The first impression I want to communicate is that the principal obstacle we are all confronted with is r h e t o r i c. At the present moment, the entire rhetoric is manufactured by the global system. The global economic and market system has been able to coopt, appropriate the entire rhetoric of development. The concepts and terminologies which rule and lord it over us have not been made by ourselves. Those concepts, symbols and rhetoric have been invented and coined by the dominant system. It is the corporations, the enterprises which send us the message: "I am Globe" "La Globalisation, c'est moi" (like : "L'Etat c'est moi", Louis XIV). The narrative of globalization has totally been elaborated and imposed by the dominant system, e.g. :

- Liberalization
- Human Resources
- Deregulation
- Flexibility (of human resources)
- Privatization
- Multimedia
- Competitiveness
- Information Society
- Profitability
- Cyberspace
- Efficiency
- Cyberdemocracy
- Effectiveness

All these terms have been coined by 'them'. As for us, we follow... All we can do is try and 'humanize a little bit' all those dehumanizing concepts, try to 'correct' them a little bit, if at all possible.
What I want to propose here is: let us start a revolt against this rhetoric ('revolte de la rhetorique') After that, we have to invent another language.
We have to de-legitimize all those modernizing concepts listed above. We have to de-legitimize those dehumanizing concepts such as 'Human Resources', 'Information Society', 'Cyberspace', 'Cyberdemocracy'. It would appear to me that, in order to start this 'revolte de la rhetorique' we must keep in touch with what is real.

Governance for a globalized world !

A second point I want to stress is that a revolt in rhetoric is impossible if there is no change in the system of governance. What I mean is that institutions, and rules relating to the exercise of power are necessary. What we are faced with is (the need of ) governance on a global scale. Iow: how are those 8 billion people who will populate the globe in 20 years' time going to be governed ? How are they going to mediate their coexistences ? Their cohabitation ?
The first thing to do it to make sure that, de facto, there is governance at the global level.
The existence of the dominant rhetoric, of which I have just been talking, demonstrates that today, far from there being anarchy, there is a system of values and that there is also a system of governance. This governance encompasses the whole world and is exercised by two main actors : the global conglomarates which produces and distribute basic consumer products and the global conglomarates which dominate the world of finance. Together they cover all aspects of material and non-material production. Their combined income in terms of liquid currency and real estate have increased in recent years exponentially, whereas the share of income related to people's labour has decreased proportionally. In this sense, the United States are right to claim that "Globalization is us"

In the USA, there is also the explosive growth of already 1,080 'gated communities' Those gated cities are inhabited by those involved in the Governance of the global productivity and whose intention it is to protect themselves against the increasing upsurge of violence in the cities. they think : " While you, outside our protected gated city, can perish, for as much as we care, we, in the meantime, set up, inside our protected environment, our own schools, our own health system, our own personal security system etc. " Everywhere, in Calcutta, Karachi, Brussels, Lagos, we will see more and more of these 'gated cities' inside the big cities. This is part of the internal logic of those in possession of the powers of production, of knowledge, of the Media, of space technology, of oil, of software.

So, we have to fight for the laying of the foundation, in 15 or 20 years' time, of the reinvention of Governance, on a global scale, in the interest of the global population. The system of production and redistribution of material and non-material goods must be made in the interest of the majority of the population.

While there are promising initiatives at the local level, there are also certain things which can be done at the global level.

A generalised cancer ?

We have a fight on our hands, to put in place a system of control of world capital for the sake of the common good. If we continue to allow, as we do now, the quasi absolute mobility of capital flows all over the globe, we will never be able, in the next 20 or 30 years -- (after that, only God knows.-- to break the monopoly of the prevailing rhetoric about which we have just been talking. Capital flows freely and increasingly, at planetary level, through virtual networks over which no-one has any control any more, bypassing traditional channels such as banks and financial institutions and the Stock Exchange. Virtual capital flows over Internet are known as 'the 4th financial market'. These capital flows obey none of the traditional rules and conventions of the money market.

If we allow this system to go on freely -- and I do not need confirmation of this by those among you who are medical doctors -- we all know what the inevitable end result will be : a generalised cancer. The only thing which remains then to be done is the accompaniment and the last rites for a society terminally condemned to die.

What has come strongly from the matters you have discussed here in your meeting is that, notwithstanding everything, we need to continue our battle against the exclusionist tendencies which assail us from everywhere. What typifies our present predicament is that increasing numbers of people have no way to participate in the setting of the agenda. Not only have they increasingly the impression that they are exluded from the drawing up of the agenda, but also they are excluded full stop. This exclusion from setting the agenda even applies to governments. When the Jospin government in France, as a unique exception among all the others, tried to object to the independence of the European Bank, it took only a matter of a day or so for Jospin, too, to come around, and to concede that, yes, France too recognized the absolute sovereignty and independence of the Central European Bank. The moment you give independence to the bank from political decision making, it will be the European Central Bank which will be making the decisions, it will be this Bank, in fact, which will be drawing up monetary policy. It will be the Central Bank which will be making politics full stop. The irony is that while Europeans are free to democratically elect their European parliament, this parliament has no say whatsoever over the Central Bank. They are voting for a powerless parliament.

It is therefore very important the the population as a whole regain and reclaim their capacity to draw up the political agenda. How does this translate in concrete terms ?

Teach kids to say " hello ! "

Another observation which appears very important to me is that in both the media and in our schools we have to teach kids to say " hello " to each other. Our present society has forgotten to say " good morning " (to accept that the other exists with his or her otherness). The system teaches how to greet those who are good performers, big, powerful. To be able to greet " the other " (to recognize him) is very important.

But for some Americans, this is not the way to go. Certain Americans have told us that the future world war - because, as you know, there has to be another world war - will be caused by the " clash of civilizations ". According to this vision, Islam will replace the communism of the East Bloc as Enemy Number One of the West. It will be the war of civilizations between " the West and the Rest ". Globalization will push people towards an inevitable conflict. For those Americans, the " global power " is the West, and because the global frontier of communism has disappeared, " the rest " is the enemy. Hence, it is necessary to do everything to " integrate cultures ". I.e. what is needed, for those Americans, is " the global culture ". What will continue to be tolerated, of course, are different styles in playing soccer, different dress styles, different music styles, etc. But when it comes to values which give rise to misunderstanding and conflict between cultures, and conflict of values, such as : religion, language, etc. all of this must be forbidden and eliminated. And I invite you to read the summer issue of " Foreign Policy " the mouthpiece of " Kissinger Associates " (of which, of course, Kissinger is the director).

The West versus the Rest ?

In this article, it is argued that all " dangerous " cultural divergences need to be eliminated. In practice this means that all culture needs to be American culture, the information sources need to be American,etc. To conclude, it would appear to me that our focus of action ought to be education. The school needs not to be the instrument of professional qualification and of " Human Resources ", which are needed by international enterprise for the sole purpose of being even more keenly " competitive " on the global market place. We must transform our schools, instead, into fora of the " Apprenticeship of Citizenship ". Citizenship is mediated by the school. Schools must learn to be concerned about the " res publica ", the common good, and organize their teaching around it. What we are concerned about are the 75 towns worldwide which have already a population in excess of 5 million (e.g. Mexico City : 20 m.). In those 75 towns, more than 60% of the children are deprived of the basics, including education. What I would propose is that in those 75 towns, the schools are made into fora of citizenship from the perspective of global inter and pluriculturality. We all need global solidarity, not just, the oldfashioned or continental form of solidarity ".

Riccardo Petrella is President of the Group of Lisbon ("Limits to Competition" MIT, USA, 1995 - translated in 10 languages), former Director of FAST (Forecasting & Assessment of Science & Technology, European Commission), Professor at the University of Louvain and author in 1997 of The Common Good - Celebration of Solidarity.

(This is the English translation, kindly supplied to us by Raff Carmen, of the first part of Riccardo Petrella's Closing Address. Subtitles added by us)