Togetherness key to surviving challenges – Tutu

Date Published: 17-Feb-2009

The unifying message of “togetherness” was conveyed by Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu to the huge crowds which gathered to hear him speak on his weekend visit to Galway.

Speaking at an event organized by the Literary and Debating Society at NUI Galway, Archbishop Tutu said the only way to combat the twin evils of environmental and economic meltdown was by treating each other as family. “We are all family,” he stated, adding, “the fundamental truth is you and I are created for togetherness.”

On climate change, the South African cleric explained that it was no longer something we could say would happen in the future. “The future is now,” he said. He spoke of people who could no longer hunt because of thin ice and of polar bears drowning. “God is saying please, what you do affects your family elsewhere.”

Following this with advice on the current economic crisis, Archbishop Tutu said the “economic meltdown affected everyone.” But while the economy floundered he angrily pronounced that “obscene
amounts” were being spent on budgets “of death and destruction,” while smaller amounts would help those less fortunate.

His prediction that…