Dear Bandula

Thanks for a great post about the UN and NYC. Your evocative picture of New York energies and attitudes is both funny and accurate. (No rain today, but there was a lot until yesterday, and there'll be a lot again tomorrow.)

love, Heather

I dream of a world where the UN (or a new organization that replaces it but is modeled after it) actually functions as a world body that has the power to enforce mandates for peace, prosperity, the wise management of resources and preservation of the world's ecosystems, acts as a true mediating body for international disputes, has the teeth to police out of control situations when necessary, and is respected by all nations.

But we aren't there yet. And one thing is certain - John Bolton doesn't share that vision for the UN. Neither do Bush or Cheney.

The model they have in mind for the UN can be seen by studying the transformation of the US House of Representatives from a true deliberative legislative body to a bunch of rubber stamping eunuchs. Witness their latest ratification of the White House's new torture bill.

If the neocons could break the will of the UN and always coerce it to do their bidding, they would. And that is John Bolton's mission, to help create the UN in that image.

The first thing that has to go is that veto power. The US, China, and Russia have all abused their veto power on numerous occassions to block initiatives that the world stood to benefit from.

Next would be to give the reports of the major human rights monitoring organizations much more authority. Nations that are engaged in genocide should not have a right to critique other's human rights records.

All sides should be held liable for war crimes when appropriate. The casual attitude countries espouse concerning so-called "collateral damage" (a phrase which actually means murdered civilians, often women and children) has to be dealt with.

The Geneva conventions have to be applied far more strictly. The World Court has to be empowered to rule on these important matters.

International monitoring of elections by nations who have themselves proven they keep high standards of free elections should be standard practice, at least until such time as truly free, unmanipulated elections become the norm around the world.

All nations have to be equally subject to the rules and procedures agreed upon. No nation, and no individual is above the law. No single nation, and no individual should be able to unilaterally push a self-serving world policy that harms the people of other nations.

It will take guts to to this. The true heroes of the 21st century will the leaders that move us towards a sane, responsible, planetary society.

We WILL become one society. As economics merge us, and the diasporas of all cultures spread more and more all over the planet, increasingly we will find ourselves living next door or across the street, or even in the same building as people from foreign lands with their own culture and language.

Day to day survival, family by family, will dictate the need for us to find a way to live together without killing each other.

We are going to have to drop some of our abstractions about "us and them", and start dealing with the real people we encounter every day.

Presidents that live in isolation, carefully guarded by their subordinates, and with their information filtered and spun so they can not respond appropriately to world events, will find themselves frozen out of the process of the evolution of society.

Those who look only back to the past, shun science, cling to prejudices, and believe in the way of death are going to get left behind while the rest of the nations form new economic and political alliances that cut them out of the loop.

Dinosaurs die hard. They make a big thud when they fall. It shakes the earth.

What kills the dinosaurs are not meaner, bigger animals, because there are none. They are the meanest, biggest, most fierce predators on the earth.

What kills dinosaurs are changes in the environment. Shifting conditions that they cannot adapt to. Changes that cannot be dealt with by bellowing, attacking, and chewing up smaller animals.

And this is all the dinosaurs know. They have one set of answers to every problem. Attack, kill, conquer.

How they cope when the water runs dry, the temperature changes, or the geography shifts is a different matter. They are not so well prepared for these kinds of changes.

No, it is death by a thousand small shifts that the dinosaurs finally succumb to.

Those who have ears....

Dear Bandula,

That was a good summary of the activities of the United Nation’s General Assembly annual sessions in NY. To me it sounds like a junket for diplomats around the world.

Does any real business take place during these sessions or are these just annual vacations for world politicians? Or maybe, some kind of annual oration contest where the best orator(s) get the best ovations?

Why do you think the UN has become more or less defunct?

Cheers!
Navin

Bandula: As I was rereading your post, or "blog," as you prefer, I saw a falling star race vertically across my peripheral vision!

I had been thinking both, how beautifully written, and how thoroughly observant are your comments about the UN, and New York City during the late summer rains you speak of.

The idea of all those beautiful legs out-and-about, striding by.....well, maybe a fruit cart, in the Big Apple......

....but, I look forward to a UN that, by worldwide consensus, successfully functions as the ultimate arbiter for a world where War has become globally "Outlawed;" both individually and collectively.

Yogi-One: As always, you are a continued source that relentlessly contributes to the greater education that is uniquely a gift from the living entity that is the Intentblog; and all free-of-charge at that! Dave