Farewells & beginnings - by Mauricio Daniel Aceves Torres
A Latin-American poet once said, "the ones who are gone shall never return." After a bunch of meaningful moments in Bonn, Berlin, and Brussels –indoors and outdoors, talking or staring, with cold or rain– learning and growing with friends from China, Brazil, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, and South Africa, make me grasp this quote better… I will not get back homewards, at least, not being the same person I was when I left a few instants ago. Thanks to the environment we created, we are wiser than we used to be.
The MGG adventure has been a vast opportunity that does not come twice and that lasts forever, going along with the ones that are part of it for a few months. In the last week of activities –and many reflections– that inspired these paragraphs, I realized the lectures had been the seeds of ideas and projects that will arise all over the world in the following months or years, even overcoming the obstacles the geography represents. Moreover, the sparking bonds among us are only a preliminary draft of robust networks of professionals with the potential to impact global governance significantly. International cooperation will simultaneously be our framework and target in the coming ride.
"Fairness" is probably the most representative word I have found in the MGG and which my friends have taught me more than once. It integrates the effort, the value, the cooperation essence, and the progress-leading spirit in one idea. Fairness is the star that guides the path of sustainability and equity in the night; it escorts the decisions we will make and reminds us that we belong to a community that shares the same values. This perspective is especially worthwhile in a global context populated by tensions and geopolitical rivalries. International cooperation and community values are the primary antidotes for the challenges that cause damage to democracies, welfare, and hemispheric stability.
Talking about global governance is talking about shared issues and the actions we can undertake together to address them. Solutions and efforts must not be isolated but coordinated. Throughout the MGG Academy, we have built a cadre with a more expansive vision of cooperation and a broader comprehension of problems ahead linked with the 2030 Agenda. The efforts to understand the new global governance should consider new actors and technologies; we are facing a new context that includes a combination of factors we did not see in the past. Concerns that used to be smaller and far are increasing their importance and influence in the global power balance. Not acting now will represent a debt in the future.
I am aware of the responsibility of becoming an MGG Alumnus. The experience obtained at the MGG program will be a springboard to create a framework for planning and making joint efforts – considering the potential of a network-based along the homelands of the Alumni – promoting the adaptability and facilitation. On the other hand, I look forward to joining new MGG generations with renovated breath in the year ahead. Finally, the new world order is not settled yet. Global governance is constantly changing as world dynamics do; our next step is to be ready and to be ready together as the Network we are.
I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the MGG in its broadest sense, from everyone who makes it possible to the values it defends.
About the author:
