It is reported that world population is well over 6 Billion and rising. As passengers of MV. Earth, the harsh reality is that the pace of this vessel is constantly reducing due to our diversity and unnecessary luggage on every deck. The Middle East has her challenge, so does Africa, the Eurozone, the Americas; nowhere is exempted. We are apparently sinking, but the question is how much time do we have before we find ourselves on the ocean bed? How fast can we dry dock?
After the end of the 2nd World War, the cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, we had some great World leaders that led the way in solving the World problems in Politics, Religion and Society. We all remember the roles played by Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev, Margret Thatcher, Francois Mitterrand, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jnr, Pope John Paul II, Bill Clinton, Mother Theresa of Calcutta to mention but a few. The world today seems to be driven on the auto pilot mode, as she seems to be lacking depth on the leadership front. Global leadership and unity seem to have gone with the dinosaurs. So who addresses these global problems? Our present day leaders are held up in their national politics and local interest, which are bearing devastating effects on the world and threatening to make it fall apart.
History they say is a good source of knowledge and there are quite a lot of global experiences that we have left to reside in oblivion and as such, we have a poor understanding of the dangers staring at us. I won’t bore you with the list because it is quite enormous and always on the news. Whichever part of the divide we find ourselves, there is a peculiar hunger we all share; freedom, justice and equality. These values are under serious threat like never before and the world is in dire need of knights to protect her.
Population is growing very rapidly and most of the future leaders are not experienced to appreciate the danger the world overcame in the past and design strategies to ensure her continuous sanity. We must recalibrate and act now to avoid more crisis. Our options include:
- Developing and mentoring a new breed of global leaders.
- Reinforcement of the UN charter. The charter which was established for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace; achievement of international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character, and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion; amongst others must be bolstered.
In 1962, the world was at the brink of a nuclear war when President JFK was informed of the presence of soviet missiles in Cuba, a couple of miles from American territory. To keep news of the crisis from leaking, a fabricated cold was blamed for President Kennedy’s cancellation of public events. Kennedy summoned his closest advisers to consider options and direct a course of action for the United States that would resolve the crisis. Some advisers, including all the Joint Chiefs of Staff argued for an air strike to destroy the missiles, followed by a U.S. invasion of Cuba; others favored stern warnings to Cuba and the Soviet Union. The President however decided differently. On October 22, he ordered a naval “quarantine” of Cuba. The use of “quarantine” legally distinguished this action from a blockade, which assumed a state of war existed; the use of “quarantine” instead of “blockade” also enabled the United States to receive the support of the Organization of American States.
The US and Soviets compromised and on October 28, 1962, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev ordered the removal of Soviet nuclear missiles from Cuba. Prior to the compromise, Khrushchev sent Kennedy a message, a lengthy, emotional message that raised the shadow of nuclear holocaust, “If there is no intention,” he said, “to doom the world to the catastrophe of thermonuclear war, then let us not only relax the forces pulling on the ends of the rope, let us take measures to untie that knot. We are ready for this.” Kennedy set forth in his message to the Soviet leader proposed steps for the removal of Soviet missiles from Cuba under supervision of the United Nations, and a guarantee that the United States would not attack Cuba. According to President Kennedy’s special assistant Arthur Schlesinger Jr, the events illuminated the president’s “combination of toughness and restraint, of will, nerve, and wisdom, so brilliantly controlled, so matchlessly calibrated, that [it] dazzled the world”.
The recent efforts of President Barack Obama of the United States must be commended. He constantly tries to avoid directly engaging in any act of war as seen in the way he handled the annexation of Crimea by Russia, his handling of the Iran nuclear power acquisition, the restoration of relations with Cuba after well over fifty (50) years, the current Bill Clinton Global Initiative on the Middle East and Africa is yet another step in reinforcing the UN Charter.
- Unite diverse interest. Interests get us moving and are rarely mutual due to our divergent backgrounds. What we find in our world today is a scramble to protect these interests. If an interest does not interfere with your right to existence, it must be allowed to exist. I admit that the phrase “right to exist” is susceptible to multiple interpretations and as such will be stretched to favour the big dogs over the small ones. We must however remember that the battle between majority and minority, upper and lower classes is eternal. The desire of the minority to protect her right to exist in all quarters be it religion, business, or ethnic group from the threat of the majority will always undermine world peace. The only remedy therefore is for the majority to protect the minority in order for it to be protected. They must not protect their interest with the intent of alienating the minority’s right to exist.
- Sincere investigation of global trade for fairness is sacrosanct. Equity in trade opportunities and sanctions is very important because the effects of these on individual economies cannot be overemphasized. Why will the major powers produce more than they need and export the excess thereby affecting their employment indices but deny import into theirs by imposing high tariffs?
- Unite global religions for peaceful coexistence. There is need for mutual respect and tolerance of faith. Force and coercion are not the way. Let our lives speak as evidences of the supremacy or otherwise of our faiths.
It is not in the papers that the world is experiencing very unpleasant times in her quest for happiness, but the headlines carry the indices of the sadness. Attaining global stability and happiness depends on how fast all citizens of earth can throw away the undesirables out of the sea to promote her buoyancy; remember we are all in it and there is nowhere else to go.
Picture credit: http://www.niutoday.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/globe-hands.jpg