On International Women’s Day Pressenza brings to our readers attention the voice of Siloist Norma Coronel as translated by fellow traveller Andres Pellegrini:
“It is no longer necessary to say that night has fallen upon the world. I woke up heartbroken with the suffering of the Palestinian people and the Israeli people [this was written at the time of the Israel-Gaza shelling], with the suffering of other people at war.
“I´m asking myself thousand of questions, will the cry of the people asking for peace arise in a non violent way? Will we ever understand that nobody chooses any faction? Will we stop believing that the death of some is more valuable than the death of others? What yardstick do we use to measure suffering? And what about those who slowly die, immersed in the meaninglessness of this materialistic culture?
“The world appears to me covered with fog and that shakes me internally. The other´s pain and suffering are not indifferent to me. Today cruelty is clearly shown in Gaza, but this goes further. It is our species, the human species, that has fallen into darkness and violence progressively owns every corner of the world because it has been given a space in our minds and in our hearts.
“And even if I see this, my possibilities of giving and modifying something do not reach the whole world but the few who are close to me. I will do what turns out to be coherent for me. I will do what I can wherever I can.
“Silo said to us: “For the first time in History, stop looking for the guilty. They are responsible for what they have done, but nobody is guilty for what has happened.”
“I hope that in this universal trial we could declare: “no one is guilty” and that the reconciliation with one´s own past is established as a moral obligation for each human being. “That this will start today within you and you will be responsible for this to continue among those around you, and go further until reaching the last corner of the Earth”. (extract from Silo’s Madrid Public Act, 1981).
“There can be no peace without a profound reconciliation. I take his words, this is my task.”
