Manifest of Good Will (V)

X —The worldwide Economics cannot be at the mercy of experiences, even if well-intentioned, which damage more and more the institutions' credibility before the People.The Human Being, with his Eternal Spirit, must be in the center of Economics, as he is the generator of all progress. Without him, there is neither work nor capital. The wealth of a country is in the heart of its people. However, entire nations still suffer misery... It is opportune to remember that empty stomachs and frustrated spirits are not usually willing to listen. In a bitter time, the Brazilian writer and politician José Américo declared that "scandal is to starve to death in Canaan". And Saint Ambrosio, mentor of Saint Augustine asserted: "If you have great wealth and your brother is hungry, you are a thief. If the needy one dies, you are a murderer". In times when through technological advances the production expectations are surpassed, hunger is really a scandal! Anachronistically, never the market knew at the same time so much abundance and so much misery. Economics is lacking Solidarity.

The spring of Economics is Man himself

If profit is the reason of the entrepreneurial Economics, according to the unbeatable principle that the business must survive and grow, the payment of fair salaries is its ethics, but also its shrewdness. It is necessary to mix the maximum business performance with the safety and well-being in the society behavior. We give an example: the Brazilian workers are among the worst paid in the world. Some people argument that their productivity is low. How could it be high, if the great majority of workers is not fed adequately, have lived in the "slums" and have added to the normal working time, four or five hours of extreme fatigue inside full buses, trains or subways? How can productivity be high if the laborer is not adequately prepared, having to defeat the debility of his body, corrupted by bad nutrition and assailed by sickness? How to produce well, if his life, far from an exercise of freedom and joy, is a painful martyrdom from the moment he wakes up to the time he goes to bed? And the legend runs that the Brazilian people are vagrant. Who is this vagrant that is hungry? Scoundrels are those who exploit him.

No country will have its prosperity ensured, if it does not have a solid inside market. Even in the universalized Economics we have been living nowadays, it is on the country consumers purchasing capacity that the producers' strategy is oriented. If there are no salaries to allow the products to be consumed, industries are forced to compete in the international market. And consequently the unfair competition among countries of cheaper labor is established. Thus, besides the permanent delay of the developing nations, the difference between rich and poor in the internal economic relationships increases. Then, phenomena such as the uncontrollable inflation occur, periodic recession, social despair and frequently the political instability and civil war.

Let us combat the causes and the effects will cease

Man is the intelligent effect of the Intelligent Cause that is God, which is Love.

Let us then combat the causes of the economic problems that are first of all, moral and spiritual, because there are some who want everything for themselves. In parallel, let us combat urgently the misery that devastates multitudes with all the means we have in our hands at the moment. The one who is hungry wants to eat; the one who is thirsty must alleviate it; the one who is naked needs vestment; the one who is sick longs to be cured; and the desperate one waits for assistance. Not tomorrow, now! And before the starving masses, in a delirious manner, come to tear what they do not have away from the hands of those who have something.

The disorder that comes from above

The disorder does not manifest itself only in the uncontrollable popular insurrections. To cheat and exploit the People, leading them to despair also constitutes a disorder... The disorder that comes from above.

The private enterprise cannot forget the People

The free economic initiative — the society based on the market relationship — will only survive if businessmen understand the elementary Truth that the prosperous and solid company is not the one that removes profits from denied salaries, but from administrative efficiency, from the creative spirit and high creativity that are the result, in last analyzis, of the ethics of their internal relationships and the ones they have with the community. The true property, in a wider and deeper sense, belongs to the entire community. The private enterprise is only BENEFICIAL when it BENEFITS the People and the Country, and not only a group of profiteers.

We cannot comply with the clamorous social injustices. There are many individuals that recognize them, and not a few that are against them. But how many people, in the exercise of political power or in business, really act against the iniquity? That is why we alert that only the Solidary Economics is the path, which will set us free from the crises that destroy the efforts of all. And, as the People say, "one day, the walls go tumbling down". They really will if the due measures are not taken.

The "small pickpockets" are the effect of the "big ones"

XI - Without prejudice or fanaticism, it is urgent to promote the renewal of some archaic social institutions, by the revitalizing action of the Gospel — Apocalypse of the Christ, eternal compendium of the Divine Constitutional Culture, where Jesus, the greatest Educator of all times, unfortunately still little unknown or badly understood by many, has established His Spiritual government rules. The greatest of them, the true principle of national and international salvation is His New Commandment: — A New Commandment I give to you: Love one another as I have loved you. And by this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. (Gospel of Jesus, according to John, 13: 34 and 35) — Universal Law of Solidarity, which requires decision to be shown in its effective civilizing value.

Well, to preach Love when everybody loves each other is banal; to preach it as the political solution at the time of hatred justifies the human existence on Earth. Nevertheless, Love must march side by side with Justice. Zarur used to say: "There is no progress in disorder". In order to be the measures of this transformer process always stimulated by Life, we manifest our repugnance for the institutionalization of euthanasia, of the death penalty and abortion, crimes against life, many times defended even by true idealists, but who ignore the Spiritual Laws.

The shameful situation of the needy child in Brazil is not only due to lack of resources in the Country.

If today, in our streets, famous "small pickpockets" are delinquent, it is because above them the "big pickpockets" walk unpunished, even if sometimes they have been disguised as People's benefactors. With unpunished people, the Society does not have immunity.

Reeducation and progress with Spirituality

XII — It is in Teaching — Education and Instruction with Spirituality — that resides the great objective to be achieved, right now! And let us go further: only the Reeducation, even of Education itself, is able to guarantee days of prosperity and social Peace.

Without Education and Instruction with Spirituality, there is no progress. However, to educate and to instruct does not only mean to teach how to read, plunge into books. Above all else, it means illuminating intelligence with the New Commandment of the great professor Jesus: — Love one another as I loved you. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another as I have loved you (...) — the intelligence for the harmonious functions of Humankind in Society. This will be achieved when the Human Creature were able to know how to see beyond the intellect with the eyes of the Spirit. That is the reason why we have the following motto for so long: Education and Culture, Nourishment, Health and Work with Spirituality.

It is necessary to harmonize Man with Life, knock down the goddess death from its pedestal, name under which the demagogy that provokes the hunger, the misery, the suffering... has been hidden. To instruct, without educating the Spirit, means to grant diplomas to bandits.

The reflections conduct us to the urgent democratization of Knowledge, of universalization of Teaching. Education is the most demanded and the most profitable of the social investment.

We believe that with a concentrated effort in Education and Instruction with Spirituality, it will be possible to create a great Homeland and a better world. In order to accomplish it we have to start now, without wasting any minute, adding efforts of the State and Society.

School is fundamental, but it does not replace home. The State and Society, united, must generate solutions in order that families raise and educate their children with dignity.

Our entrepreneurs should understand that the modernization of machines will be worth nothing if they do not have people able to manage their performance. And it is impossible to imagine a civilization of robots that produce, but do not consume.

José de Paiva Netto is a writer, journalist, radio broadcaster, composer, and poet. He is the President of the Legion of Good Will (LGW), effective member of the Brazilian Press Association (ABI) and of the Brazilian International Press Association (ABI-Inter). Affiliated to the National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the Union of Professional Journalists of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Writers of Rio de Janeiro, the Union of Radio Broadcasters of Rio de Janeiro, and the Brazilian Union of Composers (UBC). He is also a member of the Academy of Letters of Central Brazil. He is an author of international reference in the concept and defense of the cause of Ecumenical Citizenship and Spirituality which, according to him, constitute “the cradle of the most generous values that are born of the Soul, the dwelling of the emotions and of the reasoning enlightened by intuition, the atmosphere that embraces everything that transcends the ordinary field of matter and comes from the elevated human sensitivity, such as Truth, Justice, Mercy, Ethics, Honesty, Generosity, and Fraternal Love.”