This week’s UN talks by world leaders should NOT leave
you feeling warm and fuzzy. The trajectory
of global threats appears to be accelerating with few leaders offering legitimate
solutions.
December 10, 2018 marks the 70th anniversary of the creation of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights. We need to urgently remind our
policy makers about the motivation behind its creation -- as well as the 17
Sustainable Development Goals now essential to reducing the underlying global drivers
of war, genocide, pandemics, hunger, poverty, economic instability, refugees,
and environmental destruction.
President Trump asserted that our nation’s security is a
function of our “sovereignty” and suggested that others pay more for their own
nation’s defenses. But security is not a
function of more military spending, national sovereignty, walls, or disarmament. It is a function of justice. And the failure of the UN and every national
government to protect human rights, instead of worshiping national sovereignty
is the greatest source of injustice.
Trump misused the word “sovereignty”. God
gave sovereignty to people, not nations.
National sovereignty is a human creation birthed with the treaty of Westphalia
over 400 years ago. Hyper globalization
of economics, travel, trade, communications, environmental problems, free trade,
corporations, and dual-use technology (WMD precursors) cannot be effectively controlled
or abolished by 197 nations acting independently. Insisting
on independent policies in an interdependent world is suicidal.
It appears the only thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history.
"Don't be taken in when they paternally pat you on the
shoulder and say that there's no inequality worth speaking of and no more
reason to fight because if you believe them they will be completely in charge
in their marble homes and granite banks from which they rob the people of the
world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it
pleases them they'll send you out to protect their gold in wars whose weapons,
rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until
they can with a flick of the finger tear a million of you to pieces": Jean-Paul Marat (May 24, 1743 - July 13,
1793), was a Swiss-born scientist and physician
Warnings and opportunities:
Why do we keep ignoring them? The
human minds belief that human laws are superior to the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s
God”. How’s that working out for the
three billion people who combined have as much wealth as the world’s richest 67
individuals? Does anyone really believe that is
sustainable?
The dual-use nature of all technology and it’s increasing affordability and availability now enables any committed group or individual to acquire the capacity for mass death, destruction, disruption or distraction. Recent UN speeches focusing on Disarmament (nuclear and conventional weapons) without effectively addressing underlying drivers of violence (injustice) is wasted time. Time is not on our side. Connect the dots!
See the web
(of life). Work for global justice. Or, prepare for the consequences.
"And
say, finally, whether peace is best preserved by giving energy to the
government or information to the people. This last is the most legitimate
engine of government. Educate and inform the whole mass of people. Enable them
to see that it is their interest to preserve peace and order, and they will
preserve them. And it requires no very high degree of education to convince
them of this. They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our
liberty." - Thomas Jefferson
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