The digital as a challenge, a battlefield and an instrument and weapon of struggle, was one of the many issues analyzed by intellectuals from various parts of the planet gathered this Thursday at the 5th International Conference For the Balance of the World.
Intellectuals and the challenges of the contemporary world was the panel that welcomed the interventions of these thinkers, who also focused their analysis on the transforming role of cultural vanguards and political leadership, based on the two decades of existence of the Network of Intellectuals in Defense of Humanity.
Among the voices that were heard at the Havana Convention Palace was that of Abel Prieto, president of Casa de las Americas, who reviewed the origins of the Network, conceived by the leader of the Cuban Revolution Fidel Castro, and which brought together humanists convinced of the importance of confronting imperialism.
The writer recalled the origins of the organization and its links with the founding of Telesur, to counteract the information hijacked by the elites. "Now they manipulate our emotions in the social networks", he pointed out, while calling for the relaunching of the Network and the use of Internet platforms to unite us.
The young Cuban Lil María Pich, member of the Movimiento Juvenil Martiano, spoke about what an intellectual should contribute to humanity in the 21st century, when the bombardment of information forces us to counteract the matrixes of opinion and to give voice to the silenced.
The ability to have one's own opinion is endangered by the toxicity and manipulation that moves in social networks, he added.
Manolo de los Santos, coordinator of the People's Forum, proposed to carry out a project that rescues humanity. "We must understand that we face a model of participatory democracy that we inherited from the bourgeoisie of 200 years ago, and we have to face it.
"Either we transcend in the current model of democracy or we are defeated in that political field", assured the young man of Dominican origin, who suggested to look for in the peoples the vanguard capable of reaching, through the electoral way, the transformation of the social environment, because today a great amount of money is invested to subvert and disarticulate us.
Sergio Barrios, Vice Minister of Culture of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, added the importance of acquiring full awareness of the urgencies and dangers of humanity; and asked to return to the conceptual and symbolic milestones of the Network of Intellectuals.
As part of the panel, a proposed declaration was presented in support of the Peruvian and Colombian peoples, who are suffering from a situation of insecurity for social leaders; and a call was made to move from academia to action.