However as the forum officially starts tomorrow, I knew nothing much would happen tonight so I've written a blog on the plane - here it goes...
“Please fasten your seatbelt while we prepare to take off” announced the flight attendant. Like myself, I’m sure you’ve heard this announcement tons of times but this time, it’s not just another in-flight announcement for me – it marks the start of an extraordinary and probably once in a lifetime experience.
1) Environmental sustainability - as mentioned by many, global warming etc. is very serious and the uncertainty about the possible consequences is extremely worrying. Consequences of environmental problems will affect the world economy, society and will certainly take a lot of lives. Renewable technology should also be invested on.
2) Control over the widening of the Rich-poor divide - the encouragement of universal education, the support of SMEs, the control of multinationals.
3) Education - improvement of this will directly help 2).
4) The development of the UN - It is always accused as a “toothless tiger” - one must change this point of view by strengthening the world peace-keeper.
5) Assistance for developing countries - health, fresh water, food supply, education etc.
6) War and Peace - Crisis in the Middle East, Nuclear weapons, North Korea, Iran etc.
----Tomorrow we'll be told about the selection method of the 6 going to Davos so come back tomorrow to check out the latest post - which should be interesting!
(at dinner)Edit: I totally agree with Alicia and in fact there's a really good book which highlights the flaws in the UN system especially on the UN-US relationship.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Intentions-Annan-American-World/dp/0374182205
2 comments:
I strongly agree with putting forward point four. Personally, I feel that the current system with the permanent five holding veto power is evidently flawed. Take the Darfur Crisis for example, China is threatening to use its veto on the UN Security Council to protect its interest in Sudan and is providing weapons and aircraft to Sudan as the UN is sending peace-keeping troops to support the African Union Mission in Sudan peacekeeping force which is fighting against the Sudanese Army. So how can we improve the current system of the UN so that it’s not a "toothless tiger" and a 'One-World Government' dominated by the superpowers, yet protecting the rights and interest of each nation? I think that these are definitely problems that our generation have to solve.
Haha I finally came to visit your blog :P
13 hour flight? that must have killed...anyways. Behold my rant :)
If I were choosing from those 6...I would probably choose 1 or 5. So okay, it's both unfeasible and naive to think so, but isn't that exactly the point? That so little is taking place in both cases that it's practically a dream that could never be achieved? These are exactly the issues that DO need to be addressed.
If anyone wants to truly change the world for the better, they'd better start with the most pressing issues related to the world: in this case, the world itself, or the less privileged majority of humanity. It's ironic for world leaders to sit and deliberate (over and over for ages and ages) about how to change the world for the better - and yet only ever come up with things that only benefit themselves, their economy, and basically their own fantasy world of money and economics. I sound like a hippie here, but really, it is ironic, especially when they're choosing to make such decisions over issues so much more critical, like 1 and 5, which aren't exactly new and have been staring them in the face for ages. Or, rather, staring them in the back of the head, since we always turn our backs and a blind eye.
"Mitigate global warming? Not a chance." "Help the poor? Hahaha yeah, as if."
Seriously, don't want to hear it anymore. After all, what is the point of re-fanging the so-called "toothless tiger"? To allow the body to prevent various crises. Great. So instead of trying to get straight in there and deal with the crisis itself, we'd be choosing to take a (rather long, tedious, and unnecessary) detour around the crux of the problem itself.
Sure, I agree that we need to be "united" and "organized" to deal with such pressing issues, but I just hope everyone realizes that the longer we put this off, the worse it'll get: this ain't just some other normal issue that we can get around by simply sitting around and discussing it. It's life-threatening, desperate, constantly disregarded, and gets worse day by day.
Let's stop procrastinating already!!!
end rant :)
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