STATEMENT BY Dr. Franz Harnoncourt-Unverzagt
President, Board of Communication Personal Representative of
H.M.E. The Grand Master
SOVEREIGN MILITARY ORDER OF MALTA
Without communication there is no
understanding, without understanding there is no peace.
The importance of this United Nations
World Summit on the Information Society is to identify in
practical terms how to use communication technologies in the
most effective and realistic ways available, in order to
help the poor, the deprived and the illiterate in the
developing world. The Order of Malta recognises, and
strongly applauds, the need for dissemination of information
through technological means as a way of reducing poverty,
extending knowledge and information, and therefore promoting
good practice in whatever undertaking.
The Order of Malta has for nine hundred
years attended to the needs of the poor and sick, regardless
of their race, nationality, age or religion. In this
century, we identify closely with the goals set by the
United Nations Development Millennium – goals which aim not
only to reduce poverty, but also to advance the causes of
freedom and democracy, to improve the standards of living of
all humankind, and to close the digital divide in order to
help achieve them.
The work of the Order around the world is
centred on improving the conditions in which society lives -
in particular, by offering practical advice for health, by
teaching the afflicted how to rebuild their lives, whether
because they have suffered illness or through man made
conflicts or the dramatic events of earthquakes, floods or
hurricanes, by setting up educational programmes for
children and drug addiction programmes for young people, by
providing regimes for the treatment of leprosy or HIV
positive mothers and infants.
Malteser International, the Order's
worldwide relief service, attends to the first needs of the
afflicted. The next phase is taken up by the Order's health
workers and helpers who are dedicated to assisting those
marginalised by society, for whatever reason — illness,
mental or physical handicaps, or natural disasters. They fan
out from the Order's 56 national and international
organisations.
Additionally, in this information
society, the Order of Malta is concerned with good
governance — a set of standards which is based in respect
for humanity and respect for the environment. These
standards are the principles which the members of the Order
of Malta commit to follow: love and serve your fellow man in
a Christian spirit. It is this spirit that drives the Order
to this day. It is this spirit which the Order finds so
compatible with the estimable goals set out by the United
Nations, and for which we are ready to offer our
collaboration — consultative, professional and practical.
The Order of Malta supports and welcomes
all efforts and projects presented at this conference,
which, together with general policies of educating
communities, at first through medical aid and then through
the training and education which it undertakes, will help
raise living and working conditions and practices through
increased knowledge and participation.
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