Portland Observer January 17.1980 Page 3
Senghor receives Book Award
P re s id e n t Leopold S. S e n g h o r, rig h t of th e
R ep u b lic of S e n eg a l re ce iv es the 1979 In te r-
national Book C om m ittee A w ard in Dakar from
Theodore W aller, IBC C hairm an and Executive
Vice President of Grolier Incorporated
The stumbling giants on the present dangers
(Continued from P. 1 Col. 6)
hated symbols o f foreign interferen
ce and o f impotence.
The Russians face their own Viet
nam, another case o f great power
self-entrapment. Just as the U.S.
lost
power,
prestige,
self-
confidence, and its economic health
in the Vietnam debacle, so the
Soviets now run the risk o f causing
their own encirclement.If the world
were simple we could take satisfac
tion in the Russians troubles. But
the m ounting insecurity o f the
Russians threatens our own security
because it brings with it the danger
o f a direct U.S.-Soviet c onfron
tation in the area. The poverty of
political imagination in Washington
and Moscow is such that all the
bumbling giants can think o f as a
remedy is the organism that caused
the disease--inindless m ilita ry
escalation.
and recrim inations surrounding
SALT, the European missies, and
the meaning o f the Soviet and
proposed U.S. build-up could be
avoided.
Beyond a moratorium, survival in
the nuclear age w ill require a
m inim um understanding o f our
historical moment. The pace o f
political change in our time has ac
celerated madly, and it is hard for
anyone to understand what is hap
pening. For Americans the very
notion of having to take account of
complex forces in the world beyond
our control is a very new idea, so
new, in fact, that it has yet to
penetrate the national security
establishment. Our leadership is
panicked and the Kremlin leader
ship is panicked by the belated
discovery o f m ilitant Islam. Since
W orld War II, especially, U.S.
foreign policy has rested on the
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The giants are being sucked into a
vortex. But perhaps, as in the
Cuban tnissle crisis, the enormity of
the danger may cause the super
powers to draw back from the brink
and comtetnplate alternatives to
destruction.
A new world security system is
urgently needed. Before the nation
marches to the new consensus down
a familiar and tragic path, we must
have a debate about the assum
ptions behind the present strategy
and a hard look at alternative paths
to survival in a dangerous world.
Nothing in the 40 year history of
the nuclear arms race suggests that
there is any technological solution.
Each weapons development simply
begets a counter-weapon. Safety,
therefore, can not be achieved by
the next round o f the arms race.
Surely what is needed now is just the
opposite: a m oratorium on the
testing and deployment o f all
nuclear weapons which would apply
to the U.S. and the USSR.
Before going ahead w ith new
weapons systems the U.S. should
press the Soviets to accept such a
moratorium for at least three years.
Were they to accept such a proposal
the dangerous m isunderstanding
proposition that control of political
and economic development in other
countries is necessary and even
desirable. The Kissinger “ structure
o f peace" was explicitly based on
massive technological support o f
authoritarian regimes. In theory,
vulnerable, grateful dictators would
ta ilo r economic, m ilita ry , and
resource policies to the needs o f the
United States. In practice, their
inevitable failures also became the
failures of the United States, which
turned into the hated symbol for
oppression, misery and incompeten
ce o f the local regimes.
The fa ilu re to understand the
power o f popular liberation
ideologies has proved to be the fun
damental weakpoint o f the old
ideology. In one sense we are at the
"end o f ideology.” Neither “ com
munism" nor "capitalism” remain
credible philosophical systems for
organizing society in the contem
porary w orld. There is growing
suspicion o f all ready-made-
systems. The existing models are too
much beset by internal divisions,
contradictions and failures. They
mean too many things. The failure
of both “ socialist” and “ capitalist”
regimes to bring lib eration or
dignity to billions o f people has
unleased a profound spiritual reac-
tion--a raducak rejection o f the
dominant international culture.
The Am erican C entury only
lasted a generation. It is dubious
that the Russians, though they seem
to be trying to imitate American
strategy, w ill ever have a Russian
century. They have the bad luck to
acquire military power at a moment
when the nation state system is
waning and uncontrollable cultural
forces are on the rise.
We
call
these
forces
"nationalism” but it is frequently a
misnomer. The popular impulse is
not so much to build a "nation” in
the nineteenth century sense of the
word as to restore a sense of cultural
and religious autonom y and to
achieve an identity which, as in the
case of the Kurds, for example, may
be transnational. But the power of
popular passions is real, and in the
corridors of power it is hopelessly
misunderstood.
The
o ffic ia l
American worldview ignored Islam
in Iran until the mobs were in the
streets. The Russians are cleaverer
in recognizing popular passion as a
major political phenomenon of our
time, but they too are so bound by
the traditional geopolitical view o f
the world that their only response is
to try to crush it.
The U.S. must accommodate it
self in the 1980s to the process of
breakdown o f the old imperial order
now reaching its climax. The essence
o f U.S. policy in the Third World
should be non-intervention. The
U.S. should withdraw its support
fo r a u th o rita ria n regimes and
should challenge the Soviets to a
policy o f non-intervention as well.
The task o f U.S. statesmanship is
to convince the Soviets that they will
be no more successful against forces
of popular liberation than the U.S.
has been. With their experience in
Egypt, Sudan, Somalia, and the
prospect o f a prolonged guerrilla
war in Afghanistan, they should not
be hard to convince. Intense
political pressure should be moun
ted to obtain Soviet support for new
ground rules which apply equally to
both superpowers in the T hird
World.
A second and equally critical task
is to establish new ground rules
governing the relations o f the in
dustrial
countries
and
the
developing countries. These must
provide for a fairer distribution of
w orld resources and fo r a
rationalization o f the world produc
tion system that can better reconcile
the increasingly competing interests
o f rich countries and poor.
We do not lack ideas or even well
worked out schemes for moving to a
new and safer world order.
The problem is that we have lost
faith in rationality. Twenty years
ago we had the hubris to think the
big problems had been solved. Now
we despair o f finding the intelligien-
ce, insight and moral courage to
solve them. There are promising
avenues to a better security system,
but they have been labeled
“ u to p ia n .” We march to an
n ih ila tio n under the banner o f
realism.
Copyright PNS 1980
Leopold S. Senghor, president of
the Republic o f Senegal, has been
named recipient o f the 1979 Inter
national Book Aw ard. Theodore
W aller, chairm an o f the In te r
national Book Com m ittee and
executive vice president o f Grolier
Incorporated, made the presen
tation in Dakar on December 20,
1979.
The award is given each year in
recognition for outstanding services
rendered by an individual or in
stitution to the cause o f books-in
such field as authorship, publishing,
book production , translation,
librarianship, and the promotion of
the reading habit.
In making the presentation, Mr.
Walker pointed out that "th is is the
first time the award has gone to an
author or to an African or to a chief
of state."
Mr. Senghor, in addition to being
head of the Republic of Senegal, is a
noted poet, essayist and teacher.
The award was inscribed: “ In
profound homage to Leopold Sedar
Senghor fo r enormous services
which the poet-president has ren
dered to the literary world and for
his perservering e ffo rts in the
promotion o f the book in Senegal
and in all o f Africa where he has
tirelessly worked in the cause o f
reading and the struggle against
illiteracy.”
Mr. Walker added: "Y o u r vast
body of written work, ranging from
your rich sensitive poetry, to your
provocative sociological, cultural
and political studies, to your book
for elementary school children in
A frica , has been a source o f in
spiration to us all. Translated into
many languages, these works
provide an invaluable source o f un
derstanding and appreciation for
the world at large.”
Mr. Senghor was also cited for his
etforts in the founding o f the Black
cu ltu ra l
jo u rn a l,
“ Presence
Africaine,” in the 1940s, and more
recently, “ Nouvelles Editions
Africaines.”
In recognition o f the event,
President Jim m y C arter sent a
message which
lauded
M r.
Senghor's “ persistent e ffo rts to
promote literacy in Africa...through
your work in the world o f literature
and culture, you stand as a symbol
to all peoples o f the w orld that
literature and culture can promote
understanding, cooperation and
peace among nations."
Previous winners o f the In te r
national Book Award have included
two national librarians (fro m
Belgium and Venezuela), two in
dividuals engaged in publishing
(from Japan and Great Britain), the
former head o f UNESCO’ s book
program, and the USSR National
Committee for International Book
Year.
In accepting the 1979 In te r
national Book Award, Mr. Senghor
emphasized his b elief that the
economic development o f nations
can best be achieved through the
cultural domain. " I t is evident," he
said, "th a t a lack o f culture, due to
low literacy, is a source o f prejudice
and constitutes the most serious ob
stacle to international cooperation
and a peaceful w o rld , an a t
mosphere necessary to the fully in
tegrated development o f the human
race to which we all belong.”
The International Book Commit
tee, which sponsors the annual
award, is an outgrowth o f the Inter
national Steering Committee for In
te rnationa l Book Year begun in
1972. S taffed and supported by
UNESCO, the IBC acts in a broad
advisory capacity to UNESCO book
programs.
Membership in IBC includes per
sons representative o f various major
publishing countries and the inter
n a t io n a l n o n - g o v e r n m e n ta l
organizations o f the book world:
authors, publishers, booksellers,
translators,
lib ra ria n s
and
docutnentalists.
In addition to the International
Book Award, IBC programs include
measures to combat illite ra c y ;
literacy maintenance; the promotion
o f w ider d is trib u tio n o f books
originally published in lesser known
languages; the international study
o f com munication problems; and
liaison w ith UNESCO’ s regional
book centers.
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