eskrima
06-17-2007, 06:06 PM
U.N. pays tribute to Waldheim, who writes 'last word'
...But Waldheim had what he called the "last word" on the controversy in a two-page letter, published posthumously by the Austrian Press Agency, a day after he died in Vienna on Thursday at the age of 88.....
http://in.today.*******.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-06-16T060929Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-303367-2.xml&archived=False
trying to find a better translation...
A Last Word from Dr. Kurt Waldheim
http://www.rumormillnews.com/pix2/pic37530.jpg
Guided by God, I pass out of this life with great gratitude. It has allocated me more years, more experiences, as well as more responsibilites than I had ever hoped. I am leaving as one of the last of a generation, whose life circle changed from war to peace, from dictatorship to freedom, from poverty to wealth. This course, of our home country and our continent, I sensed as a miracle day by day - especially through the knowing of what has been before, and still is, sad reality in many parts of the world. Many of my compatriots - men and women - have cooperated in this. However not everything has only been the fruit of our work. Austria also has been and still is a blessed nation.
The more painful it always felt to me, that we may not share this blessing with all human beings - in Austria and beyond. That we forget so many, who live with and next to us in hunger and poverty.
This terrible chasm (translation unclear -- cleft?? gap??), which I experienced directly for ten years at the top of the United Nations, has startled and moved me deeply till the last days of my life. It is the root of all great threats which lie over us. I would have liked to witness the sustainable change to a more just world.
In the face of death all disruptions of life dissolve. Good and bad, light and dark (things, deeds), merits and mistakes, now face a judge, who solely knows the truth. Confidently I step in front of him - knowing his justice and grace.
I want to thank all those who assisted me, who supported and sustained me in my work for Austria and the Communion of Peoples (UN), from my heart, and tell them, that without their help and support I would have accomplished nothing, I would have not even survived. My gratitude starts with my own family and all those, who have been around me for decades - in great loyality - and it reaches to the remotest corners of this Earth. However I am also greeting all those, who opposed me critically, and I ask them, to think over their motives once again and present me - if possible - a late reconciliation.
Perhaps this will become easier as well, through my passing from this Earth. Yes, I also made mistakes - and fortunately had much time to rethink them again and again. However the mistakes certainly weren`t those of nominal membership or even as a committer in a criminal regime. The attitude and fate of my family were to impressing for me. (meaning not clear...)
In retrospect, I see the causes, for the too late rectification of what had happened, mainly in the hecticness of my more than brimful international life and - over years and decades - as well in my absence from Austria and Europe.
As Secretary General of The United Nations I was confronted almost daily with wars, violence and political arbitrariness, with millions living in misery and desperation, with the persecuted, the humiliated, all the while endeavoring their rescue. Our successes and failures obstructed, for much too long by the remembrance of the crimes of the past.
But it also was this attitude, which we young post-war diplomates had to represent, which had opened for Austrians as "Hitler`s first victims", the door to liberty and treaty. I deeply regret that I had - under the external pressure of monstrous accusations, which hadn`t anything to do with my life and my reasoning - much to late unmistakably taken a stand on the NS (National Socialist) crimes. Reason for this was neither a dubious basic attitude, nor any political calculation, but the shock, insult, yes - the dismay about the content and the extent of these reproaches.
"Let us accept the responsibility for our mistakes in a form, which is appropriate to avoid future mistakes", I have stated in a TV address on March 10, 1988 - 50 years after the annexation of Austria to Hitler-Germany. More than ever I am convinced today, that everything we Austrians have created, to pass on to future generations, will only then have a chance for lastingness, if we also confess to a common understanding of history.
Wherever I could, I wanted to propitiate and connect people; wanted to build bridges in conflicts and strenghten community. Hardly any other function had been richer with more experiences in this sense, than the one of the UN Secretary General. The more bitter (translation questioned???) was my disappointment that I couldn`t bring into play and translate into action this global experience for us all in a way as I had hoped in the office as Federal President of my beloved Austrian Republic. Nevertheless I am not afraid of history`s judgement. It will be known what has been fact and what hasn`t.
My professional life, the fate of my time and my faith taught me many important lessons. The most important one is so obvious but nevertheless so difficult that I would like to call it again in memory:
We will survive, only if we discover ourselves to be far more than brothers and sisters, and live and act in a much more caring manner. Each being is a blessing. The generation to which I belong is leaving this world. We were molded by the experience that the search for compromise and consent between people, groups, parties and nations is no weakness, no defeat, but a condition for inner and outer peace. I do hope that this experience lives on in the future.Friday, June 15, 2007
...But Waldheim had what he called the "last word" on the controversy in a two-page letter, published posthumously by the Austrian Press Agency, a day after he died in Vienna on Thursday at the age of 88.....
http://in.today.*******.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyID=2007-06-16T060929Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_India-303367-2.xml&archived=False
trying to find a better translation...
A Last Word from Dr. Kurt Waldheim
http://www.rumormillnews.com/pix2/pic37530.jpg
Guided by God, I pass out of this life with great gratitude. It has allocated me more years, more experiences, as well as more responsibilites than I had ever hoped. I am leaving as one of the last of a generation, whose life circle changed from war to peace, from dictatorship to freedom, from poverty to wealth. This course, of our home country and our continent, I sensed as a miracle day by day - especially through the knowing of what has been before, and still is, sad reality in many parts of the world. Many of my compatriots - men and women - have cooperated in this. However not everything has only been the fruit of our work. Austria also has been and still is a blessed nation.
The more painful it always felt to me, that we may not share this blessing with all human beings - in Austria and beyond. That we forget so many, who live with and next to us in hunger and poverty.
This terrible chasm (translation unclear -- cleft?? gap??), which I experienced directly for ten years at the top of the United Nations, has startled and moved me deeply till the last days of my life. It is the root of all great threats which lie over us. I would have liked to witness the sustainable change to a more just world.
In the face of death all disruptions of life dissolve. Good and bad, light and dark (things, deeds), merits and mistakes, now face a judge, who solely knows the truth. Confidently I step in front of him - knowing his justice and grace.
I want to thank all those who assisted me, who supported and sustained me in my work for Austria and the Communion of Peoples (UN), from my heart, and tell them, that without their help and support I would have accomplished nothing, I would have not even survived. My gratitude starts with my own family and all those, who have been around me for decades - in great loyality - and it reaches to the remotest corners of this Earth. However I am also greeting all those, who opposed me critically, and I ask them, to think over their motives once again and present me - if possible - a late reconciliation.
Perhaps this will become easier as well, through my passing from this Earth. Yes, I also made mistakes - and fortunately had much time to rethink them again and again. However the mistakes certainly weren`t those of nominal membership or even as a committer in a criminal regime. The attitude and fate of my family were to impressing for me. (meaning not clear...)
In retrospect, I see the causes, for the too late rectification of what had happened, mainly in the hecticness of my more than brimful international life and - over years and decades - as well in my absence from Austria and Europe.
As Secretary General of The United Nations I was confronted almost daily with wars, violence and political arbitrariness, with millions living in misery and desperation, with the persecuted, the humiliated, all the while endeavoring their rescue. Our successes and failures obstructed, for much too long by the remembrance of the crimes of the past.
But it also was this attitude, which we young post-war diplomates had to represent, which had opened for Austrians as "Hitler`s first victims", the door to liberty and treaty. I deeply regret that I had - under the external pressure of monstrous accusations, which hadn`t anything to do with my life and my reasoning - much to late unmistakably taken a stand on the NS (National Socialist) crimes. Reason for this was neither a dubious basic attitude, nor any political calculation, but the shock, insult, yes - the dismay about the content and the extent of these reproaches.
"Let us accept the responsibility for our mistakes in a form, which is appropriate to avoid future mistakes", I have stated in a TV address on March 10, 1988 - 50 years after the annexation of Austria to Hitler-Germany. More than ever I am convinced today, that everything we Austrians have created, to pass on to future generations, will only then have a chance for lastingness, if we also confess to a common understanding of history.
Wherever I could, I wanted to propitiate and connect people; wanted to build bridges in conflicts and strenghten community. Hardly any other function had been richer with more experiences in this sense, than the one of the UN Secretary General. The more bitter (translation questioned???) was my disappointment that I couldn`t bring into play and translate into action this global experience for us all in a way as I had hoped in the office as Federal President of my beloved Austrian Republic. Nevertheless I am not afraid of history`s judgement. It will be known what has been fact and what hasn`t.
My professional life, the fate of my time and my faith taught me many important lessons. The most important one is so obvious but nevertheless so difficult that I would like to call it again in memory:
We will survive, only if we discover ourselves to be far more than brothers and sisters, and live and act in a much more caring manner. Each being is a blessing. The generation to which I belong is leaving this world. We were molded by the experience that the search for compromise and consent between people, groups, parties and nations is no weakness, no defeat, but a condition for inner and outer peace. I do hope that this experience lives on in the future.Friday, June 15, 2007