Subject: [PropagandaMatrix.com] DON'T fall for THESE Dialectics


November 02, 2004
United Nations Goals for The New Millennium 
United Nations Goals for The New Millennium 

by Charles Mercieca, Ph.D., President
International Association of Educators for World Peace
NGO, United Nations (ECOSOC), UNDPI, UNICEF, UNCED &
UNESCO

Following World War II, people of all nations felt the
dire need to unite as to make war completely obsolete
or a remote possibility. Therefore, a number of
nations met in San Francisco in 1945 in an effort to
achieve this objective. This meeting gave birth to the
United Nations whose major goals may be outline as
follows: reduction of war threats, provision of
humanitarian assistance, creation of better
environment, and building a safer world. If these
objectives were to materialize the world would go
through a long period of peace.

Reduction of War Threats

We may enumerate the possible steps that could be
taken to reduce war threats as follows: disarmament
and arms control, abolition of nuclear weapons and
landmines, changing product of the weapons industry,
and demilitarization of space.

1. Disarmament and Arms Control: We have learned from
a recorded history of civilization of 6,000 years that
when nations prepare for war they all end up waging
wars. At the same time, we have observed that when
nations use their human resources merely for
humanitarian purposes, they all end up living in
peace. This tangible evidence should lead us to
realize that arms control, accompanied by an
international program of disarmament, would certainly
reduce war threats considerably.

2. Abolition of Nuclear Weapons and Landmines: The
usage of nuclear weapons over Japan proved that
everyone would be a loser. The fall out that comes
from these devastating weapons will eventually reach
the nation that uses them to the detriment of its own
people. Besides, the toxic wastes emitted from the
factories where such weapons are made have cause
cancer to tens of thousands amounting to millions. The
plantation of millions of landmines in Africa and
other global areas have killed and/or maimed millions
of people. 

3. Changing Product of Weapons Industry: When Mikhail
Gorbachev became President of the former Soviet Union
he proposed a program of international disarmament and
arms control. He underlined the importance for the
weapons industry to change its product by making
tractors for farmers instead of tanks for soldiers, by
manufacturing prefabricated homes for the homeless
instead of bombs and by spending the bulk of money on
people^Òs health and education instead of putting it on
weapons of destruction.

4. Demilitarization of Space: Both US President Ronald
Reagan and US President George W. Bush came with the
idea of the militarization of space to keep the world
more secure! What would make the people more secure:
if they were to have thousands of weapons orbiting
over their own houses or if they were to have no
weapons at all orbiting over them? One ounce of common
sense would make us realize the importance of the
demilitarization of space.

Provision of Humanitarian Assistance

1. Elimination of World Hunger and Poverty: It is very
shameful that in a world of plenty we have countless
of millions of people starving to death and living in
abject poverty. Many have no shelter where they could
protect themselves from the heat and the cold. It is
outrageous to say the least to see governments of
affluent nations providing underdeveloped nations with
military aid consisting of weapons instead of with
medical aid consisting of medicine. War seems to have
become a lucrative business that needs to be
obliterated.

2. Adequate Health Care for All People: We learn from
a recorded history of 6,000 years that the strength of
a nation is not measured by its military power but by
the health and education of its people. A brief glance
at the nations of the world will convince us that the
countries that put top priority in expenditure on the
health care and education of the people rather than on
weapons and all kinds of military equipment are more
stable and people feel more secure. Among such
countries we find Canada, New Zealand and Scandinavia
among others.

3. Effective Use of Expertise by NGOs: The United
Nations has been blessed by hundreds of Non
Governmental Organizations whose objective is to help
strengthen the United Nations by implementing its
peaceful goals. To this end, the United Nations should
rely more and more on the advice of such dedicated
institutions that have emerged as the only hope to
save the United Nations from self-destruction,
following the example of the League of Nations.

4. Providing Homes for the Homeless: Millions of
people around the world sleep in the street like
strayed animals. Yet, the affluent nations are doing
hardly anything to provide such unfortunate people
with a shelter. We are all familiar with the
traditional saying: To err is human but to persist in
error is diabolical. Such nations should view it as
criminal to provide poor nations with weapons rather
than with housing facilities. The traffic of weapons
should stop abruptly.

Creation of Better Environment

1. Environmental Protection from Pollution: The irony
lies here: Those in government claim to manufacture
weapons to keep the nation secure. The toxic wastes
emitted from such death machine factories in the
United States alone is incurring cancer in two
millions Americans every year most of whom die shortly
afterwards. The best way to protect the nation^Òs
people is by providing them with air and water that
are totally free from any kind of pollution. This is
the first sacrosanct duty of every government. 

2. Changing Product of Weapons Industry: As already
seen, the weapons industry is faced with an
alternative: either to close down and get out of its
lethal business or simply to remain in business but
changing its product. Every government is morally
obligated to present this dilemma to every weapons
industry within its territory. It seems that an
industry would rather survive with a different product
than fold up. The numerous beneficial products that
could be offered to people everywhere are too long to
enumerate.

3. Beautification of Residential Areas: There are many
cities in the world that are so beautifully decorated
that they seem to be literally a paradise on earth.
Governments could spend money on planting trees and
bushes of every kind in residential areas. They could
build parks for adults and playgrounds for children.
Trees serve to give us oxygen, which is indispensable
for our life, while they take nitrogen which is not
healthy at all for our lungs in particular. 

4. Replacement of Military Bases: There are numerous
military bases across the world. Such military bases
need to be replaced by humanitarian agencies that
would provide people not with elements of wars but
with opportunities to procure medical attention to
people and educational material for their children. If
we were to have a strong United Nations that would
implement its Universal Declaration of Human Rights
peacefully, the need for military bases would cease to
exist. 

Building a Safer Future

1. Constructive Development of Human Resources:
Several nations in North America, Europe and Asia use
the human resources for negative and destructive
purposes. They use the human brain not to procure
remedies for cancer, epilepsy, leukemia, Alzheimer^Òs
disease, diabetes, and heart ailments. They use the
human brain to design more weapons of mass destruction
like the so called smart bombs and the shock-and-awe
weapons that have massacred thousands of innocent
people brutally in both Afghanistan and Iraq. 

2. Safeguard of Human Rights: The UN Universal
Declaration on Human Rights is an excellent document.
However, there is hardly a nation that observes its
content fully. For example, human beings have a
sacrosanct right to visit anywhere in the world where
they please. Yet, some governments, including the USA,
prevent their citizens from traveling into certain
countries on mere political grounds. Also, people have
a right for free health care from birth to death, a
right that has been violated by several nations
including the USA.

3. Promotion of World Peace through Education: The
Unesco preamble starts as follows: Since wars begin in
the minds of men it is in the minds of men that the
defenses of peace must be constructed. Such defenses
of peace can be constructed only through the
development of peace education and programs. Schools
should be provided with the opportunity to offer such
programs at all levels of education. This would serve
as the foundation of an everlasting peace.

4. Remedies to Sources of Terrorism: Like Pope John
Paul II said repeatedly to President George W. Bush,
unless we go straight to the sources that are causing
terrorism, this problem would not be solved. By going
after terrorists to get them and kill them would serve
to no avail in the long range. Potential terrorists
have no background of any mischief. Colonialists and
capitalists have exploited the economic resources of
numerous countries for a long time leaving millions of
natives suffering from lack of shelter and nutrition
brutally. 

In spite of its deficiencies, the United Nations
remains the best instrument we have in the world to
solve problems properly on a long range base. This
international body of nations needs to be strengthened
in the best interest of all people across every
continent without exception. The sixteen United
Nations Goals for the New Millennium, as they have
been outlined, cannot be taken lightly. Our job is to
find ways to implement them the sooner the better.