27 July 2008

Speech - Day of Affirmation by Sen. Robert Kennedy

Dear Readers,

this is another speech given by Sen. Robert Kennedy. I translated it into Italian and you can find here. You can find the original English version here. If you want to listen to the speech , please click here.

Sen. Robert Kennedy gave this speech at the University of Capetown, South Africa in June 6, 1966. He was invited by Mr. Ian Robertson on behalf of the National Union of South African Students to lecture about problematics concerning human rights.

As well as I did for the previous speeches I posted, I will not comment it too much.
What is important for me is just to express my feelings after I worked on it for some hours during the translation into my mother language.

My first impression is that this world could have been extraordinary better if Sen. Kennedy had not been brutally assassinated on the 5th of June in 1968.

I firmly believe that Sen. Robert Kennedy has been assassinated by the same group of persons that are still ruling the government inside the White House.
Furthermore, I believe that together with his brother President John Kennedy and the peace Nobel Price graduate Dr. Martin Luther King, they could have had provided indelible contributions to the alleviation of poverty and to cancellation of colonist politics of exploitation of the so-called developing countries.

The brutal forces who decided the plot to assassinate Robert Kennedy undoubtedly knew that its assassination would have been the final and definite signal to cancel out all the chances for poor and destitute populations all over the world to live a decent life.
We know that Sen. Kennedy was against the war in Vietnam, but even more important he was supporting associations around the globe to assure the defence of human rights for the black people in USA, for the native populations of North America, as well as for all the populations deprived of their basic rights around the world.
The reasons that brought to the decision to organize the plot to kill Sen. Robert Kennedy were several, and I just mentioned the ones I believe to be the most important.

The defence of human rights and the opposition to the Vietnam War could have had generate significant troubles to the Corporatocracy system that is still governing USA, and consequently the entire world.

The campaign, to assure human rights, adequate education, health assistance, and an effective independence (from the colonialist countries)
for the martyred and exploited populations of South America, Africa and South East Asia, that Sen. Kennedy initiated, would have lead to the end of the colonization of those geographical regions. And at the end of the (illegal) profits that US as well as European corporations were able to write down along the last decades.
If, finally
, the people of Chapas in Mexico, as well as the people in South Africa, or the population oppressed by the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia, would have had finally the right to rise their hands and declare stop to the exploitation of their natural resources, these countries could have had the possibility to become independent and finally to run their own factories, being capable to compete on a world wide scale.
On the other hand
, the war in Vietnam was a business of hundreds of billion of dollars and its interruption would have meant to destruction and the cancellation of the profits of the weapon lobby which is frequently one of the most important backer of the electoral campaign of the US presidents.

To conclude, Sen. Robert Kennedy wanted to realize, as he stated in the speech, the right thing. But the right thing in a world of global injustice cannot be realized without suffering the lost of many human lives.

Unfortunately, we lost Sen. Kennedy, brought away from us by devilish forces. But his lost does not forbid us to realize his dream, which is the dream of all of us.

Therefore, I strongly prod you, who had the willing and the time to read this extraordinary speech, to contribute to realize what Sen. Kennedy planned before being barbarously killed more than 40 years ago.
If we, all of us, join together in a world wide movement, I am sure that we can make it!!!
They can stop someone of us, they can even stop many of us. But they cannot stop a global movement of change and hope of us!
Please, consider to take this action and as Sen. Kennedy told us, try to avoid the four dangers (i.e. futility, expediency, timidity, and comfort).

thanks for reading!
your sincerely,
Antonio
I

4 comments:

FangFang said...

What a Great & Inspiring speech! Thanks Antonio, to bring it up and have it posted in your BLOG. From time to time, the thoughts of helping poor people, of contributing our own countries, and of devoting ourselves to a wold better hit us; however, shamefully, what we have done is next to nothing... Sen R. Kennedy was right, "the dangers" hinder me/ us from doing more.

I introspect myself, I am just to lucky to remember that I have much more than I have realized, and more than I could have share with the others...

Thanks again. Will at least start to spread this wonderful piece!

Fang^2

Antonio Napoli said...

Hallo Nora,

I am glad to know that this post was somehow useful.

I will work hard to realize what Sen. Kennedy told us to live for. And we will keep the four dangers very very far from us!

best wishes!
Antonio

Anonymous said...

Ciao Antonio, ho letto anche questo discorso del Senatore Kennedy tradotto da te, la sua azione politica ne ha sviluppati tanti e pieni di contenuti meravigliosi e giusti, chissà come sarebbe stato il nostro Paese se a distanza di quarant'anni invece della sua morte avrebbe potuto vivere una sua presidenza. Come ben dici, oggi si ha bisogno di tutti noi, della nostra attenzione a quello che è stato e a quello cui dobbiamo perseguire, e dicendolo con le parole del Senatore, attenti ad ogni forma di futilità, opportunismo, agiatezza, timidezza...
Grazie per la tua attenzione!
Ally

Antonio Napoli said...

Ciao Ally,

rimaniamo in contatto!
Io andro' avanti con le traduzioni, e magari potresti aiutarmi nella ricerca di errori, ok?
Adesso sto traducendo entrambi in spagnolo, ma a breve riprendero' con l'italiano:-)!

Ciao!
Antonio