The Current Discussion:Is there a growing global agenda -- that is, an agenda of issues being discussed that affects the world rather than individual countries? Or are local concerns still paramount?
There is no growing global agenda. Only a few people insist upon returning to the time when the world was believed to be flat. There has never been a common agenda. A series of ill-conceived tactical patchworks, inward-looking ideas and flamboyance have always cluttered the path and have been hyped as “good for the world” by the guidance and “leadership” of a selfish few.
Conversely, much of the agenda has been hijacked or perverted in the interest of those few--be it issues about trade, global warming and other environmental disasters, overfishing of seas or simple access to drinking water and vaccines by a majority of the world’s population. Some organizations, like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, were set up yet remain stuck in the epoch of financial influence zones within the capitalist domain--if only as a scheme to isolate the ideological rival--but there are internal gangs and groupings within each of those modern tribes. The failure of the Doha Round of WTO agricultural trade negotiations, itself a club by invitation, can also serve as the answer to the question. The rise of local politics over global logic produced results in three planting seasons. Much higher food prices is the tangible gain!
The world has plainly squandered many chances to agree on common values and rules for a flat playing ground. Those in favor of a flat earth insist on hanging on to the upstream despite the formation of the United Nations after a ruinous war, alas, the “Flat Earth Club” has deformed the original goals beyond recognition. The self-professed democracies are in no mood to join a democratic endeavour at the world level. The cost of this frivolous exercise, in human terms, is beyond imagination--especially when it all flies in the face of scientific advancements and the unprecedented means of communication.
At best, the U.N. is a bloated, relic bureaucracy that is always short on budgets (due to non-payment of dues by major, rich countries). At worst, it is in need of urgent modernization of its convoluted structure and vetoes. In reality, the U.N. is now a parading arena and a byzantine hippodrome for backroom deals that amplify the divide between the “haves” and the “have nots.” Ganging up against other treaty members in the new, tribal structure is the going fare. Somehow, the U.N. Security Council has risen above other structures, where stale thoughts and vapid desires of a few rise above the charter of the organization and the rules of its agencies. Five members can easily maul the resolutions of the General Assembly. When a member (U.S.) attacks another (Iraq) at will, the UNSC lets the conqueror to be appointed as the trustee on behalf of the world—never mind about the Geneva Conventions! The Iranian nuclear issue and the Non-Proliferation Treaty are cast against the absurd demands of the U.N. Security Council Permanent Five. Iran is put in an impossible situation to prove a negative. It is an illustration of how far the original goals and ideals are cast from the real world and common logic. A massive intellectual bankruptcy describes it! Moves to cut off an internal territory (Kosovo) as punishment for the deeds of a dead Serbian dictator some 15 years ago is another cause for contemplation. Alas, many other UNSC Resolutions (which are equally binding) remain unenforced and wilfully neglected.
It is time to go back to basics and revisit the preamble of the U.N. Charter. In this era of political cross-dressing and televisiocracy falsehoods, many consider it to be an amusing piece of idealism, destined to dither in the past. But if there is a cause to go back to these roots and rebuild for the future, this ought to serve as a guiding light of an uncertain path ahead:
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
- to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
- to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
- to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
- to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
AND FOR THESE ENDS
- to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and
- to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
- to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
- to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS
Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.
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