Tag Archives: United Nations

IF WE ARE TO STOP THE MADNESS

21 Wednesday May 2014

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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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Thank you for your response. ✨

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

17 Saturday May 2014

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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.

 

ARE WE ALL BECOMING WAGE-SLAVES?

13 Tuesday May 2014

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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

ARE WE ALL INCAPABLE OF ACTING AS ONE ?

09 Friday May 2014

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The Asteroid is on it final countdown before hitting earth causing a terminator-style annihilation.

Most of us have seen a Science fiction Movie with this scenario.

Did you ever try to list the reasons why it is impossible for man to act as one. A very interesting exercise of imagination and fact.

Here is my first attempt at a few reasons

Our DNA demands Survival.  Greed.

We are caught in a vicious cycle of Fear, Rage, and Appetites that cry for instant gratification.

We are the agents of the very changes that are throttling us.

We are inventing a world of which we are altogether ill fit to live on.

Complex languages.  World Organisations that compete against each other.

Intelligence. In ourselves, we may finally have met our match.

There is an Evolutionary force to which we cannot adapt.  The web.

Perhaps we will simply morph into Cyber sapiens,* a new human, infinitely more intelligent than you or I are, perhaps more socially adept, or at least able to juggle large tribes of friends, acquaintances, and business associates with the skill of a circus performer. A creature more capable of keeping up with the change it generates. To handle the challenges of time shortages and long distances, Cyber sapiens may even be able to bilocate or split off multiple, digital versions of themselves, each of whom can blithely live separate lives and then periodically rejoin their various digital selves so that they become a supersize version of a single person. 

 A lack of biological constraint may become the defining trait of the next human. We will almost certainly become augmented versions of our current selves.

Our newfound capabilities might become more than we can handle. Will we evolve into some version of comic-book heroes and villains, clashing mythically and with terrible consequences? Powers like these give the term cutting edge a new and lethal meaning. And what of those who don’t have access to all of the fresh, amplifying technologies?

Should we not being guarding  against a world of super-haves and super-have-nots? It is these sides of the equation I wonder about most.

 

 

NATURAL LAW GOVERNS ALL TECHNOLOGY NOW AND IN THE FUTURE

05 Monday May 2014

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Just in case you are one of those lonely people with 500 friends on Facebook, (most of them you never hear of but promoted by a faceless Facebook prompt) tweets all day long, can’t go anywhere without you smart phone, spend most of your time looking down into LCD screens, Googling , Flip Boarding, never experiencing real cooking, real friendship, real conversation with body language, doesn’t know what true or false, you are on a complex collision with what life is really like.

Now don’t get me wrong I am not against Technological advances but I am somewhat  fearful that we are not seeing as yet a genuine revolution of Technology.  We are creating a world which is not connected but becoming more and more disconnected.  A world of vast inequalities.

What we can do in the world depends on what we can make.

Take for instance the Internet.  Prosperity= Internet.  Poverty=no Internet.

There is no doubt that the world as we ( the older generation) have known it is coming to an end.

The microchip is everywhere and no where.

We are only on the threshold of Technology. It won’t be long before the whole lot will be on your wrist, or in your contact lenses.

With you very own genome map on a DNA chip that will be down loaded to grow replacement new body parts, and analyze your health while sitting on the toilet.   Cant wait! for the Robots with AI.

Before you all get carried away here is a dose of Present Day conflict worldwide.

Realities that are turned into entertainment by the Mass media, before the weather forecast.  Why are there so many.?  Because we are disconnected to the reasons. The present day War in Syria started with a Drought.

AMERICANS:

5 Countries.
25 drug cartels, militias guerrillas, separatist, anarchic groups involved.

Europe:

8 Countries.
68 militias guerrillas, separatist, anarchic groups involved

Middle East:

8 countries.
168 militias guerrillas, separatist, anarchic groups involved.

Asia:

15 Countries;
127 militias guerrillas, separatist, anarchic groups involved.

Africa:

24 Countries:
145 militias guerrillas, separatist, anarchic groups involved

Total 60 Countries: 534 militias guerrillas, separatist, anarchic groups involved.

All the communication technology in the world is worthless if we don’t value life rather than Profit for Profit sake.

 

THEY ARE PLUNDERING THE PLANET

26 Saturday Apr 2014

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High consumption levels and over exploitation for the sake of profit is continuing to destroy our beautiful planet.

I can hear you saying so what is new.

Nothing I suppose.

But anyone with any intelligence is and should be by now realizing  that with Climate Change we have constructed a materialistic civilization  that is addicted to ravishing its life support system.

The question is. Why is it that we seem unable to agree a plan?

The simple answer is the fear of profit impacts.

What is driving this fear? Unadulterated Greed.

This greed in recent years has taken a new form call Sovereign Wealth Funds.

These are State backed investment bodies that are roaming the globe in search of Profit.

Investment funds that are threatening the hierarchy of legal authority and if not capped will convert all our efforts to combat the ills of the world into commodities to be sold. Air, Water, Energy, CO2 Credits, you name it.

A Sovereign Fund by its definition behaves no different from the state it is appendix.

With such concentrations of economic power they subvert the power of civil rights and human rights.

There is no distinction between state and private interests. No one knows who takes decisions within SWF’s or what criteria they have other than to make profit.

If you think that in the Arab world ( where billions from oil revenue are in these Funds ) there are no contracts on an institution to institution, state to state, or enterprise to enterprise all are a person to person, not to mention Russia or China you would have reason to fear the Privatisation of the Globe by these Funds.

They are not going away but are becoming an increasingly powerful actor in the International Political System and world economy.

In developing Countries they are replacing the World Bank and the IMF ( which might not be a bad thing as both are somewhat dysfunctional in a World economy that is run by computer software programs)

They are now major players in the market economic power struggle using economic globalization ( which does not exclude private market participants from its system) to freely move capital around the world.

You can imagine what is going ( if it is not already happening ) to happen to countries that don’t have capital wealth.

These funds are taking on the characteristics of large aggregation of private economic power for profit for profit sake.

I am sure being Sovereign that they are not subject to tax on their profits. strong>

 

AS IF WE DID NOT KNOW IT – CAPITALISM AND CLIMATE CHANGE ARE INCOMPATIBLE

21 Monday Apr 2014

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There is no economy without the environment.  For that matter there is no anything.

By this I mean there’s is no question about it, if we turn a blind eye that is what we will have –  Nothing.

There is no need for absolute knowledge for science to come to this truth.

Common Joe Soap can tell you.

There are no thresholds when it comes to Nature.

The Downwinders ( people who have been exposed to fallout from nuclear tests) found out that there is no such thing as teetering on a threshold.

We are being told that the two big ice sheets on the globe are melting.

So for crying out loud are we all sleepwalking.

Like when we obliged the Large global Oil companies by putting a Tiger in our tanks that turned out to be tetraethyl lead a nasty environmental toxin.

Science is about a gradual convergence on the truth. Capitalism is about Profits for profit sake.

At this point it is irrelevant what the scientists don’t know we must a new creationist strategy to tackle climate change. This change can not be achieved without removing poverty in all its forms along with all our other World problems caused by man’s Greed.

We must stop the privatisation of the planet by Sovereign Wealth Funds, and get capitalism to pay for what we value by placing a World Aid tax on all Stock Exchange transactions world-wide. ( see Previous Blogs)

SOON IT WILL BE TOO LATE

19 Saturday Apr 2014

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My last blog advocated that we must strike a blow forward into time.

WHY?   Because if we do not we are all going to end up as commodities.

There are thousands of World Organisations that I am sure are doing good work but if you look at the four bigger World Organisations you would be prompted to ask are they fit for purpose.

So let’s have a look.

The World Bank:

Established in 1945.  Now owned by 185 countries its primary goals were to eradicate poverty, fight disease, reduce corruption, and not making a profit which it has of $3 billion in the last three years.

In Fact big business indirectly owns the World Bank because it sell bonds to big business and in doing so secures contracts for these de facto business earning fees.  It has implemented policies such as Structural Adjustment, Deregulation, Privatization.

The question is has any country where it has operated risen to prosperity, or does its profit-making play a note or its big donors play a role.

The IMF:

Founded in 1945 to help operate a system of fixed exchange rates in which currencies were pegged to the dollar, in turn fixed with respect to gold in order to encourage International trade lasted till 1971 when it was forced to find a new raison d’être. This it did when Mexico and other Latin American countries announced they could not meet the Interest and principle payments on their large borrowings from oversea commercial Banks.

Along came the USA who dished out bridging loan to these countries and this is where the IMF stepped in to monitor these bridging loans arrangements and provide additional funds if they were satisfied with policy progress that the debtors were making.  However its big break came when the Soviet Union collapsed. It started to give advice how to move from communism to a market economy.  The countries who took its advice received big financial rewards.

Developing into what it is today a pawnbroker that imposes programs requiring Governments to reform their financial institutions ( state-owned to private)  making substantial changes to their economic structures and political behavior. For example Indonesia in exchange for a £40 billion package( more than 25% of Indonesia’s GDP) the IMF set fuel prices down to the manner of selling plywood.

It’s now seen by many as the imposer of painful contractions and radical reform.

It is my view that it needs to return to a narrower agenda. Rather than waiting for a country to get into trouble it should be seen more as a client focused and supportive organisation. This would require not just a refurbished IMF which by the way would be far to expensive but a complete new International Monetary System. The current global financial crises could not more strongly support this if we are all to enjoy the benefits of Globalization.

NATO:

Founded out of fear in 1949.

Original Goal to ensure a collective Security of the West against the Eastern bloc. Now its goal is to safeguard freedom and security of its members through political and military means.

It reinvented itself after the fall of the Iron Curtain and now has 28 Independent Member Countries.

A collective reluctant soldier as it like to call itself in a world with 15 tons of high explosives for every man woman and child in the world and where a nuclear war would prove to be an act of mutual suicide. A somewhat inept organisation as shown by Afghanistan Iraq and now the Ukraine.

THe United Nations:

Inception 1945.

193 members vetoed by five permanent members. Lovely known as a gossip shop its budget has doubled over the last decade. Understandable you could say ( Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria) but over its fifty years of existence the budget for 2012/2013 had a 5% reduction approved is one of the only reductions achieved to date.

It is a public Enterprise whose agencies spend more than $36 billion annually.  Yet there is no real transparency or accountability. Just try to get a financial or Audit information especially among the diverse UN Funds on its website.  It has over 10,000 mandates many of which are obsolete and redundant.   See list below. It is quite obvious that it must shrink or shed non-core functions and entities.

For example it has being counting eligible voters in the western Sahara since 1978.

It is incapable of change from the inside so we the citizens of the world must lodge a resolution demanding change.

Peacekeeping Fact Sheet

Fact Sheet as of 28 February 2014

[Note: statistical information on civilian personnel is as of 30 November 2013, unless otherwise specified]

  • Peacekeeping operations since 1948: 68*
  • Current peacekeeping operations: 15*
  • Current peace operations directed by the Department of Peacekeeping Operations: 16**

[*With the establishment of the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA) on 10 April 2014, as of that date the number peacekeeping operations since 1948 is 69; the number of current peacekeeping operations is 16 and the number of current peace operations led by DPKO is 17.]

[**In addition to peacekeeping operations, DPKO directs one political mission: the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).]

Personnel

  • Uniformed personnel: 98,056
    • Troops: 83,154
    • Police: 13,056
    • Military observers: 1,846
  • Civilian personnel: 16,942 (as of 30 November 2013)
    • International: 5,233
    • Local: 11,709
  • UN Volunteers: 2,025
  • Total number of personnel serving in 15 peacekeeping operations: 117,023
  • Total number of personnel serving in 16 DPKO-led peace operations: 118,799
  • Countries contributing uniformed personnel: 122
  • Total fatalities: 1,441

Financial aspects

  • Approved resources for the period from 1 July 2013 to 30 June 2014: about $7.83 billion
  • Outstanding contributions to peacekeeping 28 February 2014): about $2.36 billion

Current operations

United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO)

In Western Sahara since April 1991
Strength: 508 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 229
    • Troops: 23
    • Military observers: 201
    • Police: 5
  • Civilian personnel: 264
    • International civilians: 96
    • Local civilians: 168
  • UN Volunteers: 15

Fatalities: 15

Approved budget (07/2013 – 06/2014): $60,475,700
[A/C.5/68/21 PDF Document]

United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA)

In the Central African Republic since April 2014
Authorized strength:

  • Uniformed personnel:  11,820*
    • Military personnel: 10,000 (including 240 military observers and 200 staff officers)
    • Police: 1,820 (including 1,400 formed units personnel, 400 individual police officers and 20 corrections officers)
  • Civilian personnel: N/A
    • An appropriate significant civilian component

*Scheduled for deployment starting 15 September 2014

Fatalities:  None

Approved budget: N/A

United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA)

In Mali since April 2013
Strength:  7,551 including:

  • Uniformed personnel:  7,093
    • Troops:  6,137
    • Military observers: 0
    • Police:  956
  • Civilian personnel:  400
    • International civilians:  287
    • Local civilians:  113
  • UN Volunteers: 58

Fatalities:  8

Approved budget: (07/2013 – 06/2014): $602,000,000 [A/C.5/68/21 PDF Document]

United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH)

In Haiti since June 2004
Strength:  9,991 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 8,207
    • Troops:  5,794
    • Police:  2,413
  • Civilian personnel: 1,615
    • International civilians: 373
    • Local civilians: 1,242
  • UN Volunteers: 169

Fatalities: 176

Approved budget (07/2013 – 06/2014): $576,619,000 [A/C.5/68/21PDF Document]

United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO)

In Democratic Republic of the Congo since July 2010
Strength: 25,770 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 21,245
    • Troops: 19,558
    • Military observers: 502
    • Police: 1,185
  • Civilian personnel: 3,969
    • International civilians: 990
    • Local civilians: 2,979
  • UN Volunteers: 556

Fatalities: 70

Approved budget 07/2013 – 06/2014): $1,456,378,300 [A/C.5/68/21 PDF Document]

African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID)

In Darfur since July 2007
Strength: 23,613 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 19,192
    • Troops: 14,354
    • Military observers: 330
    • Police: 4,508
  • Civilian personnel: 4,017
    • International civilians: 1,060
    • Local civilians: 2,957
  • UN Volunteers: 404

Fatalities: 191

Approved budget (07/2013 – 06/2014): $1,335,248,000 [A/C.5/68/21 PDF Document]

United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF)

In Syria since June 1974
Strength: 1,389 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 1,243
    • Troops: 1,243
  • Civilian personnel: 146
    • International civilians: 47
    • Local civilians: 99

Fatalities: 45

Approved budget (07/2013 – 06/2014): ): $60,654,500 [A/C.5/68/21 PDF Document]

United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP)

In Cyprus since March 1964
Strength: 1,073 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 924
    • Troops: 857
    • Police: 67
  • Civilian personnel: 149
    • International civilians: 39
    • Local civilians: 110

Fatalities: 181

Approved budget (07/2013 – 06/2014): $56,604,300, including voluntary contributions from Cyprus and Greece [A/C.5/68/21 PDF Document]

United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)

In Lebanon since March 1978
Strength: 11,149 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 10,200
    • Troops: 10,200
  • Civilian personnel: 949
    • International civilians: 315
    • Local civilians: 634

Fatalities:303

Approved budget (07/2013 – 06/2014): $492,622,000 [A/C.5/68/21 PDF Document]

United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA)

In Abyei, Sudan since June 2011
Strength: 4,293 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 4,111
    • Troops: 3,955
    • Military observers: 133
    • Police: 23
  • Civilian personnel: 163
    • International civilians: 104
    • Local civilians: 59
  • UN Volunteers: 19

Fatalities: 13

Approved budget (07/2013 – 06/2014): $329,108,600 [A/C.5/68/21 PDF Document]

United Nations Mission in the Republic of South Sudan (UNMISS)

In South Sudan since July 2011
Strength: 11,102 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 8,494
    • Troops: 7,327
    • Military observers: 152
    • Police: 1,015
  • Civilian personnel: 2,202
    • International civilians: 869
    • Local civilians: 1,333
  • UN Volunteers: 406

Fatalities: 25

Approved budget(07/2013 – 06/2014): $924,426,000 [A/C.5/68/21 PDF Document]

United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire (UNOCI)

In Côte d’Ivoire since April 2004
Strength: 10,767 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 9,455
    • Troops: 7,957
    • Military observers: 182
    • Police: 1, 316
  • Civilian personnel: 1,162
    • International civilians: 400
    • Local civilians: 762
  • UN Volunteers: 150

Fatalities: 118

Approved budget (07/2012 – 06/2013): $584,487,000 [A/C.5/68/21 PDF Document]

United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)

In Kosovo since June 1999
Strength: 367 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 15
    • Military observers: 8
    • Police: 7
  • Civilian personnel: 325
    • International civilians: 114
    • Local civilians: 211
  • UN Volunteers: 27

Fatalities: 55

Approved budget (07/2013 – 06/2014): $44,953,000 [A/C.5/68/21 PDF Document]

United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL)

In Liberia since September 2003
Strength: 8,947 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 7,446
    • Troops: 5,749
    • Military observers: 136
    • Police: 1,561
  • Civilian personnel: 1,280
    • International civilians: 420
    • Local civilians: 860
  • UN Volunteers: 221

Fatalities: 181

Approved budget (07/2013 – 06/2014): $476,329,800 [A/C.5/68/21PDF Document]

United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP)

In India and Pakistan since January 1949
Strength: 110 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 42
    • Military observers: 42
  • Civilian personnel: 68
    • International civilians: 24
    • Local civilians: 44

Fatalities: 11

Appropriation (biennium 2014-2015): $19,647,100

United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO)

In Middle East since May 1948
Strength: 393 total, including:

  • Uniformed personnel: 160
    • Military observers: 160
  • Civilian personnel: 233
    • International civilians: 95
    • Local civilians: 138

Fatalities: 50

Appropriation (biennium 2014 – 2015): $74,291,900

 

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WE MUST STRIKE A BLOW FORWARD INTO TIME:

15 Tuesday Apr 2014

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I am the first to admit that there are more qualified to comment on Capitalism in the age of Globalization.

But here is what I see.

The age of Globalization and new technologies is profoundly reconfiguring Institutions fundamental to processes of governance and accountability ( for lack of a better words) in our modern States.

If you don’t believe me just look at  Crimea, the Ukraine, Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine, Somalia, Algeria,Tunisia, Chad, Burma, and on and on we go all being destabilized.

Why?

Because Economic globalization has transformed the territoriality and sovereignty of the nation-state.

The term Sovereignty, has a long history. From Aristotle to the UN Charter.

Globalization has had a short history as a ruthless corporate-driven extension of commodity production. Solidifying its hold over Institutions, labor, culture, and our very own lives. Now turning into a deadly cycle of terrorism and militarism.

The unbridled capital accumulation of Sovereign Wealth Funds will spread ecological devastation as they recognize no territorial or cultural boundaries.  Devoid of any meaningful social ethics or planning mechanisms they are rapidly becoming the new terror spreading toxic contamination of water, air ,soil, food with global warming with resource depletion, ravaging Nature.

There can no longer be any doubt that their short-term objects of profit for profit sake are in direct conflict with the long-range survival – as human beings – of everyone on Earth.

Representing what I call Corporate colonization they are close if not already totally out of control while the wretched of the earth continue to increase with Poverty turning to Inequality.

I have said in previous blogs that we are incapable of change and that the only way we will affect change is to make greed pay by taxing all Stock Exchange transactions world-wide. We must pay for what we value. The only way to achieve this is for a people’s resolution to reform OUR WORLD ORGANISATION  SUCH AS THE  UNITED NATIONS , THE WORLD BANK, THE IMF ALL NEED REFORM.

  

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Not a day goes by that we don’t hear or read of new technologies of the information age. 

 

 

 

 

 

IF WE WANT IT WE MUST PAY FOR IT.

13 Sunday Apr 2014

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For as long as I can remember I have being hearing FOUR words——

POVERTY
CONSERVATION
EXTINCTION
CORRUPTION

THEY HAVE NOT GONE AWAY, BUT ALL HAVE TAKEN ON EXTRA BAGGAGE AND BECOME ATTACHED TO EACH OTHER.

It is said that poverty is improving with a massive reduction mainly due to economic growth in China and India. $5 to $7 a day. It now being replaced in the middle classes by inequality.

We are told by Climate Change experts that Extinction is getting closer and closer.

Corruption in all its disguises is here to stay.

Conservation: plagued by the above is fighting a losing battle.

But the good news is that there are two new words on the block.

Data.

Privatisation.

The amount of data stored is doubling every eighteen months.

Privatisation. Has little interest in Poverty or Conservation, but has a self-interest in Corruption and Extinction.

So where do we stand?

The title to this blog states the position.

If we who are now connected by all don’t Pay for what we value we have a world not worthy of our technology advances.

We must make a Tree, a Tiger, Air, Water to valuable to be exploited for Profit.

By placing a Tax or World Aid Commission on all Stock Exchange transactions world-wide we can fund the changes needed to pass on a Globe of Beauty.