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Monthly Archives: May 2014

WHAT IS GLOBALIZATION?

31 Saturday May 2014

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Consumption Tax, Distribution of wealth, Economic Growth, Economic Inequality, Environment, FOUNDATIONS /FORUM THINK TANKS, Sovereign wealth fund, Wealth Tax

 

social network structure Stock Photo - 15456081

IF YOU CONSIDER THE QUESTION WHAT DO YOU COME UP WITH.

Globalization is everywhere on TV, on websites, learning journals, labour meeting rooms and in organization’s boardrooms. Remarkably, for so widely a used term, there does not appear to have a precisely agreed definition.

There can be no doubt that it is causing a shift away from democracy (rule by the people) and toward plutocracy (rule by the rich).

One of the frequently used definitions is that globalisation refers to the growing integration of societies across the world, it has taken many forms and it is difficult to discuss it in a general way.

HERE A FEW ATTEMPTS TO DEFINE IT.

Globalization can be defined as a procedure in which geographic distance is a diminishing factor in the formation and sustentation of international economic, political and cultural relations….

Globalization is “the integration of states through increasing contact, communication and trade to create a holistic, single global system in which the process of change increasingly binds people together in a common fate”

Globalization can be defined as the ability to produce goods or services anywhere in the world using capital, technology and components from anywhere and to sell the output anywhere and place the profits anywhere”

Globalization is a confusing concept. For some it conjures up images of electronic communications: an email, global media, and popularization of mobile phones. For others it is about trade: the ability to buy coca-cola in rural villages in Africa. For yet others it is about misappropriation and greed: the suicide of Indian peasant farmers ruined by agribusiness and genetically modified seeds.

Globalization is the massive control of the world’s economy by big business, this control transcends the boundaries of state and country. This transcendence across countries makes the subunits of the economy decompose and depend on the larger companies with a controlling interest in most of the capital within a given economy.

Globalization with its policies of free trade, financial liberalization, deregulation, reduced government spending, and privatization concentrate wealth at the top to the people who already have it.  These policies affect local governments and communities because they don’t have the tools to “ensure equity and to protect workers, social services, the environment, and sustainable livelihoods.  Also, the institution that were created by globalization, like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, increases inequality between nations and increase poverty.

When a policy decision might only advance the extreme nationalist’s nation only slightly, even though it may cause extreme suffering in another part of the world, the extreme nationalist supports it as national interests come first. The extreme cosmopolitan feels that when there is a conflict between national and human needs the needs of humanity come first. This person feels that “patriotism is not a virtue and loyalty to one’s country is valuable only insofar as it promotes the interests of humanity”

Capitalism is not one economic system but many. “There are different ways to organise capitalism. Free-market capitalism is only one of them – and not a very good one at that. There is no one ideal model.” This is clearly right, but the types of capitalism that exist today are not just different. They are also competitors, with conflicting needs and goals. Chinese capitalism, Russian capitalism, Indian capitalism and American capitalism are geopolitical rivals as much as they are different ways of organising the marketplace, and they threaten one another in a number of contexts – not least when they are struggling to secure control of scarce natural resources. Many of the world’s conflicts are driven by these geopolitical rivalries.  The new soldiers in this war are Sovereign Wealth FUNDS.

“The meaning of life: something that no one really knows. Besides, there’s not much point in being the richest man in the cemetery” (Peter Ustinov)

There is only one solution to making the distribution of wealth in this Globalized World so that it is shared by all.  No wealth tax will work because it cannot be applied on a fair and even bases.   So we are left with a global aid commission of 0.05% ON ALL FOREIGN CURRENCY TRANSACTIONS WORLD WIDE  this would be a simple and fair implementation of global opinion.

 

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HAVE YOU HEARD THE LATEST JOKE CALLED INCLUSIVE CAPITALISM

28 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on HAVE YOU HEARD THE LATEST JOKE CALLED INCLUSIVE CAPITALISM

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Business and Economy, Distribution of wealth, FOUNDATIONS /FORUM THINK TANKS, Globalization, Inequility

 

In the last few days you might have seen that some big nobs of Capitalism meet in London to discuss what is going wrong.

They conclude that Capitalism must be more inclusive.

What a OXYMORON.  You would have to be a half wit to think Capitalism is anything but the exploitation of Man by Man.  With Militarism as one of its main bulwarks.  It is in many ways extremely objectionable

As Oliver Goldsmith said ” Where wealth and freedom reign, contentment fails and honour sinks, where commerce long prevails.”or  Mark Twain ” Tain’t yours and t’ain’t mine.”

There is only one way to make Capitalism more inclusive and that is to put a 0.05% COMMISSION ON ALL STOCK EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS WORLD WIDE. ( See previous blog: Just look what could be achieved if we re-focus greed to make a contribution to the World)

As if we all need more proof you will have noticed that the recent European Elections ( even with large bail out) has given rise to Fascismo raising its ugly head within the very organisation that was formed to avoid a recurrence of  the very thing that World War Two was fought over.

We all know the saying:  That it is not possible to please all of the people all of the time.  But there is a way of helping all the people all of the time>  By tapping into Greed.

If you agreed sign up my petition on Change Org. To Place an Aid Commission of 0.05% on all transactions over $20,000 in the world capital markets.

If we want the thinks we value in the World Greed must contribute to the redistribution of wealth. It will have little or no effect on the rich, but it will create a perpetual fund with sufficient funds to address the present day world problem.

As always if you have any comments or wish to contribute they will be much appreciated.  

   

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THERE IS A TECTONIC SHIFT HAPPENING IN THE WORLD’S ECONOMIC POWER

27 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on THERE IS A TECTONIC SHIFT HAPPENING IN THE WORLD’S ECONOMIC POWER

Tags

Distribution of wealth, FOUNDATIONS /FORUM THINK TANKS, Inequility, Sovereign wealth fund

 

Press Conference for the 3rd meeting of the IFSWF, May 11-13, 2011

“Our needs determine us, as much as we determine our needs” George Eliot.

While we are all preoccupied with our daily lives if we don’t wake up soon to changing the way our world operates all of our needs will be Privatised.

The very essentials are being plundered for profit not by the Banks of the G8 countries but rather a multi-trillion dollar network of super rich, secretive and largely unregulated investment vehicles – FOREIGN SOVEREIGN WEALTH FUNDS. Government run corporations and Private Equity Funds.

They are buying major stakes in Multinational Corporations, Farmland and Natural Resources.

They are moving the Conversation from International Competition to Global “Financial Warfare” and will soon dominate the Future Path of the Global Economy.  In addition to ethical issues, this ongoing concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny minority is questionable insofar as the resulting increased demand for investable securities contributes to a safe asset imbalance that poses a threat to the stability of the global economic system.

In the coming 6/7 years they will exceed the total size of the world,s official reserves.

We cannot continue with Rich countries making up their own mines on what they will buy. Somehow we must rise to the challenge. If not us, if not now, when?

They must be stopped by capping their ownership. The International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF) has decided to establish its Secretariat office in the City of London.

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0.05% WORLD AID COMMISSION- WORKINGS part two.

23 Friday May 2014

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on 0.05% WORLD AID COMMISSION- WORKINGS part two.

Tags

Change.org, Climate change, Distribution of wealth, Environment, G8, Global warming, Inequility, Natural disaster, Sovereign Wealth Funds, United Nations

 

It is beyond my comprehension with 7/24 news that we continue to destroy the planet that we all own and live on for the sake of short-term Profits.

Greed has no boundaries, no limitations, no moral obligations, no self – esteem, no conscious, it is concave.

It must be harnessed – re focused to contribute to the survival of us all without creating more greed.

In the first part of this blog I out lined how easy it would be to adopt a World Aid Commission. To apply it to all World Foreign Exchange transactions under $20,000. Creating a Fund with a source of perpetual Aid in billions.

So who, how, and where would we invest these funds?

I suggested that the funds revenue could be allocated as follows.

50% – Rapid Aid – fully equipped Response Centers.

25% – Climate Change  Defenses.

25% – International Development Fund.

The Rapid Aid Response Centers (  would get rid of the pathetic need to beg for aid every time there is a disaster) is self-evident.

Four or Five centers fully operational positioned around the globe like lifeboat stations would not only save lives but create employment and pool expertise.

Combined with a Rapid Peacekeeping force that represents all member states.

Climate Change Defenses.

Also self-evident. If we don’t start to build defences and educate the world to the consequences we are all facing  there will be no need for any fund.

International Development Fund.  

This must be Non payback Grants with no strings attached.  Totally transparent based on viable projects submitted to a new United Nations Governing body made up of experts in all fields from all member Nations of the United Nations.

Each project on approval would be allocated an approval number which would then qualify that project for entry into an Annually Televised  Draw for Funds ( this would stop lobbying and corruption etc.)  So many winner at x amount, at y amount, and so on.  The Television program would also show the progress on the previous year Projects winners.

If we are to achieve a fair and just world full of the values that are essential to all of us irrelevant of religious, political, and other aspirations, we must use Greed ( which is common to all of us.)

There is no point living in a virtual reality world full of technology if we have ongoing conflict, inequality, mass economic migration, depletion of finite resources, flooding, poverty, to name just a few of our ailments.

The Primary responsibility is ours not the Futuristic World of the unborn.

If you have any interest your contributions will be much appreciated.

In the mean time kindly support my Petition to the United Nations and the G8.  Found on http:// www change.Org /Robert Dillon.

PASS IT ON TO YOUR FRIENDS. THANK YOU ON BEHALF OF THE EARTH AND THE GENERATIONS TO COME.

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A 0.05% WORLD AID COMMISSION – WORKINGS

22 Thursday May 2014

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on A 0.05% WORLD AID COMMISSION – WORKINGS

Tags

A world Aid Commission, Climate change, Distribution of wealth, Environment, Extinction, Natural disaster, www.povertycure.org

 

 

As I have said I am not the first to advocate what I like to call a commission ( FTC- Financial Transaction Commission) not a Robin Hood Tax or any other kind of tax.  The very word Tax these day sends quivers in all the wrong directions. However perhaps I am the first to broaden the application World Wide.

It would have little or no effect on world economies with very little cost to collect as present collection of taxes is done electronically.

Even if it was applied universally only to currency transactions over $20,000 it would produce billions with the potential to make a huge difference to the well-being of millions of people. 

The foreign exchange (FOREX) market is the largest market in the world, with enormous sums being traded everyday. The size of the market is so huge that it is quite difficult to comprehend the amounts involved. More than $1,200 billion (or $1.2 trillion) worth of currency is traded each day, more than three (3) hundred (00) thousand (000) billion (000,000,000) dollars ($300,000,000,000,000) each year.

Lots of taxes are hard to collect, but this doesn’t seem like one of them.

Sales taxes have decent compliance, and they are often collected by small businesses conducting commerce in cash.

Trading, on the other hand, is conducted by large businesses on computers. This commission would be collected by the exchanges. If there’s no exchange involved, the buyer owes it. It would be paid on any trade carried out in the world or by any world entity or individual (a corporation’s offshore subsidiaries can’t get around it).

It can also be imposed on unfilled orders, derivatives, repos, currency trades and any financial transaction but this is already on the cards within the European Union  and the USA and other countries 

A financial transaction commission (FTC)—a commission on the trading of financial assets—has multiple appeals.

It is a progressive commission that would affect primarily wealthy individuals and large corporate institutions, with benefits potentially flowing to many. Further, while an FTC is not a substitute for effective regulation of finance, it would act to dampen some financial activity, helping to reshape a political economy in which finance has become overly dominant. Finally, the political logic of an FTC—the dynamic of Wall Street vs. Main Street—should give it wide appeal.

The first question is who would manage the fund ?

To create a totally new Organisation would be too cumbersome/ and too expensive to set up.

But a consolidation of existence United Nations organisations/ agencies would save money and resources.

Such a consolidation could combine THE FOLLOWING : OCHA, UNICEF, UNDP,UNEP,UN-HABITAT, UNODC, UNFPA,WFP –  INTO  (ONE ORGANISATION CALLED  –  UN CONCERN – OR WORLD AID COMMISSION- OR UN REACTION WORLD CONCERN.

The funds revenue could be allocated as follows.

50% – Rapid Aid – fully equipped Response -Centers.

25% – Climate Change  Defenses.

25% – International Development Fund.

This concentration of aid over the next 10–12 years would constitute an unparalleled investment in development with benefits that will accrue over time as infrastructure is put into place in the poorest countries.

As always I end this blog fully admitting that I am no expert and all contributions are welcome. The next blog I will attempt to outline how the fund will be transparent and avoid outside political or other pressures in its allocation of funding.

If you are Interested I would be more than pleased if you would give your support to My Petition to lobby the United Nations and the G*8. (  link – https//www.change.org)  – search Robert Dillon.

 

 

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IF WE ARE TO STOP THE MADNESS

21 Wednesday May 2014

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on IF WE ARE TO STOP THE MADNESS

Tags

Distribution of wealth, FOUNDATIONS /FORUM THINK TANKS, G8, Search engine optimization, United Nations

 

My last blog ( Just look what could be achieved if we re-focus greed to make a contribution to the world) promised to address how it could be achieved.

We have been all listing to millions on millions of words describing what is wrong with our world.

Wars, Poverty, Inequality, Extinction, Climate Change, Corruption , Modern Slavery, Crime, Terrorist around every corner, Overweight people pounding our Street, Deforestation, Pollution of our Seas, Rivers, Drinking water, Food Production, Drug Cartels, Despot Dictators, Economic Migration, Drones, Natural Disasters, Virus Resistance, Dwindling Natural Resources, Exploitation, Experts on every Subject. Education, Distribution of Wealth, Refugees.

The list is endless but all interlinked to Greed.

WE Need a New and creative way to protect what gives us all what is valued in Life.

The only way to do this is to Tap into Greed at its source Profit.

This can be done by  PLACING A WORLDWIDE AID COMMISSION OF 0.05% ON ALL AND EVERY STOCK EXCHANGE TRANSACTION THAT IS OVER $20,000 IN THE WORLD WHETHER IT BE ON THE PRIMARY OR SECONDARY MARKETS.  

FOREIGN EXCHANGE MARKET.

CAPITAL MARKET.

STOCK MARKET.

BOND MARKET.

COMMODITY MARKET.

MONEY MARKET.

DERIVATIVES MARKET.

FUTURES MARKET.

INSURANCE MARKET.

WE THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD CAN ACHIEVE THIS BY LOBBING BOTH THE UNITED NATIONS AND THE G8 TO ADOPT SUCH A COMMISSION.

THIS CAN BE DONE WITH A SOCIAL MEDIA PETITION SUPPORTED BY A VAST WORLD MOVEMENT CALLED ( FOR THE SAKE OF A NAME )  WORLD CONCERN.

IF YOU ARE INTERESTED IN STARTING SUCH A MOVEMENT I WOULD BE MORE THAN INTERESTED TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS.

In the next blog I will outline how the fund would operate.

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JUST LOOK WHAT COULD BE ACHIEVED IF WE RE-FOCUS GREED TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD

17 Saturday May 2014

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on JUST LOOK WHAT COULD BE ACHIEVED IF WE RE-FOCUS GREED TO MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO THE WORLD

Tags

Current world problems, Distribution of wealth, G 8, Greed, United Nations, World aid commission

 

 

There is (or now it might be better to say there has always been) an ill-conceived policy ( promoted only by the rich) that if you put in place policies that help the wealth to become wealthier it will somehow benefit us all.

Down throughout THE AGES this has proven to be a fraud.

However Conventional rich or power wisdom’s seldom, collapse on their own.

They collapse only when challenged by advocates for change that trust forward initiatives that expose the bankruptcy of the conventionally wise.

The world needs NOW MORE THAN EVER to re- focus greed that is holding a lock-grip over our economies and democracies.

Just think what could be achieved with a 0.0O5%  UP TO 0.5% WORLD AID COMMISSION IF APPLIED TO ALL STOCK EXCHANGE TRANSACTIONS IN THE WORLD.

Every day trillions of dollars change hands in currency exchange, share dealings and more complex financial
products like futures, derivatives and so on.

The market in these transactions has exploded over recent years and all the transactions together constitute an amazing 75 times global GDP.

Often, the trading is done by computers which react to small shifts in price, and money, shares and exotic financial products change hands many times an hour, all over the world. Most of the trading is speculative and serves little useful purpose –indeed it can harm companies, livelihoods and even whole national economies, as the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s did.

Such a tiny commission (0.005% to 0.5%) on each of the millions of financial transactions that take place every day would provide a new source of finance to pay for a range of desperately needed changes to our world of inequalities.

It would change the very face of capitalist Democracy.

Helping to deliver the Millennium Development Goals and tackling the challenge of climate change.

It would be far more progressive than other tax rises as it would ensure that those with the broadest shoulders contribute most to the cost of the economic recovery.

It would be easier to collect because all the financial transactions to be taxed are conducted
or registered electronically. A minor change to computer programs would deduct the commission at source and direct it straight to the Fund. This has been tested by supportive financial institutions, and already operates in many share transactions.

It would enable the establishment of Rapid Aid Centers around the world in case of Natural Disasters. Fully funded, fully equipped, fully maned, able react at the drop of a hat.

The daily volume of business deals on the Foreign exchange markets in 1998 was estimated to be over $2.5 trillion dollars. Now it well above $5 trillion. This is just Foreign Exchange.

Small currency transactions could be exempted from taxation (and at 0.005%, you’d pay £1 on every £20,000
you changed – some holiday money!

Add on small share transactions, although they’re already taxed at 0.5% – and pension funds would pay the tax, but they tend to hold shares for many years:

The people who would really pay the commission would be speculators like hedge funds, sovereign wealth funds and merchant banks who buy and sell shares every hour.

Just Imagine.  

How could this be achieved, who would managed the fund, how would we ensure transparency, avoid corruption, and political manipulation etc, I will address in my next blog.

It is my firm belief that this initiative is the only viable solution to present day world problems. If you agree or have some useful observations or comments let’s hear them.

 

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IT IS ALREADY A CATALYSTS FOR CONFLICT.

15 Thursday May 2014

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on IT IS ALREADY A CATALYSTS FOR CONFLICT.

It is incomprehensible that we are unable to comprehend that we all need clear air, clean water, food, and energy, all of which are inextricably linked in order to live.

Ok so we live in a world of high complex interdependence,  (full of finger sweepers, facebookers, tweeters, bloggers, googlers, down-loaders, uploaders, smartphone swappers, with 24 hours news on tap all thanks to the micro chip) without any responsibility to what we are doing to our Planet.

It seems that we are all so distracted with our own self interests we are unable to take in what Climate Change has in store by way of repayment for that very self Interest.

This will not be a work of fiction but a pivotal moment that is going to cause the biggest migration of human race world-wide.

“We no longer have the option to wait and see,”

I am dismayed that discussions of climate change have become so polarizing that they have receded from the arena of informed public discourse and debate.

You would think that anyone with an ounce of brain matter would have it on the top of all governments agenda.

The migration that is waiting to happen will put Poverty, Inequality, and current conflicts, disasters and the like into total insignificance.

What are we doing?

Sweet fanny Adam. It’s a distant problem too far away to have any effect. It’s an opportunity to make money.

Our one and only earth is surrounded by man-made pollution with no say but to release an Evolutionary force to which even we cannot adapt.  Lets call it Crowdsourcing.

In the current muddled political climate no proposal for any significant plan will ever get traction.

Why because we  have swallowed a political perspective on wealth that should appall us all.

With all the political ideologies to date we are unable to act as one and this won’t change till we capture GREED.

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ARE WE ALL BECOMING WAGE-SLAVES?

13 Tuesday May 2014

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in Uncategorized

≈ Comments Off on ARE WE ALL BECOMING WAGE-SLAVES?

Tags

Distribution of wealth, Environment, Inequility, Sovereign Wealth Funds, the living planet, United Nations

 

While the rich have sweetheart deals worth millions in severance pay, even if they run the company into the ground, no hours contracts are becoming the norm.

We are all being hard-wired into believing that material enrichment is good for our well-being and the Economy dominates Society to the disappearance of all other values other than profit.

Speculators move millions, gambling with the future of whole economies. Preposterous? but true. Their actions are unconscionable. Profit – mongers who don’t give a damn, believing their own propaganda. It’s about making money above all else. Making profit has taken precedence over all other human activities and desires.

It is a very narrow definition of the quality of life.

In the meantime the global is under attack from the real terrorist of the Planet.  Sovereign Wealth Funds.

It will not be long before these Funds are the new lobbing legislators of the world.

Greed cannot be exorcised from our personalities, but it can be taped.

This cannot be done abstractly, it however can be achieved by passing a United Nations World people resolution applying a world aid commission on all Stock Exchange transactions world-wide.

Such a commission would ensure that every profit-making investment contributes to the simple needs for Food, Clothing, Shelter ( for billions of people) ensure clean water, air, the list is long.

They say that there is no reversing Climate change.

Sustaining interest in this great but slow-burning crisis is a challenge no one seems to have mastered. Only when the crisis causes or exacerbates an acute disaster – such as the floods – is there a flicker of anxiety, but that quickly dies away.

Why is it so difficult to persuade people to care about our wonderful planet, the world that gave rise to us and upon which we wholly depend?

And why do you encounter a barrage of hostility and denial whenever you attempt it (and not only from the professional liars who are paid by coal and oil and timber companies to sow confusion and channel hatred)?

Our erroneous belief that we are more concerned about man-made climate change than the people of other nations informs the sentiment, often voiced by the press and politicians, that there’s no point in acting if the rest of the world won’t play its part.

For years we’ve been told that people cannot afford to care about the natural world until they become rich; that only economic growth can save the biosphere, that civilisation marches towards enlightenment about our impacts on the living planet. The richer we are and the more we consume, the more self-centred and careless of the lives of others we appear to become. Even if you somehow put aside the direct, physical impacts of rising consumption, it’s hard to understand how anyone could imagine that economic growth is a formula for protecting the planet.

If So what we seem to see here is the turning of a vicious circle. The more harm we do, the less concerned about it we become.

And the more hyper consumerism destroys relationships, communities and the physical fabric of the Earth, the more we try to fill the void in our lives by buying more stuff. So the perennially low-level of concern, which flickers upwards momentarily when disaster strikes, then slumps back into the customary stupor, is an almost inevitable result of a society that has become restructured around shopping, fashion, celebrity and an obsession with money.

How we break the circle and wake people out of this dream world is the question that all those who love the living planet should address. There will be no easy answers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

44.707071 1.352425

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ANOTHER LOOK AT THE UNITED NATIONS

10 Saturday May 2014

Posted by bobdillon33@gmail.com in Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

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THE UNITED NATIONS

On the 4-04-14 i posted a blog: THE UNITED NATIONS NEEDS URGENT REFORM.

IF CURRENT EVENTS DON’T SHINE A SPOTLIGHT ON THE ORGANISATION (THAT WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1945 TO MAINTAIN INTERNATIONAL PEACE , TO FOSTER INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION IN ECONOMIC, SOCIAL,CULTURAL,AND HUMANITARIAN PROBLEMS,) NOTHING WILL.

WE ALL KNOW THAT FUTURE CONFLICTS CANNOT AND WILL NOT BE RESOLVED BY MILITARY POWER, UNLESS SOME IDIOT DROP A NUCLEAR BOMB. THE WORLD IS BEING FRAGMENTED AS NEVER BEFORE BY TECHNOLOGY AND INEQUALITY, AND CLIMATE CHANGE. IF THE UNITED NATIONS IS TO HAVE ANY EFFECT WORLD WIDE IT MUST BE REPRESENTATIVE OF ALL ITS MEMBERS WITH AN REACTION FORCE MADE UP OF EACH AND EVERY ONE.

THERE IS NO USE IN HAVING AN ORGANISATION THAT HAS TO BEG FOR WORLD ASSISTANCE WHEN A DISASTER HAPPENS. THAT EXPRESSES OUTRAGE AND ADVOCATED SANCTIONS. WHEN WHAT IS REQUIRED IS IMMEDIATE  ACTION. 

International law allows the use of force in only two circumstances: in self-defense; and when it is approved by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Needless to say, Russia’s armed intervention in the Ukraine fails to satisfy either condition

It is neither consistent with the strict international legal standard for self-defense, nor approved by the UNSC. Yet there is virtually nothing the UNSC can do about it.

The reason is simple: the legal architecture of the UNSC is and always has been woefully inadequate to satisfy its lofty mandate, which is to maintain international peace and security.

You would think that the horrors and the atrocities of Two world wars would be enough to prevent the folly of more wars.

But as we all know man is capable of take up arms at the drop of a hat.  Perhaps the reason we have had no visitors from outer Space, but is the very reason that we must have the power of a intervention Force to stop a free for all.

Here is the main reason why that the United Nations Security Council UNSC is a wet rag.

Russia and the US exercise their UN veto, a lot

Among the nine votes that any measure or action must acquire for approval are those of all five permanent members: the US, UK, China, Russia, and France (the prominent allied powers in World War II).

Each of these five countries retains the right of absolute veto against any measure before the UNSC, be it a mere rhetorical condemnation (the UNSC condemns Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine), or something more substantial, like military action or economic sanction.

By far the most prolific users of the veto power are Russia and the US, who have, in the history of the UNSC, killed 119 and 83 measures respectively. Britain, the next closest, has used the veto 32 times.

The rest of the UNSC is comprised of a list of ten countries that is constantly changing on a rotating basis. None of these countries have the power to veto any measure.

The unsurprising result of this structure is that the five permanent members completely dominate the UNSC, and are essentially able to use it as a tool of their respective foreign policies.

Britain and France haven’t helped either

Consider, for example, the 1956 fury of Britain and France about the Egypt’s Gamal Abdul Nasser nationalizing the Suez Canal. The Canal had long been a profitable aspect of both countries’ imperialist foreign policies; and this was a reality that Nasser, goes the logic of imperialism, had no right to challenge.

So, Britain and France hatched a tripartite alliance, and a hair-brained scheme with Israel, to reclaim the Canal.

Israel would invade the Sinai and push all the way to Suez; Britain and France, feigning neutrality, would send in forces ostensibly to police the conflict (for its help, Israel would be allowed to keep the Sinai) but in reality, to retake control of it. In that spirit, Britain and France quickly vetoed a UNSC resolution that sought to resolve the Suez crisis in a manner inconsistent with their nefarious plans.

Examples like this abound.

The US, for its part, didn’t use the veto until 1970. Since that time, however, it has reliably blocked action by the UNSC whenever it would significantly contradict US foreign policy. Most importantly, the US regularly vetoes resolutions critical of Israel’s ongoing occupation, including its settlement project, which is both an indisputable violation of international law and contributes to the belligerent state of the Middle East.

Russia, of course, does the same. For example, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, it vetoed the resolution opposed to that aggression.

Due to its structural defects, the UNSC has never been capable of preventing the most destructive and deadly wars, many of which are purveyed by the very countries entrusted with the veto.

Then there’s Iraq

Most recently, the US flouted the Security Council once it became clear that the latter would not support an invasion of Iraq. The resulting invasion, which was, in my view, a plain violation of international law, resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians and thousands of coalition service men and women. And all of the justifications for the war proffered by the Bush administration were eventually discredited (and most were transparently weak from the outset).

Now, Russia is in a position to stifle justice again following its Ukraine intervention, which the UNSC is powerless to stop. If there are consequences for the Russian aggression, they will have to come from elsewhere.

All of this context, present and historical, practically screams for UN reform.

It is both anachronistic and unjust that the criteria for influence in the UNSC continues to be a combination of history, military power and wealth, none of which inherently bespeaks an affinity for leadership or a commitment to international justice.

If it is possible to achieve a more peaceful and just international order, egalitarianism in international legal structures must be enhanced, first by disclaiming the notion that military strength and wealth per se equal authority. This is the seedy logic of power, which leads to immense hypocrisy like this from British writer James Snell, who can “think of nothing worse than” a failure of the west to mount a counter-intervention against Russia (presumably starting a war) in the Ukraine. Snell writes:

“But why is Ukraine so vital?” you may ask. “Well, I reply, in a fittingly grave and solemn tone,” because it is the latest manifestation of Russian aggression (my emphasis), and we cannot allow the saber-rattling (and unsheathing) of a tyrant like Vladimir Putin to go unpunished.”

Russian “aggression” must be “punished” by the same country whose far more deadly aggression in Iraq has only just abated, and went entirely “unpunished.” Ironically, Putin would appreciate this double standard. He applied essentially the same in his famously controversial Op-Ed in the New York Times, in which he chastised the US for mulling an invasion of Syria:

“We need to use the United Nations Security Council and believe that preserving law and order in today’s complex and turbulent world is one of the few ways to keep international relations from sliding into chaos. The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not. Under current international law, force is permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the Security Council. Anything else is unacceptable under the United Nations Charter and would constitute an act of aggression.”

The Putin who wrote those words has apparently gone out to lunch, accompanied by the same Senator (now Secretary) John Kerry, who once voted to approve the illegal and aggressive Iraq War, and who is now distraught over Russia’s “incredible act of aggression” in the Ukraine. My point being, it is difficult to use these instruments to accomplish good when we skirt them when inconvenient.

In each case, juxtapose past sentiment with present conduct and the message is clear: the UNSC is a tool to serve the caprice of its five permanent members. So long as responsibility for the maintenance of peace and security is left to the whims of only the most powerful and self-interested countries in the international order, the world cannot expect quality peacekeeping efforts.

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