In the countless articles and reports written to commemorate the recent first anniversary of what happened in the USA on the 11th of the 9th of 2001, I have not seen any references to what I would call a new big bang of moral globalisation. Starting from that day especially, everything was globalised, although in fact it was already. Justice, the suffering of so many, envy, hatred, vengeance and ambition were globalised, for example, and of course, utopia, war and peace were globalised in wanting to synchronize opposites.

Those tragic and unexpected criminal events of September 11th 2001 in New York and Washington, brutally accelerated the awareness of that reality of human interconnection and of the authentic sense of globality that each particular person's actions have, even the apparently most insignificant and unknown ones. The shock that those facts caused in the consciences of all living beings in this world that has been miniaturized in its globality, reminds us of Bertrand de Jouvenel's phrases in a book entitled About Power: "The great educator of our species, curiosity, is only aroused by the unusual. Prodigies, eclipses or comets had to take place in order for our distant ancestors to concern themselves with celestial mechanics. The appearance of crises was necessary for it to be born, and thirty million at a standstill so that the investigation of economic mechanisms became universal. The most surprising facts do not act on our reasoning if they take place every day."

Suddenly, as a consequence of what had happened in little less than one hour, the most intimate personal convictions in those more than six thousand million inhabitants of the Planet made their appearance in a thousand diverse ways, each one considering how to act in consequence. Suddenly, the great principles and fundamental values of the whole Human Race appeared with unusual power interrogating all consciences, also especially those of politicians and rulers of all the nations. Their responsibility for what could happen to their millions of citizens in each City State became more clearly patent in an instant.

Unexpectedly, the cultural evolution of the history of the people became a highly important current issue. Never did the past weigh so heavily on the present. It is appropriate to refer for example to the last twenty-six centuries in Europe. We have to recognize that our western culture, our great principles and substantial values, like almost all the great European works, have their roots in the productiveness of Greek thought and in the strength and practical unfolding of Roman law. They spoke about great universal principles, practically unattainable, ideal but at the same time with the capacity for becoming real.

The work of Henríquez Ureña, The American Utopia (1925) reminds us of this when he says: "Utopia is not a vain game of infantile imagination: it is one of the great spiritual creations of the Mediterranean, our great sea predecessor. The Greek people give the western world the restlessness of constant improvement. When man discovers that individually he can be better than he is and socially he can live better than he lives, he does not rest until he discovers the secret of complete improvement, of complete perfection. He judges and compares; he searches and experiments without a break; he is not daunted by the necessity of alluding to religion and legend, to social structure and political systems. It is man that invents discussion; that invents criticism. He looks to the past and creates history; he looks to the future and creates utopias." We shall have to fight to find the best in the whole utopia, the best globalisation, also in economics.

Joseph John Franch Menéu
Gaceta de los Negocios, October 25th 2002