World Federalist News: WF News- Issue 62 A Letter from the Executive Director, William R. Pace: Is the world about to experience a renewal of the so-called Cold War, a renewed titanic confrontation between Russia, Europe and North America? Is the world’s newest nation, South Sudan, collapsing into civil war? Could one predict that the disastrous war on terrorism would lead to drones and universal surveillance of citizens throughout the world? These are very dangerous times. Elections and securing the consent of the governed is fundamental to all who hold democracy sacred, but, alas, the mumbling endorsement of Churchill – along the lines that ‘democracy is a terrible form of government, but it is by far better than all the others’ – seems so applicable to far too many nations. Winnertake-all elections leads to exclusion instead of inclusion, a contradiction of democracy. Post election violence has become a major concern of those dedicated to conflict prevention. The sham elections in Ukraine Crimea and in Syria were very destabilizing. Cynicism abounded in the European elections. So many national elections of recent years seem to be regressive rather than progressive. There are 20-30 national elections throughout the world this year that will directly impact our work for peace, human rights, the rule of law, disarmament, sustainable development, effective peace enforcement, saner US policies, global environmental and financial governance, and on and on. This is, to a large degree, in terms of day to day, month to month work, new to our Movement. It reflects great interdependence. It is “subsidiarity” at work on a global scale – the subsidiarity of global democracy -for better and for worse. As we approach the 70th anniversary of the UN Charter, the end of World War II, the holocaust, the dropping of atomic bombs on Japanese cities, the near certainty of a catastrophic WWII – let us remember that in the last six decades more than half of the world’s nations have chosen democratic government and institutions, another 30+ are aspiring toward democracy – the advancement of universal human rights has been phenomenal in 68 years – the advancement of the rights of women and children also – the inroads against racial discrimination have been tremendous – the per cent of population acquiring higher education in the last six decades is remarkable. Thus, one is reminded of HG Wells’ (a good world federalist) wise observation: that the fate of civilization remains a race between education and catastrophe. From Security Council reform to UNPA, WFM is deeply engaged in this race. Can we hope that the centenary of the insane WWI will help smooth our course? Read more articles from the latest WF News here.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 06:18:28 +0000
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