Magali: "Curiosity, empathy and active listening, all we need to move on all together"

 A Elena decidiu colocar mãos à obra e dar-vos a conhecer melhor todos os colaboradores internacionais que a Rota Jovem acolheu nos últimos meses, através de um grupo de reportagens que vais querer ter debaixo de olho. Desde estagiários a voluntários SVE, vais poder conhecer um pouco sobre os seus interesses e opiniões sobre a Europa! Fica atent@ e acompanha-os!


After two months of hard work designing a training course about Human Rights, Magali has already left Rota Jovem. We could not let go the opportunity to talk to her about all the knowledge she has collected, so here it is what she told us about this hot and important topic. And read until the end, because we have a small surprise!

- What is Ethics in International Relations for you?

Ethics in International Relations for me is the connection between realist and idealist theories. It is something which is above us; it is common sense that should guide the future of International Relations. It is the effort that some people make in order to choose either the lesser evil or the best way of doing things. It is important because today in many countries we have all our first needs fulfilled and therefore we have the time and the opportunity to invent a way of living without neither violence nor injustice. It is even more important because many states or unions of states are increasingly calling for more ethics in the International Relations, even if they do not respect it a lot.

- How and when did your interest about Ethics in International Relations start?

When I was younger I was more idealist, but I’ve been forcing myself to be more realist. I studied International Relations and I wrote my thesis about transfer of weapons by some members of the European Union. When a teacher explained me the selling of weapons to unstable areas of the world just for business I realized that his perception of the world was rather limited. I was there to learn how to create solutions and not to repeat history without thinking. So in my thesis I tried to show that the European Union cannot go on spreading across the world a pacific and positive discourse about itself if the EU is the first weapon exporter in the world. For me it is a big contradiction. 

- What are the main current issues that Ethics in International Relations is dealing with?

New forms of slavery, immigration, bioethics, cloning or organ traffic, for example. Here the United Nations are both a useful and useless tool, to the extent that they are the only place where most of countries of the world can meet, debate and reach some agreements but, at the same time, the Security Council is not a model that produces a consensus. It seems like even if there is a strong effect in the diplomatic exchanges the UN does not have often as much impact as it could and should have.

- Which is the link between Ethics and Human Rights?

Both notions tend to be universal. They had to become collectively institutionalized but they start with an individual will and awereness. We should absolutely tend to these two notions, even if they are something pretty hard to define. It is about pacifying the relationships between people and provide them guidance. 

- What is for you the biggest danger for Human Rights in Europe?

The lack of communication between people, whether people from different countries or in the same country. And I think that television is also a big danger, because it makes people passive limited critics of the world and it is a time eater. It makes you form your opinion based on someone else's opinion without using your brain, and the worst is that many people do not know what to do when TV is off. 

- How can the European Union and the European citizens contribute to a fairer world?

All the youth exchanges that the European Union is promoting are really good to get to understand the relativity of people's needs, incentives and hopes. It is not a passive learning, but completely the opposite, and it has a multiplying domino effect. As I have had the chance to participate in this kind of programmes, I feel very lucky and my vision of the world got larger. We need curiosity, empathy and active listening in order to move on all together.

- During your research about Human Rights, did you find something surprising? And something that made you change your mind?

It happened to me that one day I believed in Human Rights and the other I did not. One day it made sense and the other I thought that nobody was talking about the same thing. The hardest part is to play with these antagonistic results of the research. I did not find anything that has radically changed my mind, but I have completely shaped my knowledge.

- And like not everything is about working, which book, film and music would you recommend us?

A book: The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov.

A film: The Dance of Reality, by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

A sound: the ones that Alan Lomax collected around North America.