Oldal 126 [126]
124 | Tue PuicosoPuy or Eco-Pozrrics
of the ecological worldview: the connections between peoples,
generations and species.
Neither the terrible crimes committed against alien civilisations and
the inhabitants of distant lands, nor extreme inequality among nations
is a new phenomenon. The novelty in the Age of the Enlightenment
was that the need for justice was even raised in regard to these relations.
Today we must face the fact that there are neither alien civilisations,
nor distant lands. ‘This is what we call global interdependence or simply
globalisation. But closer and more intensive contact between the
continents has not dispelled the differences, but rather deepened them
and raised them to a conscious level. It is hard to imagine handling the
global ecological crisis without the collaboration of the nations and for
this an agreement on the principles of fair cooperation is indispensable.
At first sight, it seems that the universal recognition of human rights
provides a sufficient basis for this, since by now it has become a
legitimate point of reference in the area of international relations, even
if they are ignored in open conflicts. Since these principles have been
declared, the white man has exterminated whole races of native peoples
who stood in the way of his expansion. But even here the principle of
equality makes its benign effects felt: cutting edge technology is
available worldwide. With it, the dictators and warlords of the
“developing” countries can murder each other’s subjects or even their
own peoples en masse.
The question of global justice usually arises, however, in relation to
the “peaceful” relations that connect rich and poor countries, whether
it is in regards to the advantages and disadvantages of the free trade
system, the distribution of the burdens of environmental pollution or
global migration. ‘The latter, the new migration, is without a doubt one
of the gravest political and ethical problems of our age. It is indisputably
connected with the symptoms of the crisis of the current world order.
It poses the basic questions of global justice in an acute form. Firstly, as
to whether the demands of justice can be interpreted on a global scale.
If yes, in what must we share with the needy of the world? Do we bear
responsibility for the good or ill fortune of distant peoples? Can the
abstract principle of a brotherhood extending to the whole of humanity
be reconciled with the just defence of the interests of one’s own
community?
The causes of mass migration:
— the misery of the losers of the postcolonial system known as free
trade;