the world.
And I will answer that I have spoken thus because I want to say
that the actuality of the geographic distance between
Tshwane/Pretoria and Santiago de Chile disguises the fact that
historical circumstance has in time past and in future time,
determined that the South African heartbeat must keep pace with the
beat of the hearts of the people of Chile.
Not so long ago, our people were obliged to make great sacrifices
to respond to the apartheid crime against humanity. As many died on
our streets and in the jails of the oppressors, tourists from
Europe and elsewhere in the world, as well as others who did not
have the will or the possibility to see the reality of our agony,
came to our country to enjoy themselves or seek commercial
profit.
We thought then, that none should visit apartheid South Africa and
perhaps inadvertently communicate the wrong message that apartheid
South Africa was a normal member of the community of nations. We
spoke out as loudly as we could, saying - isolate and do not visit
apartheid South Africa!
And still those who would not hear came, their visits falsely
communicating a message of normality in our country, even as a
racist tyranny expressed its brutal might by shooting down the
patriots of our land in cold blood.
It was obvious that we had run out of native word images to
communicate our rage. What others who came from beyond our shores
did by ignoring our pleas, said to us that we had to take
exceptional measures to express our outrage.
At a loss for the right native words to communicate the simple
message that those who have ears to hear, let them hear and those
who have eyes to see, let them see, we did not turn to those
geographically closer to us, like those born and raised in the
great cities of Europe we have mentioned.
Instead, he called upon a great son of the Chilean people, Pablo
Neruda, to give us the words we sought among ourselves and could
not find.
One after the other, our voices recited the famous words written by
Pablo Neruda, and well known to you, which he entitled - "Explico
algunas cosas". (I am explaining a few Things.)
"Generales traidores;
Mirad mi casa muerta,
Miras Espa
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