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MEDIA 21 _ Global Public Relations
Barbara Gaughen-Muller
7456 Evergreen Drive, Santa Barbara, CA 93117 USA
Fax: 805 968-5747
E-mail: Barbara@rain.org
To
Barbara Gaughen-Muller who inspired this book, had unstinting faith
in it, never allowed me to give up, laboured hard on it, making it
the joint product of the global, cosmic couple we consider ourselves
to be.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dr. Robert Muller
Born in Belgium in 1923 and raised in the Alsace-Lorraine region in France, Robert Muller experienced constant political and cultural turmoil during his youth. His grandparents had five successive nationalities (French, German, French, German, French) without leaving their village as a result of three wars (1870-1871, 1914-1918, 1939-1945). Often as a child, Robert Muller would look out of his window at the border he could not cross and long for the day when he, like the birds, the clouds, the sun and the stars, would no longer have to observe the imaginary line. Today, thanks to the dream and effort of his compatriot Robert Schuman who similarly hated these borders, Robert Muller's passport reads, "European Union" with the sub-title France, and he can cross freely the suppressed borders between 15 European countries, including France and Germany.
Robert Muller knew the horrors of World War II, of being a refugee, of Nazi occupation and imprisonment. During the war he was a member of the French Resistance. After the war he returned home and earned a Doctorate of Law from the University of Strasbourg. In 1948 he entered and won an essay contest on how to govern the world, the prize of which was an internship at the newly created United Nations.
Dr. Muller devoted the next 40 years of his life behind the scenes at the United Nations focusing his energies on world peace. He rose through the ranks at the UN to the official position of Assistant-Secretary-General. He has been called the "Philosopher" and "Prophet of Hope" of the United Nations. Robert Muller is a deeply spiritual person. From his vantage point of a top level global states-person he has seen a strong connection between spirituality and the political/cultural scene.
Robert Muller created a "World Core Curriculum" and is known throughout the world as the "father of global education." There are 34 Robert Muller schools around the world with more being established each year. The "World Core Curriculum" earned him the UNESCO Peace Education Prize in 1989. Based on this curriculum and his devotion to good causes, Dr. Muller has recently drawn up a "Framework for World Media Coverage" as a public service, as well as a "Framework for Planetary and Cosmic Consciousness" and a "Framework for the Arts and Culture".
In active "retirement," Dr. Muller became the Chancellor for a few years of the University for Peace created by the United Nations in demilitarized Costa Rica. He is in great demand to make speeches to educational, environmental, spiritual and political conferences around the world. Dr. Muller concentrates his efforts on promoting greater human understanding and global awareness. He has received many awards, e.g. the Albert Schweitzer International Prize for the Humanities and the Eleanor Roosevelt Man of Vision Award.
Dr. Muller lives most of the year at his small farm overlooking the University of Peace, on a sacred indigenous hill, Mt. Rasur, from which according to indigenous prophecy, a civilization of peace will extend to the entire world. His traditional Costa Rican house is located just up the hill from the Peace Monument of the University. In addition to his volunteer work at the University for Peace, he devotes time to his writings and is an internationally acclaimed, multi-lingual speaker and author of many books published in various languages. He has published his Testament to the UN as well as his plans and dreams for a peaceful, happy world.
At the prompting of many of his friends, admirers and non-governmental organizations Robert Muller was a candidate as a global citizen in 1996 for the post of Secretary General of the United Nations.
In 1998 he was appointed co-chairman, with Dr. Karan Singh, of a World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality.
The Global Peoples' Assembly in Samoa in April 2000 honored him as its Lifelong Honorary President.
On
Internet Google.com Robert Muller is signaled as one of the most
quoted authors in the world (157,000 sites as of September 2001).
Barbara Gaughen Muller
Educator, author, global public relations, business leader and public speaker, Barbara Gaughen-Muller has devoted her life to great human causes and a better world through socially responsible global public relations for world organizations, world leaders, business, education and government. Her Public Relations firm is now in it's 16th year. Prior to this Ms. Gaughen-Muller was Director of the California State Department Career Education Dissemination project, a demonstration teacher, educational consultant and executive director of the Industry Education Council and worked for the National Alliance of Business.
Equipped with a B.A. from San Diego State University and Masters work in Leadership and Organizational Behavior from the University of California, Santa Barbara and San Diego State University, she has taught post graduate classes for the University of California and has co-authored six books on educational theory and practice. She ran for County Superintendent of Schools and has been appointed to work with national education and youth committees in Washington, DC. She has been an active member of the County Commission for Women.
Her radio show INSPIRING CONVERSATIONS with business, political and spiritual leaders is broadcast world-wide from the Radio for Peace International. She is the co-founder of Media 21 with Dr. Robert Muller, a PR counsel firm dedicated to preparing the media and organizations for an ethical 21st Century. She created National Book Blitz month, held annually in January, to honor the world's authors and is immediate past president of the Book Publicists. Her book, Book Blitz continues to be a top seller on Amazon.com.
Often requested to be the closing speaker at World Conferences on the subject of "Where Do We Go From Here?" she inspires Conference attendees to use the 5 basic principles of PR to influence and change their local community and thus change the world. Her key-ending speech introduced her to Dr. Robert Muller in 1994 and they are happily married and spend much of the year on their Finca in Costa Rica.
Ms.
Gaughen-Muller created World Spirituality Day on the opening day of
the UN General Assembly and is the founder of United Nature. She is
a Creative Member of the Club of Budapest and serves on the Boards of
several international organizations. Her public relations firm has
won numerous awards including being named Best PR Firm for five
consecutive years. She is currently running her Global PR firm from
Santa Barbara, CA and Costa Rica. Her dream is world peace and
happiness created through new global ethics for the 21st Century.
Our absolute priorities and objectives for the 21st century and the third millennium should be:
No dream
is too big
IDEAS AND DREAMS
PART I
IDEAS 3501 TO 3600
INTRODUCTION
Proposals for a Strategy of Concerns for the Future
Objective: how is the future dealt with and treated by those who govern, guide or deeply influence the future of the world and humanity?
These are:
national, provincial and local governments
heads of states
parliaments
business, especially big business, the multinationals and world corporations
the military
scientists, mostly employed by governments, business, the military and universities
universities and education
the media and advertisement
religions, many international, with cosmic views and millions of followers
international organizations
world organizations
continental and regional organizations (e.g. the European Union)
world non-governmental organizations
A major first step would be to survey to what extent and how the future is being considered and dealt with or not by these main actors. It would be a vast project but it seems essential to consider it. Examples: the UN University or the UN Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) could produce a survey of how the future is dealt with in the United Nations, by its 32 specialized agencies, world programs, and regional Commissions. The Union of International Associations in Brussels could make a survey of the international non-governmental organizations which deal with the future. The United Religions Initiative could make a survey of how the future is treated in the world's religions. The same for universities, etc. Projects like that could be financed with grants from the Foundation for the Future.
The above actors should take organizational steps. For example, the UN should create a Main Commission of the Future as part of the General Assembly, or a World Council or an entire new specialized agency for the Future. All governments should create Ministries of the Future, universities Departments of the Future. The US Vice Presidency for Global Affairs could become a Vice Presidency for Global Affairs and the Future, an example to be followed by other countries. One major regional organization, the European Union has a Commissioner for the Future, an example to be followed by other regional organizations.
The result would be a quantum leap into concern for the future and might save us from major future disasters.
Three fundamental elements must be remembered when dealing with the future and its treatment in the current human society:
1. the conclusion of astrophysicist Eric Chaisson and Nobel Prize winner Christian de Duve that we have reached a point of evolution when new values, a new wisdom are needed on this planet if evolution is to continue (see idea 1967 in Volume IV). This must be learned and accepted by the above actors, and implemented by them in their constituencies;
2. institutions are a major factor of world government and further evolution. Alas, they are generally closed to change and to adaptation to new requirements of evolution. They resist the creation of new institutions or institutional reforms which would make them lose their power. How can that obstacle be surmounted?
3. people often act only when compelled by legislation (e.g., to pay taxes). The 1997 special UN General Assembly revealed that almost the entire recommendations of the second world conference on the environment in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the famous Rio Agenda 21, were not implemented by governments! Further evolution might not continue as a result of non- implementation through national and world laws.
Robert Muller
Advisor to the Foundation for
the Future (Year 3000)*
The
Foundation for the Future: 123-105th Avenue South East, Bellevue, WA
98004-6265
PART II
IDEAS 3601 TO 3700
INTRODUCTION
A Message to the Conference of World Philosophers
in Pune, India, October 1996
Dear friends, having been labeled by my Hindu friends at the United Nations a trikaldarshi and a trilokonath, and named Purushottama by our Hindu spiritual master Sri Chinmoy, having been inspired in India to write my first book, a novel in which I fell in love with India, Sima My Love, which received a French literary prize and opened the way to many more writings, you will understand my unhappiness not to be able to be with you in your truly extraordinary conference on the eve of a new century and millennium.
My dear and deeply admired friend for many years, Claes Nobel, has asked me to address you a brief message. Since dreams and ideas are the most important factors of progress in our journey on this heavenly Earth, I will ask him to read two dreams and circulate to you a recent paper on my most fundamental views to which I added a number of ideas addressed particularly to you as philosophers.1 These are the two dreams:
My Dream 2000
Our Dream for the Future
We dream that the absolute priorities and objectives for the 21st century and the third millennium will be:
No dream is too big
Barbara
and Robert Muller
ANNEX
Message from an unknown author
If you woke up this morning with more health than illness...
you are more blessed than the million who will not survive this week.
If you have never experienced the danger of battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture, or the pangs of starvation...
you are ahead of 500 million people in the world.
If you can attend a church meeting without fear of harassment, arrest, torture, or death...
you are more blessed than three billion people in the world.
If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep...
you are richer than 75% of this world.
If you have money in the bank, in your wallet, and spare change in a dish someplace...
you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.
If your parents are still alive and still married...
you are very rare, even in the United States.
If you hold up your head with a smile on your face and are truly thankful...
you are blessed because the majority can...
but most do not.
If you can hold someone's hand, hug them or even touch them on the shoulder...
you are blessed because you can offer a healing touch.
If you can read this message, you just received a double blessing in that someone was thinking of you, and furthermore, you are more blessed than the over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.
Have a
good day, count your blessings, and pass this along to remind
everyone else how blessed we are.
PART III
IDEAS 3701 TO 3800
INTRODUCTION
A Golden Principle for the Human Family
BAHA'I
"Blessed are those who prefer others before themselves."
Baha'u'llah, Tablets of Baha'u'llah, 71
JAINISM
"In happiness and suffering, in joy and grief, regard all creatures as you would regard your own self."
Lord Mahavir 24th Tirthankara
BUDDHISM
"Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful."
Udana-Varga, 5:18
JUDAISM
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. That is the entire Torah; all the rest is commentary."
Talmund, Shabbat 31a
CHRISTIANITY
"Always treat others as you would like them to treat you."
Jesus, Matthew 7:12
NATIVE AMERICAN
"Respect for all life is the foundation."
The Great Law of Peace
CONFUCIANISM
"Do not unto others what you would not have them do unto you."
Analects 15:23
SIKHISM
"Be not estranged from another for God dwells in every heart."
Sri Guru Granth Sahib
HINDUISM
"This is the sum of all duty: do not do to others what would cause pain if done to you."
Mahabharata 5:1517
ZOROSTRIANISM
"Human nature is good only when it does not do unto another whatever is not good for its own self."
Dadistan-i-Dinik, 94:5
ISLAM
"No one of you is a believer until you desire for another that which you desire for yourself."
Sunnah
ANNEX
Cost of Starting World Government
Compared with
Costs of not Having a World Government
(Originally prepared to present to a meeting of Ambassadors to
the United Nations on 17 March, 2000)
As shown, first by examining the costs of not having World Government since 1946, then compared to a budget for beginning world government under the Constitution for the Federation of Earth, and a recommended course of action.
COSTS OF NOT HAVING WORLD GOVERNMENT SINCE 1946,
(Note: rough estimates, exact figures are difficult to obtain, further detailed analysis is invited)
I. WAR
o Nuclear arms race, still continuing..................................................................$ 12,000,000,000,000
o Cost to dismantle and get rid of nuclear arms and resulting nuclear poisons...........$ 20,000,000,000,000
o Other arms and military expenditures...............................................................$ 15,000,000,000,000
o Cost to get rid of land mines..........................................................................$ 1,000,000,000,000
o Destruction of homes, towns, industries, cities, utilities, infra-structures, etc.........$ 20,000,000,000,000
o People killed (how much is a life worth?) for 10,000,000 wrongful deaths
in war, each life worth at least $100,000......................................................$ 2,000,000,000,000
o People mutilated (how much does a mutilated body/mind cost?) for
40,000,000 serious mutilations, each figured at $50,000.................................$ 2,000,000,000,000
o Livelihoods damaged or destroyed (wars are no longer confined to battlefields)........$ 1,000,000,000,000
Total conservative estimate - (probably much more)..........................................$ 73,000,000,000,000
II. UNNECESSARY POVERTY, MISERY, SQUALOR, ILL HEALTH, MALNUTRITION, AND 20% OR MORE UNEMPLOYED FOR TWO/THIRDS OF THE PEOPLE OF EARTH FOR 50 YEARS.
If one billion families (4 persons per family) could and should have the equivalent of $2,500 income per year, but only had $500 on average, the loss is $2,000 per family times 1 billion = $2,000,000,000,000 per year times 50 years equals................................................................................$100,000,000,000,000
III. PREVENTABLE ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
o Air quality...................................................................................................$ 5,000,000,000,000
o Water quality................................................................................................$ 5,000,000,000,000
o Ocean pollution and loss of fisheries................................................................$ 5,000,000,000,000
o Deforestation................................................................................................$ 5,000,000,000,000
o Violent Storms (on increase)...........................................................................$ 5,000,000,000,000
o Climate changes which may become irreversible, meaning the end of
civilization as we have known it, and 5 billion people starve to death..................$ 5,000,000,000,000
IV. COST OF ALL OTHER UNSOLVED GLOBAL AND SUPRA-NATIONAL PROBLEMS DURING PAST 50 YEARS.....................................................................Many trillions
Grand Total: You may calculate your own
estimate and add it up. $300,000,000,000,000
A MODEST BUDGET FOR BEGINNING WORLD GOVERNMENT UNDER THE CONSTITUTION FOR THE FEDERATION OF EARTH:
15 functioning World Ministries (see below) each having $20,000,000 for the first year...........$300,000,000
General Administration for the first year...........................................................................$100,000,000
Full time Parliament for the first year..............................................................................$ 40,000,000
World courts for the first year.........................................................................................$ 15,000,000
Continuing Ratification Campaign..................................................................................$ 45,000,000
Total for the first year....................................................................................................$500,000,000
PLAN TO BEGIN
Plan to begin: The first "operating stage" of World Government under the Constitution for the Federation of Earth, requires that 25 countries ratify the Constitution for the Federation of Earth.
Each ratifying country/nation should contribute $10,000,000 to $100,000,000, depending on its current military budget, by deducting from the military budget and contributing that amount to the beginning budget for World Government. Those nations with very small or negligible military budgets may still calculate what World Government is worth to them.
If survival and happiness for the people of Earth matters, rather than big profits for a few, then the cost of beginning world government is tiny indeed compared to the 50 years costs of not having world government, and the continuing costs of not having adequate world government.
After the first year, the new Global Finance System, as defined in World Legislative Act Number Eleven (see book IMMEDIATE ECONOMIC BENEFITS OF WORLD GOVERNMENT) will solve further financing.
The first 15 World Ministries may be composed from among the following, or combinations thereof:
Essential World Ministries are also in the Constitution for the Federation of Earth. Which to begin with, is subject to the judgment of those who do the beginning.
PROPOSED AND RECOMMENDED COURSE OF ACTION FOR UN AMBASSADORS:
Recognizing that the United Nations Organization over more than 50 years has not prevented war or obtained disarmament, although this was the primary stated purpose of the United Nations;
Recognizing that the United Nations Organization, being without either civilian legislative or executive powers, has not and cannot solve crucial global and supra-national problems which effect the lives and welfare of all residents of Earth;
Recognizing that the costs of wars, preparations for war, and unsolved global problems during the past 54 years since the UN was organized, total many hundreds of trillions of dollars, or equivalents thereof;
Recognizing our responsibilities as UN Ambassadors to end war, and to clearly face up to the defects of the United Nations Organization and the plight of humanity, together with the total impracticability of trying to amend the UN Charter;
We do hereby recommend severally and jointly to our national governments that they each one and together ratify the Constitution for the Federation of Earth, to establish a democratic Federal World Government empowered to cope with the problems of today and the coming years;
And that each national government, ready to ratify the Constitution for the Federation of Earth, depending on the size of its present military budget, shall subtract from that budget and contribute to the beginning budget for the World Government, amounts from $10,000,000 to $100,000,000, or thereabouts, to make up a beginning budget for the World Government of at least $500,000,000, this being a tiny cost compared to the costs to the people and nations of Earth of continuing without a democratic Federal World Government.
PART IV
IDEAS 3801 TO 3900
INTRODUCTION
Wishes for Humanity
- U Thant
Secretary General of the UN
from
1961 to 1971
ANNEX
World Charter for Nature
by the United Nations 1982
The General Assembly,
Reaffirming the fundamental purposes of the United Nations, in particular the maintenance of international peace and security, the development of friendly relations among nations and the achievement of international cooperation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, technical, intellectual or humanitarian character,
Aware that:
o (a) Mankind is a part of nature and life depends on the uninterrupted functioning of natural systems which ensure the supply of energy and nutrients,
o (b) Civilization is rooted in nature, which has shaped human culture and influenced all artistic and scientific achievements, and living in harmony with nature gives man the best opportunities for the development of his creativity, and for rest and recreation,
Convinced that:
o (a) Every form of life is unique, warranting respect regardless of its worth to man, and, to accord other organisms such recognition, man must be guided by a moral code of action,
o (b) Man can alter nature and exhaust natural resources by his action or its consequences and, therefore, must fully recognize the urgency of maintaining the stability and quality of nature and of conserving natural resources,
Persuaded that:
o (a) Lasting benefits from nature depend upon the maintenance of essential ecological processes and life support systems, and upon the diversity of life forms, which are jeopardized through excessive exploitation and habitat destruction by man,
o (b) The degradation of natural systems owing to excessive consumption and misuse of natural resources, as well as to failure to establish an appropriate economic order among peoples and among States, leads to the breakdown of the economic, social and political framework of civilization,
o (c) Competition for scarce resources creates conflicts, whereas the conservation of nature and natural resources contributes to justice and the maintenance of peace and cannot be achieved until mankind learns to live in peace and to forsake war and armaments.
Reaffirming that man must acquire the knowledge to maintain and enhance his ability to use natural resources in a manner which ensures the preservation of the species and ecosystems for the benefit of present and future generations,
Firmly convinced of the need for appropriate measures, at the national and international, individual and collective, and private and public levels, to protect nature and promote international co-operation in this field,
Adopts, to these ends, the present World Charter for Nature, which proclaims the following principles of conservation by which all human conduct affecting nature is to be guided and judged.
I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
1. Nature shall be respected and its essential processes shall not be impaired.
2. The genetic viability on the Earth shall not be compromised; the population levels of all life forms, wild and domesticated, must be at least sufficient for their survival, and to this end necessary habitat shall be safeguarded.
3. All areas of the Earth, both land and sea, shall be subject to these principles of conservation; special protection shall be given to unique areas, to representative samples of all the different types of ecosystems and to the habitat of rare or endangered species.
4. Ecosystems and organisms, as well as the land, marine and atmospheric resources that are utilized by man, shall be managed to achieve and maintain optimum sustainable productivity, but not in such a way as to endanger the integrity of those other ecosystems or species with which they coexist.
5. Nature shall be secured against degradation caused by warfare or other hostile activities.
II. FUNCTIONS
6. In the decision-making process it shall be recognized that man's needs can be met only by ensuring the proper functioning of natural systems and by respecting the principles set forth in the present Charter.
7. In the planning and implementation of social and economic development activities, due account shall be taken of the fact that the conservation of nature is an integral part of those activities.
8. In formulating long-term plans for economic development, population growth and the improvement of standards of living, due account shall be taken of the long-term capacity of natural systems to ensure the subsistence and settlement of the populations concerned, recognizing that this capacity may be enhanced through science and technology.
9. The allocation of areas of the Earth to various uses shall be planned and due account shall be taken of the physical constraints, the biological productivity and diversity and the natural beauty of the areas concerned.
10. Natural resources shall not be wasted, but used with a restraint appropriate to the principles set forth in the present Charter, in accordance with the following rules:
o (a) Living resources shall not be utilized in excess of their natural capacity for regeneration;
o (b) The productivity of soils shall be maintained or enhanced through measures which safeguard their long-term fertility and the process of organic decomposition, and prevent erosion and all other forms of degradation;
o (c) Resources, including water, which are not consumed as they are used shall be reused or recycled;
o (d) Non-renewable resources which are consumed as they are used shall be exploited with restraint, taking into account their abundance, their rational possibilities of converting them for consumption, and the compatibility of their exploitation with the functioning of natural systems.
11. Activities which might have an impact on nature shall be controlled, and the best available technologies that minimize significant risks to nature or other adverse effects shall be used; in particular:
o (a) Activities which are likely to cause irreversible damage to nature shall be avoided;
o (b) Activities which are likely to pose a significant risk to nature shall be preceded by an exhaustive examination; their proponents shall demonstrate that expected benefits outweigh potential damage to nature, and where potential adverse effects are not fully understood, the activities should not proceed;
o (c) Activities which may disturb nature shall be preceded by assessment of their consequences, and environmental impact studies of development projects shall be conducted sufficiently in advance, and if they are to be undertaken, such activities shall be planned and carried out so as to minimize potential adverse effects;
o (d) Agriculture, grazing, forestry and fisheries practice shall be adapted to the natural characteristics and constraints of given areas;
o (e) Areas degraded by human activities shall be rehabilitated for purposes in accord with their natural potential and compatible with the well-being of affected populations.
12. Discharge of pollutants into natural systems shall be avoided and:
o (a) Where this is not feasible, such pollutants shall be treated at the source, using the best practicable means available;
o (b) Special precautions shall be taken to prevent discharge of radioactive or toxic waste.
13. Measures intended to prevent, control or limit natural disasters, infestations and diseases shall be specifically directed to the causes of these scourges and shall avoid adverse side-effects on nature.
III. IMPLEMENTATION
14. The principles set forth in the present Charter shall be reflected in the law and practice of each State, as well as at the international level.
15. Knowledge of nature shall be broadly disseminated by all possible means, particularly by ecological education as an integral part of general education.
16. All planning shall include, among its essential elements, the formulation of strategies for the conservation of nature, the establishment of inventories of ecosystems and assessment of the effects on nature of proposed policies and activities; all of these elements shall be disclosed to the public by appropriate means in time to permit effective consultation and participation.
17. Funds, programs and administrative structures necessary to achieve the objective of the conservation of nature shall be provided.
18. Constant efforts shall be made to increase knowledge of nature by scientific research and to disseminate such knowledge unimpeded by restrictions of any kind.
19. The status of natural processes, ecosystems and species shall be closely monitored to enable early detection of degradation or threat, ensure timely intervention and facilitate the evaluation of conservation policies and methods.
20. Military activities damaging to nature shall be avoided.
21. States and, to the extent they are able, other public authorities, international organizations, individuals, groups and corporations shall;
o (a) Co-operate in the task of conserving nature through common activities and other relevant actions, including information exchange and consultations;
o (b) Establish standards for products and other manufacturing processes that may have adverse effects on nature, as well as agreed methodologies for assessing these effects;
o (c) Implement the applicable international legal provisions for the conservation of nature and the protection of the environment;
o (d) Ensure the activities within their jurisdictions or control do not cause damage to the natural systems located within other States or in the areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction;
o (e) Safeguard and conserve nature in areas beyond national jurisdiction.
22. Taking fully into account the sovereignty of States over their natural resources, each State shall give effect to the provisions of the present Charter through its competent organs and in co-operation with other States.
23. All persons, in accordance with their national legislation, shall have the opportunity to participate, individually or with others, in the formulation of decisions of direct concern to their environment, and shall have access to means of redress when their environment has suffered damage or degradation.
24. Each
person has a duty to act in accordance with the provisions of the
present Charter; acting individually, in association with others or
through participation in the political process, each person shall
strive to ensure that the objectives and requirements of the present
Charter are met.
PART V
IDEAS 3901 TO 4000
INTRODUCTION
And How About Happiness?
The first book I ever wrote in English, published in 1978, was Most of All, They Taught Me Happiness. When I finished it, my first wife, Margarita, a Chilean diplomat, commented: "You must be crazy. You have worked for the United Nations for 30 years and all you come up with is a book on happiness. You should have written a book on the UN." I answered: "The UN became my love and objective in my life only because during World War II I learned that one cannot be happy in a war. This is why my next book will be on What War Taught Me About Peace, and then only will I write a book on the UN."
Here is an article published in 2000 by one of my readers, Rod McIver, in a new magazine, Heron Dance, which he decided to create after reading my 22 years old first edition of my book on Happiness. I am so grateful to him.
In 1978, Robert Muller published Most of All, They Taught Me Happiness, a book that was a great inspiration and comfort when I was struggling with the decision to leave Wall Street. When U Thant was Secretary General of the United Nations, Muller served as his executive assistant. Here are a few passages from that book which led me to leave Wall Street and create a magazine devoted to the greatness and beauty of life:
Love for life, passion for life, deep gratitude for every moment of it, extending one's heart and brain into eternity and totality, from the fishes and the fowl to the stars, from youth to old age, from the glaciers to the tropics, from the prodigy of birth to the mystery of death, human beings can indeed partake in all creation if they switch on, deep inside, the will for life, the decision for happiness, the option for love. I have "decided" to love my life, to throw in my gauntlet for it, to believe in it, to find it exalting in every respect, at every moment, from the beginning to the end.
Yes, we must visualize at all times how precious life will seem at the moment of death. Then only will we be ready to give up our pretensions, foolishness, and possessions for a measure of additional life. "All my wealth, all my power for one more year of life."
There is so much magic in life, in these colors, in these shapes, in this drop of shining light in the gigantic dark universe. Yes, our planet is a prodigious miracle, a unique happening in billions of years of evolution, in eons of light-years of space. We will never cherish it enough. We will never be grateful enough. This miracle should be the object of our constant love, joy, and admiration. We should stand in awe before the mysterious forces that brought it into being. But instead, so many of us are complaining, unhappy, and somber. How is that possible? Why can't we realize that all this could well not be, that evolution could have produced a different planet, a lifeless planet, at another distance from the sun, with a different inclination or orbit, a different atmosphere, flora, and fauna, another human body, heart and mind? All great religions, prophets, and visionaries saw it better than the scientists of today. They demanded respect for creation and for the mysterious forces behind it. Our colossal contemporary knowledge should have increased our elation and our thankfulness for the wonders of nature. Instead, we have lost much of our love and happiness. We must lift ourselves again high above our microscopes, telescopes, books, newspapers and computers, and see again the total beauty of a flower, of a brook, of a woman, of a child, of the world, of the stars.
Yes, our miraculous planet Earth should irradiate human thankfulness and joy into every direction of the universe.
The key... is love, affirmation of life, thankfulness for life. Some have called it sanctity of life (most religions), reverence for life (the Jains, Albert Schweitzer), celebration of life (Norman Cousins). I prefer to call it passion for life, the key to all, the result of a personal, determined decision. Whatever its name, anyone who receives the gift of life ought to feel fathomlessly indebted to it, for he has been given a unique treasure in the universe. He is a true miracle on a planet that is itself a miracle. He should love life from deep within, whatever others may think or proclaim, despite the wars, the prisons, the injustices, the struggles, the inequalities, the false values, the dogmas, the noises, the ideologies, the jealousies, the fashions, and the contortions of the four billion human fleas jumping around him. I live, therefore I am. Life is beautiful, divine, miraculous, fathomless. Life is to love, to do, to learn, to think, to imagine, to talk, to receive, to feel, to understand, to mate, to give birth, and to embrace in one's heart and brain the entire creation. In every human life, all can be accomplished. A human being can taste totality and eternity, can penetrate the infinitely small and the infinitely large. There is so much a human can do and experience. The miseries of life are merely specks of dust on a wonderful object of art. Not to revere, not to love, not to wonder, not to be impassioned with the miraculous, brief droplet of life is a crime, a waste, an outrage, and a stupidity.
Yes, in war and in peace, in youth and in old age, in opulence and in poverty, in liberty and in prison, in health and in sickness, in activity and in leisure, in success and in failure, in city and in country, in company and in solitude, in the immense maze of human relations there is only one great recipe conducive to happiness: love.
Love is the only way out, the secret of secrets. Happiness is a state of mind, a click inside us, a conscious, determined decision or will to embrace with fascination, enthusiasm (that is, by God possessed), the entire world and creation. Happiness is total consciousness. Happiness is the peak fulfillment of life. It is a human's own doing, his greatest power and liberty. Happiness is not external to man, it is a genial force in him. It cannot be elsewhere. It is not part of nature or of the world, it is an attribute, an essence of the human person. It is above prison, death, poverty, disability, injustice, age, inequality, and prejudice. A vagabond in a ditch, a deprived artist or poet, an invalid, an uneducated tribesman surrounded by his wife and children can be a thousand times happier than an insatiable neurotic millionaire in his skyscraper. Billions of happy humans have walked on this planet throughout the ages who did not have the blessings of today. Happiness is the great revanche of the poor, the dreamers, the poets, the artists, the visionaries, the simple, the wise, the diminished, and all those guided by the heart rather than by power, money, and interest. Happiness is increasingly vital in a world of growing numbers, complexity, and anonymity, where glory is becoming increasingly difficult.
When the moment will come to close my eyes on this beautiful planet, my heart will thank and honor all those who gave me life and the warmth of love, and Him who permitted me to devote my earthly sojourn to peace, justice, and the betterment of the human condition in the UN - one of the noblest organizations ever born from the heart of man. I will go in peace and joy, thankful for having been blessed with the miracle of life.
I will have loved my life with passion, embraced it with fervor, cherished every single moment of it. I will have contemplated with wonder the sky and its turning clouds, my brethren the humans, my sisters the flowers and stars. I will have feasted unceasingly on the treasure of life in all its forms. I will not have dwelled in mediocre ambitions, vain hatred and useless complaints.
I will depart with the belief that there is no end to the flow of life in the universe, that there is no death but only an unceasing change of worlds.
My conclusion would therefore be:
Decide to be happy
- Robert Muller
CONCLUDING PROPOSALS
THE ABSOLUTE, URGENT NEED FOR PROPER EARTH GOVERNMENT
A framework and approach to create it*
During my fifty-three years of global service with the United Nations I was particularly struck by the following factors in the world situation:
Factor 1
The accelerated development of the human species into a global species through the multiplication and extension:
Still missing or underdeveloped are:
a global heart: love stops at the nation or at an ethnic group. Beginning of global love for humanity, for peace, for nature and for the preservation of the Earth.
a global soul: stops at a religion. Not yet a global spirituality in which all religions and humans would be in tune with the universe and eternity.
Factor 2
From 1945 to the early 1970's: a comprehensive, unprecedented period of Humanism (avoid wars, prevent early childhood deaths, eradicate epidemics, increase the well-being of all humans, defend universal human rights, put an end to colonialism, apartheid and racism, increase literacy, longevity and good health, help the handicapped, etc.)
1970's: while the agendas of the preceding period were still unfulfilled and were overtaken by the world population explosion, a new major world concern came to the fore, namely the Environment (UNESCO's World Biosphere Conference in 1968 and the UN World Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972), in other words: we humans on one side and the Earth and nature around us.
1980's: the new phenomenon of the depletion of the ozonosphere and menacing climate changes made the Earth priority No. 1 of our concerns and reduced economic development to "sustainable economic development".
This represents a fundamental change in the evolution of this planet. From now on the world will never be the same. This is why we should no longer speak of World Government, but of Earth Government, the wise management, saving and preservation of our planetary home of which we are an integral part and whose further evolution now depends largely on us.
*I apologize to those readers who have acquired the preceding volumes of my ideas and dreams, for the repetition here of basically the same text as that in Volume IV, pages 135 to 155. But that text is so fundamental that it cannot be repeated enough. I made it therefore my concluding proposals
The UN Charter of 1945 does not use the words Earth, nature, natural resources and the environment. Why? Because at that time we considered the Earth to be unlimited in resources for a relatively small world population. The western countries also saw, and still see humanity as separate and superior to the natural world. This view has accomplished wonders for the human race. But humanity must now change its course, dominant objectives, values, institutions and laws if we want to prevent disasters in the further evolution of the Earth and of the human race.
Factor 3
- humanity rushed into economics (oikos, nomos) changing our home, before ecology (oikos, logos) the knowledge of that home;
- capitalism and business became the dominant ideals of the human society and not the environment and preservation of our Earth and nature;
- business globalized itself very rapidly and became the master of the world and of our lives, while governments, the entrusted defenders of justice, of the poor and the downtrodden, globalized themselves only timidly in the United Nations and even became the servants of business;
- religions did not globalize themselves at all.
There were excuses for the above:
- capitalism did wonders for humanity at the beginning when the world population was small and the resources of the Earth unexploited and seemingly unlimited;
- governments were still in the era of consolidating nations recently born from ethnic groups or provinces fighting each other;
- religions still believed that their truths were absolute, immortal and meant to spread to the entire world.
Today our objectives and efforts must be:
1. to see the religions globalize themselves into a global spiritual Renaissance in order to give us a universal, cosmic meaning of life on Earth and give birth to the first global, cosmic, universal civilization. The United Religions Organization which is in the process of being created can and must be helped to achieve that;
2. national governments must absolutely globalize themselves significantly in a new, second generation United Nations with much more power, especially power of implementation, legislation and vastly increased resources commensurate with the tasks of the 21st century, or a United States or Republic of the World with proper balance of powers in a world democracy, or a World Union on the model of the recent European Union;
3. business must be put in its right place as a servant of the peoples' needs within a properly preserved Earth and renewed natural resources, and no longer be an instrument of unlimited power, profit and enrichment as the principal objective of life;
4. more generally we have come to the moment in evolution when we must give second place to the Darwinian theory of competition and survival of the fittest, and first place to a new ideology, science, strategy and methodology of cooperation for our evolutionary survival and continued progress on this perhaps unique, life-endowed planet in the universe.
Factor 4
During this period the rich countries and the rich in all countries became richer and the poor countries and the poor in all countries became poorer for the following reasons:*
The rich people thanks to savings, inheritance and business can invest their money in banks, stock-markets, mutual funds, retirement plans or in business ventures; many people do not have to work anymore to get richer;
The poor cannot save much or anything to put in banks, stock markets, mutual funds, retirement plans or to engage in business, and as a result remain poor.
The rich countries have the monopoly of inventions and patents, huge capitals accumulated over the years, sell highly elaborated, sophisticated goods at high prices to the poor countries from which they buy primary products at low prices. Investments, marketing techniques and advertisement are also extended to the latter countries to make huge profits and gain new consumer markets for the rich countries.
Moreover poor countries and poor people have the highest number of children. Poverty elimination must therefore become a major factor in stemming the population explosion and vice versa.
Section I
Our new, overriding concern: the salvation and preservation of the Earth
Since 1945 the needs, injustices and complaints of humanity, especially of the poor countries, have been high on the agenda of the United Nations. Recently the UN has held a World Social Summit on all these problems in Copenhagen and launched a United Nations Decade for the Eradication of Poverty, 1997-2006.
Regarding the newcomer in the age of global preoccupations, namely the Earth, we must listen to her too and respond to her complaints. If the Earth could speak she would say:
Why did I have to take all of a sudden a population increase from 2.5 billion people in 1952 to 6.1 billion today (2000), more than a doubling in less than fifty years?
We could answer as an excuse: it happened out of sheer ignorance. After the war the rich countries and the United Nations wanted to prevent the early death of innumerable children in the poor countries. They died young because of epidemics, bad health conditions, malnutrition and hunger. But having no population statistics for the world and for most of these countries, we did not tell the parents that they would no longer need to give birth to an average of six children per family to have at least two left to till the land and to take care of their old age. Until 1952 we did not even know what the world population was! When the UN organized for the first time in human history decent global statistics and world censuses, we discovered that women did not have more children, but that children no longer died early (the mortality rate fell from 34 per thousand to 14 per thousand). When this was discovered it was too late, the children were born and a young population is highly reproductive. The UN warned nations and humanity by means of world population conferences and every other possible means that a world population explosion was upon us. But religions and other factors opposed it. Nevertheless, these efforts saved you from 2.2 billion more humans on your surface by the year 2000. Instead of 8.3 billion human beings in that year we are only 6.1 billion.
*The Secretary General of the UN reported to the 1997 UN General Assembly that 100 nations on this planet have become poorer in the last fifteen years and that 1.3 billion people of this Earth have a daily income of only one dollar.
The Earth:
Yes, but I hear that at the present rate you will be 9.3 billion in the year 2050 and stabilize only at 10.7 billion in the year 2,200, which means 4.8 billion more people than today! You still increase by 80 million people every year. You will end by destroying me.
Our answer:
We continue to do our utmost. Each year the figure of population growth decreases by a few more millions. On 12 October 1999 we were 6 billion people. The increase during the preceding twelve months was 78 million. To change the course of global phenomena takes time. Humanity which is in the kindergarten of the global age has not learned it yet.
The UN's latest forecasts of the world population in 2050 are: a total world population of 8.91 billion, of which 1.16 billion (a decline of 40 million) in the rich countries and 7.75 billion (an increase of 3.05 billion) in the poor countries.
The Earth:
You better learn it fast. I have another major complaint, namely while there is a population explosion in the poor countries you have also triggered off a wild inventions, production, business, marketing, advertising and overconsumption explosion in the rich countries. In these countries an individual consumes 30 times more of my resources than in the poor countries. From my point of view, namely the damages you do to my body, your population statistics are wrong: while the less developed countries count 4.7 billion people, the more developed countries' 1.2 billion should be multiplied by 30, i.e. they represent in my eyes 36 billion people!
The Earth would have other complaints, she could ask for example:
WHY EACH MINUTE
WHY EACH FIVE HOURS
- do you let a species die out on this planet? This would mean a loss of 84,000 species in the next 50 years.
WHY EACH DAY
WHY SINCE 1970
- have you destroyed more than thirty per cent of my nature and the destruction is accelerating, not decelerating as is the population explosion?
WHY DURING A HUMAN LIFETIME
- do you dump so much garbage and waste on me: while the average is 150 times of the weight of a person in a poor country over a lifetime, why does the average American create a mountain of waste 4,000 times his own weight?
And the Earth could go on. She could say:
"I regret to have no total figure on what you dump into the seas and oceans which cover 71 percent of my body and contain the largest number of longest living of my species. US industries and cities dump an estimated 6.4 trillion gallons of waste and sewage into the oceans every year.
I heard her also murmur:
"I almost wish that you humans would put coloring materials in the exhausts of your cars and airplanes to see what you add to the air which goes into your lungs and which I made so pure for you. Thank God, it begins to show in the form of smog over your cities."
The Earth would further say:
The UN Charter does not even mention me or my nature, natural resources, or the environment. But since the 1972 Stockholm Conference on the environment and the 1992 Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit you have begun to look into my miseries. You have created a UN Environment Program and an Earth Council, and you are drafting an Earth Charter, a Declaration of my rights. I hear that next you will take up the drafting of a universal declaration of human responsibilities. Ministries of the Environment have sprung up in almost all countries. I thank you for that. But alas, the UN's recommendations have been often ignored and most poorly implemented, as was revealed by your 1997 Special General Assembly to review the situation. Why don't you transform the UN into an Earth Organization, in which humans and nature would cooperate for the optimum fulfillment and survival of both, and make me the most beautiful and flourishing planet in the whole universe?
She would add:
I have just read a statement by Mr. Mario Soares, the Prime Minister of Portugal and Chairman of a World Commission on the Oceans, who says: "the action taken for the seas and oceans since the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit have been quite depressing." May I warn you: if the ultra-violet rays going through the vast hole in my ozonosphere (it has reached the size of continental China) kill the plankton and diatoms of my seas and oceans you might lose 2/3rds of your oxygen!
And why do you have 556 militaries, 85 doctors and only one world servant per 100,000 Earth inhabitants?
Yes, why, why, why...
It is to these fundamental global Earth challenges, in addition to the unresolved human ones, that the world community must address itself as we enter the 21st century and new millennium.
It is a vast subject which reaches from the individual to local, city, provincial, state, national, regional, continental and international, global levels, including the world's commons (the seas and oceans, the atmosphere, the ozonosphere, the moon and outer-space).
It is a vast subject also regarding the means of action: institutions, law, financial resources, taxation, human talent and resources, and the proper education and cooperation of more than 6 billion human individuals on this planet.
Section II: Next Development of the World System
Since globalization is the primary evolutionary phenomenon, challenge and opportunity of our time, it obviously raises the extremely important question of the type, role, structure, strength and resources of the world system.
And since the Earth is in peril and the greatest part of humanity is still in misery, the remedies must be audacious and strong, even if they seem irrealistic or difficult to accept by those in power. We must stretch our minds and hearts to the dimension of the problems. As President Roosevelt wrote in his own hand on the day before his death for the speech he was to deliver at the opening of the San Francisco Conference convened to give birth to the United Nations:
"The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today."
In my view, after fifty-three years of service in the United Nations system, all the above points to the utmost urgency and absolute necessity for proper Earth government.
This should become the priority item number one on the agenda of world affairs at our entry into the third millennium. The poor countries who have been waiting so long for world justice should be the first to request it after 50 years of promises from the rich countries.
There is no shadow of a doubt that the present political and economic systems - if systems they are - are no longer appropriate and will lead to the end of life evolution on this planet. We must therefore absolutely and urgently look for new ways. The less we loose time, the less species' and nature will be destroyed.
I would urge therefore that consideration be given to the following avenues:
I
to hold a World Conference on Proper Earth Government through the Free Market System
Since business was the first to globalize itself world-wide, far beyond governments, and since corporations are now for all practical purposes ruling the world, we should give them the opportunity, even request them to assess their full responsibility for the future of all humanity, all living species and of the Earth herself and prove to us the validity of their claim that the free market can do it all.
The world corporate community should be asked to answer how they would take care of the above complaints of the Earth, how they would provide for a well-preserved planet and the well-being of all humanity, full employment, the renewal of natural resources, the long-term evolution of the planet and continuation of life on it, the real democracy of the consumers in a corporate power and wealth economy.
Such a conference would bring together the heads of the major 180 world companies, banks and stock-exchanges, the World Bank, the IMF, the ILO, the GATT, the new World Trade Organization, the International Chamber of Commerce and similar organizations.
II
to ensure proper Earth government through a second generation United Nations for the 21st century
Since the United Nations is the only world-wide, universal organization at present available, since it had fifty-three years of valuable experience and many successes, since it paved the way to proper Earth government, instead of putting it on the defensive, unjustified attacks and criticism, reduction of resources and non-payment of obligatory contributions, governments should honestly ask themselves if a better way would not be to consider a second generation United Nations upgraded by a true quantum jump into a proper Earth preserving and human well-being and justice ensuring organization of our planet.
Such a conference would have at its disposal many proposals and ideas for the strengthening of the UN made by various UN bodies, governments, Secretaries General, World Commissions, outside organizations and retired elders like myself. I have formulated mine in my Testament to the UN and in these 4000 ideas and dreams for a better world.
I recommend the urgent holding of a UN Charter Review Conference and second Bretton Woods Conference to assess the United Nations system's role, potentialities and substantial strengthening to cope with the critical issues and needs of the Earth and of humanity in the future. A Charter review conference would moreover give a voice to 134 governments of the present 189 members, which did not participate in the drafting of the Charter and creation of the UN. If a Charter review conference is vetoed by the big powers, these 134 governments should hold their own conference and offer the world a new draft Charter. They owe it to their people and to world democracy.
There is no doubt that given the massive changes which have taken place since 1945, an Organization created 53 years ago can simply not be adequate to deal effectively with the mounting, unprecedented and massive world problems of a new century and new evolutionary phase of our planet.
III
a New Philadelphia World Convention for the Creation of the United States of the World
The star-performance, often called "miracle" of the American States in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia 200 years ago which put an end to a similar political chaos in North America between numerous, sovereign independent states at the time, should be repeated.
Such a Convention of all nations would review the state of world democracy and would have to add to the system of balance of powers the new dominant power of business and the immense, global new claims of the Earth for her and our salvation.
"Philadelphia II" is a project of US Senator Mike Gravel who proposes a convention for the writing of a charter for a Global Constitution.
In this regard, we might well apply to the present world these words by George Washington concerning the political chaos which reigned in North America at his time, replacing in it the word state by national:
"The primary cause of all disorders lies in the different state governments and in the tenacity of that power which pervades the whole of their systems."
IV
a World Conference of all world federalist and world government associations and movements, to propose a federal constitution and system for the Earth
An immense work has been accomplished by the World Federalist Association headed by Sir Peter Ustinov, by its national associations and many other world government movements. There exist already several draft World Constitutions. World philanthropists should sponsor a World Conference or other ways to come up with a world constitution for the 21st century. We may remember that during World War I, Andrew Carnegie brought over to the US two Belgian scholars who drafted the statutes of the League of Nations and earned the Nobel Prize for it. Contemporary philanthropists should be inspired by such examples. According to UNESCO only 15 percent of philanthropy is international and most of it is bilateral. When the global world and the human family are in greatest need, they are the orphans of philanthropy.
And is it so inconceivable that two big federal countries like the United States and Russia might take the initiative of calling a world conference for the establishment of a global federal government in their image? After the cold war, what a warm spring, a spring of truly united nations this would be for our precious planet!
V
a World Conference for the creation of a World Union on the pattern of the European Union
The world has recently witnessed another political miracle, similar to the American miracle in Philadelphia: the miracle of Strasbourg, the birth of the European Union of 15 European countries which have finally put an end to their antagonisms and wars, decided to unite and cooperate and have abolished the borders between them. Every European can now settle anywhere in the Union, elect a European Parliament at the same time when electing his national Parliament, and can have his government condemned by a supra-national European Court of Human Rights when his rights are violated. Also, the European Union has its own European budget and tax system and is not dependent on national contributions as is the United Nations. In 1990 the European Economic Community had already a budget of 7.4 billion dollars, ten times the UN budget for all its world activities. This example is so hopeful, so powerful, so novel and inspiring that I recommend it as an outstanding model or guidelight for more regional communities and for the entire globe.
It is significant that the European Parliament has called for the setting up under the auspices of the United Nations, of an International Environmental Court and a World Environment Agency, of which the European Environment Agency would be a regional branch. It also wants that consideration be given to the setting up of a Parliamentary Consultative Assembly within the UN. We should wholeheartedly support these proposals.
I recommend that the European Union organize meetings and conferences with outside countries to show them how they can move towards regional unions and how a World Union can be established. This would render a great service to the world and to the UN General Assembly.
VI
a World Conference of the planet's five continents for a Proper Earth Government through continental Unions and a World Union
About ten years ago or more, I suggested to President Bush that in view of the creation of the European Union, the American countries from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego should create an all-American community or union. He listened to me but instead of creating that community in a common, joint effort of all American countries, as was done in Europe, the US negotiated separate trade agreements first with Canada, then with Mexico, and then the Latin American countries created their own Mercosur (the Southern Latin American market) and the future of an American Union is in doubt.
It might be noteworthy that indigenous people of the Americas believe in a prophecy according to which the Eagle and the Condor will meet on sacred Mount Rasur in Costa Rica from which a civilization of peace and nature will spread to the entire world. It is on that hill that the dream of the demilitarization of Costa Rica was born, where the United Nations created the first University for Peace on this planet, and the Earth Council created by the Rio de Janeiro Conference on the environment, as well as the International Radio for Peace. Simon Bolivar, for his part, in his dreams, prophecized that someday the capital of the world will be located in Central America.
The continental approach to a world union remains an important avenue. One could conceive five continental unions: the European Union, an American, an African, an Asian, and an Australian Union. A World Union could be constructed as a super-structure and common political system of the five continents.
VII
a World Conference on Earth and Human Government through new bio-political modes patterned on examples from nature
A very novel approach to the organization of humanity and its proper relations with the Earth and nature is to follow the biological models offered by the formation and admirable functioning of numerous colonies of cells, bacteria and living species observable in nature and now well studied. This is a very advanced science which opens up the most interesting and promising vistas. A bio-political science can and should now be rapidly developed on its basis. It would offer a very much needed bio-political revolution of the Earth' political system and science. Here the Earth and nature would come to their full preeminence and rights. All other world governmental avenues will sooner or later lead to it. First models are already the bio-regional approaches existing in certain areas of the world such as the Arctic Forum and the big river basins and mountain chains cooperative agreements.
Beyond this bio-regional vision and approach is the idea and proposal of Barbara Gaughen-Muller to create a United Nature, a transformed United Nations to respond to the fundamental unity of nature of which humans are part. Humans would not dominate nature but cooperate with her and learn from her. It is probably the most advanced, timely and imaginative vision of the total, proper functioning of planet Earth.
The Natural Law Party created by British scientists, which exists already in 100 countries and has become the third largest party in the United States could be the spearhead of this new approach. See the book by the President of the US Natural Law Party, physicist Dr. John Hagelin: Manual for a Perfect Government. How to harness the laws of nature to bring maximum success to governmental administration. Maharishi University, Fairfield, Iowa 52557
VIII
a World Conference on proper Earth government through what the world's religions have in common in terms of universal, global spirituality and world-wide human experience
Last, but not least, humanity has reached a point when we must consider our human presence, past, present and future on this particular planet in the universe. We have now a tremendous information on the universe in which we live. In addition to our total consciousness of our Earth and its global evolution we are also now acquiring and developing a cosmic consciousness of the universe. This is one of the greatest advances in human history. But the mysteries of infinity and eternity will probably remain beyond human and scientific grasp. This has the result of bringing together the spirituality or basic "faiths" of the religions and science. God, the gods or the Great Spirit or Spirits and their emissaries, prophets and human incarnations like Jesus gave humanity at its early stages a cosmic, universal, all-encompassing faith or feeling for the mysteries of the cosmos, for the norms of love and for the miracle of life and norms of behavior between all humans, other species and nature. These messages or "revelations" should not be neglected. They contain some of the profoundest answers to human behavior, fulfillment and survival. Great was our astonishment in the environmental crisis to discover the wisdom and rules of behavior towards nature dictated by the Great Spirit to the indigenous people of this planet, and towards Creation in practically all religions. The world's 5000 religions are filled with incredible wisdom regarding human morality, belief in life, environmental adaptations, survival and future evolution. This is strongly coming to the fore at this time in the following:
1. the dream and plan of my compatriot Robert Schuman from Alsace-Lorraine to see the European Union, which started with a coal and steel community followed by an economic community, followed by a political union, culminate in an all spiritual European Union including the Eastern European countries, especially "Holy Mother Russia". For him this was much more important than the extension to these countries of a military union through NATO.
2. the San Francisco Initiative to create a United Religions Organization similar to the United Nations also born in that city, where all religions of the world will cooperate, define what they have in common, provide their wisdom on human behavior and morality, and right relations with nature, God's Creation and the universe thus ushering the world into a great Spiritual Renaissance. In the process they will hopefully reduce and progressively give up their fundamentalism in favor of a global spirituality, the same way as nations in the United Nations have reduced to some extent their national fundamentalism called sovereignty.
3. in August 1998, at the 20th World Congress on Philosophy in Boston, a World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality was created. Mr. Karan Singh of India and I are its Co-Chairmen. It will meet for the first time in September 2001 in Canada.
4. In December 1999, at the invitation of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Bishop Edmund Tutu, a third World Parliament of Religions was convened in Pretoria, South Africa. The first such Parliament was held in 1893 and the second in 1993, both in Chicago. A fourth one is being planned for 2003.
Global religious cooperation towards a world spiritual Renaissance is accelerating.
Section III: The Need for a Change in Values and Basic Rethinking of all Principal Segments of Human Life
In recent years, Erika Erdmann, the research aide and Librarian of Nobel Prize winner Roger Sperry, and Professor Jean-Claude Leonide, a reputed French anthropologist undertook a survey of long-term evolutionary scientists which showed that scientists were becoming more optimistic as a result of the birth of a global consciousness which makes us humans aware of our mistakes and problems and helps us solve them by changing course and adapting to new evolutionary requirements. Their survey revealed that the theory of "chaos" according to which the universe and human life make no sense is losing ground. The new theory is that on any planet having life in the cosmos one species sooner or later evolves to a point of gaining a total knowledge of the planet it lives on. It will then be in its power either to continue evolution or to bring it to an end. The first course will require that the former values of that species, values not respectful of the new phase of evolution, must be replaced by new ones which cater to evolution. These new values are a major new evolutionary imperative.
In my view and in theirs, humanity has reached that stage on Planet Earth: we must revise our basic values dating from the 19th and early twentieth century and acquire a new evolutionary wisdom which respects nature, the Earth and their basic laws. If nature has produced the incredible, sophisticated variety of innumerable living species around us, each one a true miracle, it is simply not possible that the human species is not a miracle too, perhaps the most advanced of all. We are no longer our own objective. We have become the caretakers, the trustees, the shapers of future evolution, the instruments of the cosmos, integral parts of it, as we have already recognized of late to be of the Earth.
The future of the Earth will be bright and life will not become extinct if we decide so at the beginning of a new century and millennium. We are entering a thrilling, transcending new global, cosmic phase of evolution in the line indicated by Teilhard de Chardin, the anthropologist, if the human species understands its suddenly momentous, incredibly important evolutionary role and responsibility.
The preceding requires that all basic segments of human life on Earth be reviewed and rethought from scratch in the 21st century. These are:
Such reconsideration is taking place currently in a whole series of institutions and conferences around the world. We can therefore be optimistic about our future as we enter a new century and millennium.
Section IV: The Need for Futurization
With our human concern for the phenomenon of globalization must also come a growing concern for the future, a long-term future, a new phenomenon which I would call "futurization".
Having recently attended as a member of an international advisory board, a conference on Humanity and the Earth in the year 3000 by a new Foundation for the Future created in Bellevue, Washington by two firms of outer space satellite and stations construction, I was deeply impressed how all things earthly and human must be seen in their globality and interdependence when considered from a long-term point of view. Alas, political thinking today most of the time does not go beyond the next elections. We do not heed the Iroquois' custom not to take any decision without thinking of its effects on the seventh generation.
I therefore recommend that all governments should create a Ministry of the Future and that the United Nations should create a main committee on the Future in the General Assembly to receive yearly reports from all UN specialized agencies and world programs on the long-term future. The Foundation for the Future has held in 2000 a meeting of 100 eminent long-term scientists and visionaries to provide a view of what the Earth and humanity are likely to be in the year 3000 under various conditions. Such long-term thinking and envisioning must become an important component of proper Earth government.
Also to be noted is the prestigious Millennium Project of the United Nations University in Tokyo designed to assist in organizing futurists, scholars and policy makers in 60 countries who work for UN organizations, corporations, governments, universities and non-governmental organizations.
***
After my many years as a global servant I have come to believe that our future peace, justice, fulfillment, happiness and harmony on this planet will depend in the 21st century and third millennium, beyond proper Earth government, on divine or cosmic government, meaning that we must seek and apply the "natural", "evolutionary", "divine", "universal", "cosmic" laws which must rule our journey on this particular, miraculous planet in the vast universe. After global government, we will discover government according to the laws of nature, and will then discover that these are solar laws which themselves are cosmic laws of the universe. We are on the threshold of an extraordinary, mind-boggling, new age of our human progress and evolution on planet Earth if we do not stick to obsolete beliefs, values, systems, institutions and laws.
As Leibniz said when the exact sciences were born: "Humanity will now be busy dissecting and analyzing reality for hundreds of years, but the time will come when it will be lost in so much detail and findings that it will have to acquire again a total, global view of reality." That "holistic" age has come.
The
table which follows, derived from the Copernican, meta-biological,
almost cosmic work of the United Nations, gives a glance of this
total view in space and in time.
A World Framework
for
Planetary and Cosmic Consciousness
An Agenda for the Future
Our absolute priorities and objectives for the
21st century and the third millennium should be:
WE MUST
WE MUST ACHIEVE
Robert Muller and Barbara Gaughen Muller
A Cosmic Couple
My most recent conviction is that the world's survival requires an enormously strengthened second generation United Nations, or a UN transformed progressively into a World Union on the model of the European Union, or a United States of the World on the great precedent of the United States or a United Nature without precedent. On the eve of a new century and millennium it is a matter of utmost urgency, of life or death.
Yes, by writing my 4000 ideas and dreams for a better world, I have come to the same conclusions I held as a young man after World War II, that we absolutely need a proper Earth government, far beyond the United Nations. Not to do it at the entrance of a new century and millennium would be unbelievable and unforgivable by our future generations and might irreversibly jeopardize our entire future.
Fifty years later we should remember these lines which Franklin Roosevelt wrote to the San Francisco Conference creating the United Nations.
"The work, my friends is peace: more than an end of this war - an end to the beginning of all wars. I ask you to keep up your faith. The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today. Let us move forward with a strong and active faith."
God:
"Thank you, dear Robert, for what you are recommending. Perhaps after all, the greatest jewel of my Creation, the Earth, can be saved.
You forgot to mention two important recent efforts which failed: a World Commission of Eminent Personalities on Global Governance met under the Chairmanship of Mr. Ingvar Carlsson, former Prime Minister of Sweden in 1994 and recommended "the General Assembly should agree to hold a World Conference on Governance in 1998, with its decisions to be ratified and put into effect by 2000. That will allow more than two years for the preparatory process." No action whatsoever was taken by the UN General Assembly on these recommendations.
Secondly, the year 2000 General Assembly of heads of states level had the following task on its agenda: "to focus on means to solve our primary global problems and to reform the means of global governance in order to meet the challenges of the 21st century."
Again the General Assembly did nothing.
Under these circumstances I cannot accept that you consider your 4000 ideas to be the end. You should, you must continue and work hard on implementation. I will help you from heaven, creating the right circumstances and ensuring that your ideas and efforts will be known at the right, highest world levels."
I:
Well, dear God, to tell you the truth, I could not help it: when I put this text together to finalize idea 4000, I had already written 232 more ideas which will lead hopefully someday to a total of 5000!
God:
"I
sincerely hope so and I will bless you with a longer life to do it."
ANNEX
Sovereign Hopi Independent Nation
Traditional Community of Hotevilla Village
P.O. Box 54 or P.O. Box 174
Hotevilla, Arizona 86030
September 21, 1983
3 PM. EST
To the General Assembly of the United Nations
At this time, when the delegates of the United Nations are devoting a moment of silent prayer for the success of their efforts and for the well-being of their sisters and brothers everywhere, we, the traditional Elders of the Hopi Independent Nation, are joining you to humbly request the Creator's assistance. We pray that our united effort will bear fruit for the benefit of all land and life, which increasingly are threatened by total destruction. May we be granted the wisdom to return to the divine laws and instructions revealed long ago, when the Creator, through his love, gave us the gift of life. This gift was meant equally for all, with no room for the injustice, hatred and greed today poisoning our world. Let us rid ourselves of this terrible curse of personal gain at the expense of others, for if we do not cleanse ourselves, a higher power will soon perform for us the work of purification.
We have passed through many ages, sometimes becoming lost on the wrong path. The uncountable millions brutally destroyed in the wars of this century clearly indicate we have lost our way. Something is deeply wrong with our present way of life. Therefore, now is the time when world leaders must exemplify the harmonious, harmless way of life intended by the Creator.
Long ago, Hopi prophecy foretold there would one day stand on the eastern edge of our land a House of Mica (the United Nations), where world leaders would come to discuss their problems. In accordance with our prophetic instructions, we have made four attempts in the last 30 years to address the House of Mica, but the doors were not opened to our spiritual leaders. If the doors were opened, we were instructed to reveal some of our ancient knowledge, imparted to our ancestors by the Great Spirit. The prophecy said at least one or two leaders in the House of Mica would recognize the significance of the Hopi spiritual way, and would respond by coming to visit us in our homeland.
We recognize a fulfillment of this ancient prophecy in the recent visit of Mr. Robert Muller, the Assistant Secretary General of the UN Economic and Social Council. We wish to express to him our sincere appreciation, and we hope that others will follow his courageous lead by coming for further discussions on how to dispel the mortal peril endangering our world. Now is the most critical period in humanity's existence since the destruction of a previous world. If we do not return quickly to a spiritual way of life, this world, too, will soon be destroyed.
The Hopi know, however, that if our peaceful, traditional way of life can be maintained, there is still hope for world peace. Hopi means "peaceful ones," and the traditional way, our life-plan given to us by the Great Spirit, is a model for people everywhere. Living practice of these revealed instructions will maintain a peaceful and harmonious world. On the other hand, destruction of the traditional Hopi way, of the sacred land entrusted to us by the Great Spirit, will in turn trigger the destruction of the world. We recognize that there are many peoples represented in the United Nations, each endowed with their own unique culture and tradition, but the original instructions of the Creator are universal and valid for all time. The essence of these instructions is compassion for all life, and love for all creation. We must realize that we do not live in a world of dead matters, but in a universe of living spirit. Let us open our eyes to the sacredness of Mother Earth, or our eyes will be opened for us.
Hopi prophecy foresaw World War I and II. It now warns of a third world war fought with "the gourd full of ashes," the ancient prophecy's expression for the atomic and hydrogen bomb. This last, most terrible war will soon occur if the arms-race continues. Every nation on Earth must ask itself whether it is contributing to the imminent destruction of humanity, either through indifference, or through misguided nationalism. Let us not tempt the Creator to punish us with the very weapons we have so perversely invented. The time is now short, the hour is very late. Let us draw back from that which need not be. Let us awaken, brothers and sisters, for we are on the edge of an abyss of death, death on a scale the human mind cannot imagine.
Our prophetic instructions directed us, if at all possible, to personally address the nations represented in the House of Mica. If the delegates of the General Assembly so desire, Hopi spiritual leaders will come to the United Nations to speak of our prophecies and divinely revealed way of life. In return, we invite UN leaders to visit us in the land entrusted to us by the Great Spirit. Because He revealed this land to be a spiritual center, we must all share responsibility for preserving it as a sanctuary of all life.
We await your response. We close our letter with blessings and hope for the future. Let us begin to heal ourselves and our Mother Earth. On behalf of the Traditional Community of Hotevilla Village, Sovereign Hopi Independent Nation,
Respectfully,
Second World Conference on the Environment
Declaration of the Sacred Earth Gathering
Rio de Janeiro - 1992
The planet Earth is in peril as never before. With arrogance and presumption, humankind has disobeyed the laws of the Creator which manifest in the divine natural order.
The crisis is global. It transcends all national, religious, cultural, social, political and economic boundaries. The ecological crisis is a symptom of the spiritual crisis of the human being, arising from ignorance. The responsibility of each human being today is to choose between the force of darkness and the force of light. We must therefore transform our attitudes and values, and adopt a renewed respect for the superior law of Divine Nature.
Nature does not depend on human beings and their technology. It is human beings who depend on Nature for survival. Individuals and governments need to evolve "Earth Ethics" with a deeply spiritual orientation or the Earth will be cleansed.
We believe that the universe is sacred because all is one. We believe in the sanctity and the integrity of all life and life forms. We affirm the principles of peace and non-violence in governing human behavior towards one another and all life.
We view ecological disruption as violent intervention into the web of life. Genetic engineering threatens the very fabric of life. We urge governments, scientists and industry to refrain from rushing blindly into genetic manipulation.
We call upon all political leaders to keep a spiritual perspective when making decisions. All leaders must recognize the consequences of their actions for the coming generations.
We call upon our educators to motivate the people towards harmony with nature and peaceful coexistence with all living beings. Our youth and children must be prepared to assume their responsibilities as citizens of tomorrow's world.
We call upon our brothers and sisters around the world to recognize and curtail the impulses of greed, consumerism and disregard of natural laws. Our survival depends on developing the virtues of simple living and sufficiency, love and compassion with wisdom.
We stress the importance of respecting all spiritual and cultural traditions. We stand for preservation of the habitats and life style of indigenous people and urge restraint from disrupting their communion with nature.
The World Community must act speedily with vision and resolution to preserve the Earth, nature and humanity from disaster. The time to act is now. Now or never.
My Final Prayer
When I finished these 4000 Ideas as a testament to the UN, to my life, to my dreams, efforts and failures, the following remembrance came back to me. I remember having been invited years ago by the Hopi Indians to their traditional land in Arizona to receive their honors. The reason was that I had opened to their elders the door of the United Nations to deliver their prophecies. Since the 1950's they had tried in vain. I was deeply sorry for that and when I became a high UN official I decided to correct this. They delivered their prophecy essentially about the dangers of the atomic bomb and all armaments and I obtained that the subject of the rights of the indigenous people (300 million in the world) be placed on the agenda of the United Nations.
Their elders gave me a feather from the top of the head of an eagle, the highest honor they could give me. I asked them why and they told me because that feather was closest to the Great Spirit of the universe. It was the highest honor in their traditions.
I was admitted to meetings with the elders in their sacred kiwas to review the state of the Earth and conceive a better future. I learned also that I could ask for a Hopi name to be given to me. It is the women who have that task. They gave me the name Kogyun Deyo. I asked them what it meant. They said, "It means Spider Boy. Your duty is to make a vast spider web to catch in it all the evil on Earth and then throw it far away into the universe."
Well, I tried to do that but alas, have not succeeded. Far from it, as writing this testament has proven to me. But I will not give up.
In New York the Manhattan Indians who lived on Turtle Bay on the eastern shore of the River of the Rising Sun (later called by western man the East River) prophesied that some day a house of mica (glass) would be built on that bay where all nations would gather and bring peace to the world. The United Nations, the House of Glass, was built there but has not succeeded fully either.
When I retired from the United Nations fate wanted me to become the co-founder and Chancellor of the first world university for peace in Costa Rica, one of the first demilitarized countries in the world. There I purchased a beautiful piece of land with primeval forests above the University where I live in a small peasant's cabin. I learned that it was a sacred land of the indigenous people who lived there before: Mt. Rasur, the mountain on which Rasur the God of the indigenous children appeared to them one day, asked them to cherish and to care for the marvelous nature created by the Great Spirit on that land and prophesied that a civilization of peace would be born there and would extend to the entire world. This is where the demilitarization of Costa Rica took place, where there are the UN University for Peace, the World Earth Council and the first International Radio for Peace, all working for the dream of a peaceful, disarmed, demilitarized, nature-loving and Earth-protecting humanity.
This is where I wish to be buried and return to our beloved Mother Earth. Dear reader, I pray you: come to the help of these ideas and dreams and contribute to the achievement of a peaceful, happy, contented, Earth-respecting humanity and to make our divine planet the miracle it was always meant to be by God and the invisible cosmic forces of the vast, mysterious universe. I beg you. An incredible, magnificent future can expect us.
Your
Kogyun Deyo
NEW OR UNUSUAL WORDS USED OR COINED
in Ideas 3501-4000
REFERENCE GUIDE/INDEX FOR
FOUR THOUSAND IDEAS FOR A BETTER WORLD
Ideas 3501 to 4000
Douglas Gillies 8/7/2001
1. February 2001: after several years, it has at long last agreed to pay its arreared dues.
2 See Kurt Waldheim "The Austrian Example", Weidenfeld and Nicols London
1 A famous US interviewer, Bill Moyers had his body examined for toxins. They found more than 150 of them.