An Interview with Mikhail Gorbachev, World BEYOND War, April 5, 2020
Q: How did you take the news of the pandemic?
A: I think I took it the way most people did. Initially, there was hope that it could be controlled, localized. But things took a very different turn and the epidemic spread far and wide. Unprecedented measures and decisions became necessary. Leaders, citizens and international organizations found themselves in an extremely difficult situation. All of this will have to be thoroughly analyzed, but the priority now is to take things in hand and defeat this new, vicious enemy.
Q: How do you assess the measures now being taken?
A: The main concern must be people’s security and saving people’s lives. I assume that the steps now being taken are based on science and the advice of the most competent experts. Right now they are practically unanimous that lockdown is necessary. This is something both the authorities and the people must accept. A lot depends on people’s behavior. Utmost responsibility and discipline is of the essence. Then we may hope that the worst could be avoided.
Q: Is it time yet for lessons learned? Do you agree that the world will never be the same?
A: That depends precisely on what lessons will be learned. I recall recent history of how we addressed the nuclear threat. We understood that it is our common enemy, a threat to all of us, and the leaders of two nations, the Soviet Union and the United States declared that a nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought. Then came Reykjavik and the first treaties eliminating nuclear weapons. By now, 85% of those arsenals have been eliminated. We must continue along this path but we now see new challenges. Together with my friends in the Forum of Nobel Peace Laureates we have for years been calling for a radical rethinking of international politics. Let me quote from out appeal adopted back in 2005:
“Focusing on meeting human needs and having a reverence for life are the foundation of human security. Excessive military expenditures actually breeds insecurity. Two areas where funds need to be channeled by the international community are education and health, particularly regarding the scourges of AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis through both protection and prevention.” What could one add to this? Just the name of the new dreadful disease.
Over the past five years all we’ve been hearing is talk about weapons, missiles and airstrikes. But is it not clear by now that wars and the arms race cannot solve today’s global problems? War is a defeat, a failure of politics! This common tragedy has reminded us of the futility of trying to go into hiding and sit it out, ignoring the threats that we face. In today’s world, no one can hope to go into hiding!
And so I’ll never tire of repeating: We need to demilitarize world affairs, international politics and political thinking and reallocate funds from military purposes to the purposes serving human security. We need to rethink the very concept of security. Above all else, security should mean providing food, water, which is already in short supply, a clean environment and, as top priority, caring for people’s health.
To achieve human security we need to develop strategies, make preparations, plan and create reserves. This should be the responsibility of national leaders and leaders at all levels.
I believe that preparations should start now for an Emergency Session of the United Nations General Assembly, to be held as soon as the situation is stabilized. It should be about nothing less than revising the entire global agenda.
Q: Could I ask how things have changed for you and for the Gorbachev Foundation?
A: Of course we are complying with all requirements and we have had to start working from home. I am communicating with colleagues by phone and we have created a discussion platform on the web. We’ll be adapting to the new circumstances. I’ve been asked to write an additional chapter for the English edition of my book What Is At Stake Now, to account for the new developments. I have agreed and will work on it.
Thanks to Pavel Palazhchenko and Metta Spencer.
10 Responses
Why hasn’t Michel Chossdovsky from Globalresearch.ca been talking about what appears to be taking place all over the world organized by tne IMF and World Bank from his 4/18/00 interview? He has discredited the corona hoax, and I thank him for that, but Chossdovsky says that when the IMF moves in, schools, factories, businesses, and governments are all shut down. Well, all of those things are happenning, but not in Sweden. Is it just a coincidence?
http://www.antiwar.com/rep/jared2.html
Now they are caving, a few months late, and $640 trillion in derivatives short, plus $6.5 trillion in bailouts to the psychopaths that were responsible for the fear and rumor mongering using the Spider eggs in bubble yum psychology of peer pressure into hysteria to destroy the entire global economy, particularly small businesses, that the incompetent, greedy,npsychopaths didn’t already own, to increase indebtedness and use this hoax as a fall guy for their own financial fraud scheme which everyone knew was the only reason for this conspiracy of organized crime involving violations of Federal RICO laws. These psychopaths from the tech sector and financial sector as well as the media and governments must be held accountable!
So they just say, “whatever nevermind here we are now entertainers” after all of this?!
https://swprs.org/a-swiss-doctor-on-covid-19/
Tyler Durden Zero Hedge featured an article on SHTFplan saying that COVID-19 was a highly contagious and fatal SARS virus wrapped in EBOLA and AIDS envelopes, revised to not as bad as seasonal flu. That is quite a miscalculation. So, spider eggs in bubble yum. Oops. Destroyed the economy of every country except Sweden. Sold a lot of soap though.
It would be far more stimulative to the economy if everyone was given $20,000 to spend as they needed and chose to. It is as fair as possible, and advances freedom rather than fascism, poverty, and eliitism that rewards the world’s richest people the most, who can not even spend their wealth in their lifetimes, or even the the next few generations, rather than the $6.5 trillion on the table that world give people a pitance of $1,200 and $500 for a child. America’s biggest problem is corruption. No economy can survive under corruption. None! It does not matter if it is capitalist, scialist, or communist. If it is corrupt, it is guaranteed to fail. To blame capitalism is not a legitimate argument, because there are no bail outs under capitalism. This is the fourth in the last thirty-three years, with each one bigger than the last. That is not capitalism. That is financial fraud and robbery.
Mr Gorbachev is a great man of strong conviction, and I would never take that from him.
That said, and not to bother people here, but I have seen the worst and best of human nature during my long life. Leaving a nation defenseless is foolhardy. And the only way a nation can be prepared to defend is to train and invest.
Hope for peace; prepare for war. Peace through strength, because there are people in this world who are powerful, evil, and fear nothing other than strength.
It is really disgusting how many complete frauds there are in America. John Whitehead has a lengthy article on lockdown and martial law today, he claims to have a law degree. Why doesn’t he say what is true, that the military has no power at all in the constitution. Absolutely none. Whitehead is a propagandist that provides an enormous amount of misinformation to his readers. I’m pretty damn tired of these fakes! They are evil propagandists, and I really don’t give a damn if I piss them off for calling them out on complete frauds! He is obviously a fascist in disguise!
What a hypocritical statement made by the Chinese that did not quarantine Wuhan until two days before the Chinese Lunar New Year celebration in order to prevent a less than harmonic event after the July protests over the waste incinerators planned for Wuhan met by over ten thousand protestors and people that had disappeared as well as reports. It seems that the Chinese were very happy to politicize the event. I agree, John Bolton is a liar that is politicizing the event, but so did the Chinese. How unfortunate that you now look like John Bolton!
“Slanders & blame games cannot make up for lost time. More lies will only waste more time and cost more lives. People’s lives should always be valued and placed ahead of politics. It is immoral & inhumane to politicize such a serious public health crisis.https://t.co/2PEe4ozUaT”
— Hua Chunying 华春莹 (@SpokespersonCHN) April 2, 2020
Every life matters until they question the Chinese government in China, is more like it! Same goes for America!
This is totally suspicious with Boris Johnson in intensive care for coronavirus. Are you sure that he wasn’t an assination victim for no deal Brexit? That seems more likely. Everyone has seen political assassinations take place in the past, and many Middle Easterners in high ranking positions seem to be the victims of assassination attempts using coronavirus as an excuse. To have such a high percentage of political victims is just not within the statistical realm!
And don’t forget Hugo Chavez who got a fast-acting cancer!
While everyone is acting stupid and contagious, we cannot deny that what is taking place is a pre-meditated Jew Coup for fascist control and theft. The facts prove it, just as the facts once proved that the Nazis implemented milder tactics on the Jews. Everyone knows how ridiculous it would have sounded if the Nazis attempted to claim that the Jews were anti-Nazi.