Statement on Aniara Day, October 12, 2006
On October 12, 2006, 50 years will have passed since Nobel Prize winner Harry
Martinson´s epoch-making great poem Aniara
was published. At that time the
first hydrogen bombs had been tested and the nuclear arms race was in full
swing. Also in
nuclear weapons. Martinson´s epic verse about a space journey from Planet
Earth, hit by disaster, was his warning to mankind. He saw not only the
danger of nuclear weapons but also “man´s tendency to destroy earth in all
ways”. Pollution of the environment was viewed by the prophetic
Martinson
as an existing threat even in the 1950´s.
Today there is every reason to bring Aniara´s
message to life again. A
growing number of prominent scientists are now joining the team of those
warning about drastic climate changes as a consequence of the greenhouse
effect. We must awaken and realize that everything cannot go on like before.
Though the cold war is finished we don´t live in a world free from nuclear
weapons. On the contrary, several countries are preparing to modernize their
nuclear arms and the number of nuclear weapon states has grown.
International efforts to ban nuclear tests and to promote non-proliferation
and disarmament have died down although there are still 27,000 nuclear
weapons in the world.
The Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission, chaired by Hans Blix, recently
presented a report where it was, inter alia, pointed out that we must work
for the abolition of all existing nuclear weapons and continue work to end
proliferation as well.
On Aniara Day, The Harry Martinson Society seriously urges the world´s
politicians, and those in power, to immediately start working for:
• The abolition of all nuclear weapons on earth
• The halt of accelerating levels of pollution in the environment that
threaten our common future
Finally we would like to quote Harry Martinson and ask: “What will the era
be like that will transform us, when we beyond all limits have transformed
the earth?”
The
Harry Martinson Society