~ Idea 1001 ~ 7 April 1997
During the Vancouver youth conference, a World Passport was distributed to the students to fill out. One of them objected, saying: "In a One United World there is no need for any passports. I propose that there should be a standard World Identity Card, the contents of which would be defined as agreed upon by nations."
It is an excellent idea which merits to open these second one thousand ideas as a countup to the year 2000.

~ Idea 1002 ~ 8 April 1997
All twinned cities in the world should prepare and celebrate together the year 2000. Not yet twinned cities should find a partner-city to twin with. A World Community of Cities should be created to increase the love and cooperation between all city people on Earth. It is hard to believe what a little money from people in the rich cities can do for poor, hungry, homeless and illiterate people, especially children, in poor cities.

~ Idea 1003 ~ 9 April 1997
I recommend that a United Nations Consultative Parliament be created immediately, composed of representatives of all existing national Parliaments, under rules of procedures agreed upon by the International Parliamentarian Union. Like the European Consultative Parliament which had only consultative functions but was highly instrumental in creating the European Union, it would have only consultative functions to start with, but would lead to the creation of a much needed World Union.

~ Idea 1004 ~ 10 April 1997
Whenever world leaders, government officials, elected politicians and business leaders are ready to make a decision which will affect people or the environment, they should go into nature and when surrounded by trees, the air and the sun &endash; then make their decision. One never knows how a slight change in the decision can preserve the world and nature for generations to come.
Barbara Gaughen

~ Idea 1005 ~ 11 April 1997
We are privileged to have become the most advanced species on this planet, in our solar system and perhaps in the universe, thanks to our intelligence and acquired knowledge which give us an almost complete consciousness of our home, of space and of time.
And yet, what do we do with it? Build skyscrapers, accumulate armaments and stocks of atomic bombs, release atomic radiations not seen on this planet for millions of years, eat non-natural foods, consume non-natural drinks, produce colossal amounts of unnecessary
wastes, travel excessively around the globe, kill species which it took evolution millions of years to form, and cling to non-natural divisions of the planet called nations.
We are perhaps not the most intelligent, but the most destructive species produced on this planet. If we do not change our values and objectives we will be its gravediggers.

~ Idea 1006 ~ 12 April 1997
I recommend that all newspapers of the world print henceforth on the front page the number of days remaining to 1 January 2000: 995 days left today.

~ Idea 1007 ~ 13 April 1997
Every newspaper on Earth should open a section entitled Preparation of Celebration of the Year 2000. It would contain information on existing and planned projects around the world and letters from readers suggesting ideas and specific actions for a better world.

~ Idea 1008 ~ 14 April 1997
It is good that the UN Earth Council, created by the Rio de Janeiro Conference, located in Costa Rica, is drafting an Earth Charter and that the Gorbachev and Green Cross International are drafting a Charter of Nature. Both documents should be submitted to the World Constitutional Assembly which I recommend should convene in order to draft a Constitution for the planet Earth (see ideas 560 and following).

~ Idea 1009 ~ 15 April 1997
Needed urgently in addition to an Earth Charter, is a World Charter on Sustainable Consumption.

~ Idea 1010 ~ 16 April 1997
The main question regarding the United Nations is not how it can be reduced under the pretext of bureaucracy and excessive costs &endash; the most ridiculous permanent accusations of extreme right conservatives in the United States &endash; but what more world issues, dangers and evils the UN should deal with. Here are a few: astronomic costs of the military, violations of democracy and of the truth, corruption, bribery, blackmail, violence in all its forms, tax evasion by the wealthy, financial manipulations, etc. For instance, is it normal that 80 percent of all international financial transactions are speculative? In the field of tax evasion there are numerous billionaires and multimillionaires who do pay little or no taxes, taking advantage of tax haven countries of the world.

~ Idea 1011 ~ 17 April 1997
In a hundred years, when humanity will look back, this century will look as imperfect as we consider today all preceding centuries. The correction of errors and of wrong beliefs is part of evolution. We owe it to the next generations to look right into the face of these errors and wrong beliefs and to remedy them. The end of the current century and millennium gives us a heaven-sent opportunity and obligation to do that. Please, dear reader, write down and send to your parliamentarians what you consider to be our current errors, injustices and wrong beliefs.

~ Idea 1012 to 1014 ~ 18 - 20 April 1997
Since the Earth has become our preoccupation number one and since we are still in the process of denaturing it, I urge the United Nations:
Idea 1012 to publish not only statistics of economic progress but also
17 April 1997 ecological regress;
Idea 1013 to place overconsumption in the rich countries on an equal footing 18 April 1997 with overpopulation in the poor countries.
Idea 1014 to speak both of under-development in the poor countries and of 19 April 1997 overdevelopment in the rich ones.

~ Idea 1015 ~ 21 April 1997
It is good news that US citizens are beginning to react to the colossal overconsumption in their country, fostered in millions of ways by business, marketing, advertisement and the media.
A 1995 survey by the Merck Family Fund found that since the decade began, 28 percent of respondents have voluntarily reduced their income. Two-thirds said that they did so to reduce stress, increase personal time and restore balance in their lives.
Trends Research Institute named simplicity one of the 1997's top ten trends. "Never before, in the Institute's 17 years of trend tracking, has a societal trend grown so quickly, spread so broadly and been embraced so eagerly," TRI reports.
Unfortunately, big business knows that and is now targeting the developing countries for western consumption habits through marketing and advertisement which are very cheap in these countries.

~ Idea 1016 ~ 22 April 1997
Refrain your travels, o humans. Do not take your car for minor errands. Do not travel thousands of miles to see a saved nature in Costa Rica or other similar lands. Save your own nature right where you are. Ecology starts at home.

~ Idea 1017 ~ 23 April 1997
It would be good if a number of prominent national publishers would join and create a World Publishing House for the publication of global books and of a true global literature with vital global information and solutions. The time is ripe, well overdue for that.

~ Idea 1018 ~ 24 April 1997
I wish that every head of state would have a note on his desk indicating how many days are left to the year 2000 to remind him or her to make efforts to settle unsolved conflicts and issues, correct injustices and contribute to a more peaceful, beautiful, preserved Earth and happier humanity. Time is running out. The year 2000 must be made a memorable, successful entry of humanity into a new century and millennium.

~ Idea 1019 ~ 25 April 1997
I pray that several countries of this Earth will announce before or during the year 2000 that they will demilitarize themselves and transfer the savings to the poor in their country or abroad and/or to the restoration and preservation of the Earth's nature.

~ Idea 1020 ~ 26 April 1997
A fresh look should be given to the practice of celebrations which have the virtue of bringing together humans and creating ties of sentiment from the family, the city, the nation to the entire humanity and planet. All calendars published in the world should mention celebrations. The United Nations publishes each year an updated list of world celebrations.
These will help fulfill Sigmund Freud's vision when he gave the following answer to Einstein who could not understand why humans continued to make war on each other and to produce armaments:
Freud noted that humans are divided between instincts of aggression and love. Peace would require the development of ties of sentiment among people. "The love of country has succeeded in binding people at the national level. The great new historical challenge is to develop love among all Earth inhabitants, and for the Earth itself," he said.
How right this statement is! It should open an important chapter in the new science, art and methodology of global psychology. Theses on the subject should be written by students in Universities. I am glad that a book on celebrations by Linda Grover is a current best-seller in the United States (see Introduction). The author has asked me to write a chapter on global celebrations for a new book she is writing.
Nor is it surprising that the extreme right conservatives of the United States are against any new celebrations and world conferences by the UN. They claim that they cost too much money. Well, I hope that someone will calculate how much military celebrations in nations cost the taxpayers. That is an expense which could usefully be shifted to other social needs or celebrations.
I pray that there will be some day on this planet a University which will teach a science, a strategy and a methodology of celebrations.

~ Idea 1021 ~ 27 April 1997
The next two great, global celebrations which should be held by humanity are:
- in 1998, the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;*
- in 2000, the world-wide celebration of our entry into a new century and millennium. It was my first idea of these 2000 ideas and dreams started on 11 July 1994.
For the record I reproduce it here again. I wrote it twenty years ago for Earth Day 1977, at the suggestion of anthropologist Margaret Mead, who considered like Sigmund Freud that a global anthropology should be next on the agenda of world affairs.
*This has been done. The United Nations has declared 1998 Human Rights Year.
My Dream 2000

I dream
that on 1 January 2000
The whole world will stand still
In prayer, awe and gratitude
For our beautiful, heavenly Earth
And for the miracle of human life.
I dream
That young and old, rich and poor,
Black and white,
People from North and South,
From East and West,
From all beliefs and cultures
Will join their hands, minds and hearts
in an unprecedented, universal
Bimillennium Celebration of Life.
I dream
That during the year 2000
Innumerable celebrations and events
Will take place all over the globe
To gauge the long road covered by humanity
To study our mistakes
And to plan the feats
Still to be accomplished
For the full flowering of the human race
In peace, justice and happiness.
I dream
That the few remaining years
To the Bimillennium
Be devoted by all humans, nations and institutions
To unparalleled thinking, action,
Inspiration, elevations,
Determination and love
To solve our remaining problems
And to achieve
A peaceful, united human family on Earth.
I dream
That the year 2000
Will be declared World Year of Thanksgiving
by the United Nations.*
I dream
That the third millennium
Will be declared
And made
Humanity's First Millennium of Peace
*The UN General Assembly approved this proposal on 20 November 1997.

This dream has spread around the world in the following languages: French, Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese and Dutch.

~ Idea 1022 ~ 28 April 1997
If our Earth were suddenly attacked by outer-space beings in sophisticated vehicles equipped with armaments more advanced than ours, all humanity, all nations would react immediately as one body. But the prospect that our Earth might irremediably perish during the next century due to our own overpopulation, overconsumption, increasing atomic and ultra-violet radiation, mismanagement and wrong courses seems to leave us unperturbed. How strange. Why not create a World Emergency Council to save the Earth?

~ Idea 1023 ~ 29 April 1997
One wonders on what kind of a planet we live when one reads bulletins from the International Atomic Energy Agency which rejoices that there are 443 nuclear energy plants in the world and that they are increasing in numbers and capacity every year. Why not condemn it as being a foolish, dangerous re-atomization of this planet for purely economic reasons, and remember that it took millions of years for the Earth to lose its original radio-activity to finally give birth to life forms, including human life.

~ Idea 1024 ~ 30 April 1997
I am surprised that noone has as yet thought of creating a Pro-Earth, Humanity-challenging Organization which would put itself in the shoes of our Mother Earth and rejoice whenever humans diminish in numbers or consume less. It would give yearly prizes to people, events or institutions which achieve a reduction of the human population or of the consumption of Earth resources. The first prize should go to the United Nations which through its world population conferences and anti-population work has prevented 2 billion 200 million more people from being born between 1952 and the year 2000 (see Idea 503).

~ Idea 1025 ~ 1 May 1997
Today many countries celebrate Labour Day. It is good to remember on that day that thanks to the work of the International Labour Organization created in 1919 in response to widespread labour violence and conflicts in the world, that form of violence has fallen to such a low point that it is now last on the list of forms of violence on this planet. All labour conflicts are now resolved by peaceful means and methods. To strike is the worst laborers can do. Why not try the same in other fields of violence? Where there is a will, there is a way. Humans are capable of wonders when they decide to.

~ Idea 1026 ~ 2 May 1997
An idea of Barbara Gaughen as we walked through the marvelous primeval forests of our Mt. Rasur peace park next to the University for Peace in Costa Rica: why not offer it as the site of the first World Ecological Exposition?

~ Idea 1027 ~ 3 May 1997
In a remarkable, timely, historic document, the Director General of UNESCO, Mr. Federico Mayor, has proclaimed the fundamental human right of each Earth inhabitant to peace. Bravo, bravissimo.
At the beginning of his document he quotes Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: "Each individual has the right to life, liberty and the security of his person."
I go a step further: I ask in these 2000 ideas the fundamental human right not to kill and not to be killed, not even in the name of a nation, religion, race, nor of any other human ideology or institution, the individual person being the basic cosmic unity of humanity's evolution on this planet, or as the religions call it, a sacred human being, or as I call it, a true miracle, a child of God.
Article 3 of the Universal Declaration means: if I have the basic right to life, noone else, especially not a nation, religion, race, ideology or institution has the right to take this life away from me. Young men drafted into military service or into an army should refuse to go and take their case to the International Court of Justice for a violation of a basic human right, the right to life.

~ Idea 1028 ~ 4 May 1997
All youth organizations of the Earth should combine their efforts and create a United Youth Organization.
That Organization should request the adoption of new texts of their fundamental human rights: the sacred right not to be drafted into military service or war service, the right not to kill and not to be killed, not in the name of a nation, religion, race or anyone else. Conflicts between social, ethnic, and political groups should all be solved by peaceful and non-violent means. This should become the supreme law of the human society.

~ Idea 1029 ~ 5 May 1997
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1998, the United Nations, in addition to the proclamation of new, additional human rights, as recommended in these 2000 ideas, should undertake two new tasks:
- the drafting and adoption of a universal declaration of human responsibilities;
- the drafting and adoption of a universal declaration of ethics.
There exist already several texts of such declarations which should be assembled and circulated by the UN Secretariat. I have communicated to the UN Human Rights High Commissioner those I have collected over the years.

~ Idea 1030 ~ 6 May 1997
Non-governmental organizations represented at the UN should actively contribute to these new items and collect any ideas and texts existing on human responsibilities and ethics. It will lead to a revolution in the philosophy of human life and society on this planet in the 21st century.

~ Idea 1031 ~ 7 May 1997
Human groups which are not yet covered by declarations of human rights should work on them and ask for their debate and adoption by the United Nations. For example mothers and youth should request declarations of human rights of mothers and youth.

~ Idea 1032 ~ 8 May 1997
Hitler, the German dictator, created in the 1930's a Bund der Deutschen Mütter, a League of German Mothers who were to excite their sons into killing enemies of Germany.
From 19 to 21 June 1997, in Vienna, Austria, the country of birth of Hitler, a World Summit of Women, including several women Nobel Prize winners, women who are or were heads of states, and wives of heads of states, will meet in a conference called "Mothers of the Earth for World Peace Summit sponsored by World Centers of Compassion for Children."
I recommend that this conference create a Bund aller Welt Mütter, a World League of all Mothers, or United Mothers Organization, which will labour to put an end to all wars, armaments, military service, military "academies" and armed forces, and claim a new fundamental human right:
- the sacred right of all mothers of the Earth not to see their sons, the flesh of their flesh, kill or be killed by other sons of mothers in the name and glory of a nation, religion, nor of any other entity, cause or institution.

~ Idea 1033 ~ 9 May 1997
I will submit to that conference the Peace Plan 2010 I formulated in my novel First Lady of the World in which a woman becomes Secretary General of the United Nations. I submitted it to Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin to make it their agenda instead of the extension of NATO to the eastern European countries at their summit meeting.

~ Idea 1034 ~ 10 May 1997
From now on for the next several decades everything has to be rethought in terms of the Earth and of its natural laws. The 21st century will be the Century of Nature, the Century of the Earth. I am glad that a conference of Indigenous People will convene in October 1998 in Virginia Beach to deal with the subject: How to Save the Earth.

~ Idea 1035 ~ 11 May 1997
For these 2000 ideas I have been looking in vain for figures of the total amounts of deleterious, chemical and radio-active elements in the effluents of all the rivers of our planet into the world seas and ocean. They must be available somewhere. World river effluents must be followed as closely as effluents into the atmosphere, into lakes and underground water resources.
Note: It was just announced that the United Nations Environment Program has established in the Netherlands a coordination Office for the Global Program of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land Based Activities. Bravo. The UN is again up to my expectations. This is where I will find the figures or where they will be assembled.

~ Idea 1036 ~ 12 May 1997
I hope that the world will soon receive yearly reports from scientists on "invisible" phenomena which are beginning to appear on this planet.
For example the changes in the global masses of bacteria which sooner or later might affect us. I recommend a new global bacteriological science and the creation of a World Institute on the subject.
All other invisible life forces at work on Earth should be studied and reported on, e.g. hormones which are making young girls into full women already at the age of eight years; or the preference of nature for females over males, because they have a longer role in the formation of a child in their body. In several species, the male dies after the act of fertilization of the female. Perhaps we will see the displacement of males in favor of women in the dominantly male leadership of politics, business, religions and other human affairs.
We inflict upon this Earth and its nature so many colossal, rapid changes that it is essential to look into new natural counter-reactions, including the possible decision by nature to get rid of humans altogether. Some scientists believe that the breakdown of the natural immune system of the human body (AIDS) and cancer are the first manifestations.

~ Idea 1037 ~ 13 May 1997
I hope that someday all people will receive a Yearly Good Deeds Declaration to fill out when they receive a Yearly Tax Declaration.
It could include such items as:
PEACE:
What good and peace did you teach your children?
What peace did you contribute to your family, to your neighborhood, to your workplace?
What peace association did you belong to or support?
THE ENVIRONMENT
What did you do for a better environment, a reduction of garbage, of gasoline consumption, of water and energy consumption?
What did you do for a more frugal and simple life, for a lower consumption of Earth resources?
HAPPINESS
What did you do to cultivate your own happiness?
Happiness in your family?
Happiness all around you?
Happiness in your workplace?
What philanthropy, what voluntary services did you provide?
GOOD HEALTH
What good health practices did you foster in your family?
What were your own good examples of good health?
Did you stop smoking?
Did you stop consuming alcohol and tell your family that it is an Arabic word (al kohol) which means the devil?
SPIRITUALITY
Did you give thanks for the miracle of life and the beauty of this Earth?
What did you do for your soul?
Did you pray, read good spiritual writings and precepts?
Did you go to spiritual services?
And one could conceive other items: Love, honesty, truth, morality, fidelity, forgiveness, etc.
The result of such a questionnaire would be as important if not more than the contribution of taxes to government expenses. A better society would ensue. A whole system of tax exemptions could be built on such a questionnaire. There could be for example tax deductions for voluntary services.

~ Idea 1038 ~ 14 May 1997
I signed today with delight a petition to the United Nations by a Swiss Organization called Global Initiative. It asks for immediate disarmament in all countries in order to save the planet ecologically. This is a right approach at this juncture of our evolution and on the eve of a new century and millennium. School children were asked to go on strike on the third Tuesday of September, day of opening of the UN General Assembly and International Day of Peace. A Swiss newspaper reported: "That was not strike day, that was a huge school celebration."
Address of Global Initiative: Roland Schutzback, Ins, CH 3232, Switzerland.

~ Idea 1039 ~ 15 May 1997
Today, at the University for Peace a conference of indigenous communities was opened on the subject of creating indigenous Universities. I was glad to learn that the idea I gave a year ago during a visit to the Indigenous College of Saskatchewan that they should transform themselves into a University was being implemented.
At the opening, as the participants introduced themselves, a thread of cotton was unrolled from one speaker to the next. After a while a web was occupying the area separating the participants. When I presented myself as Robert Muller, Chancellor of the University for Peace, I added my indigenous name given to me by the Hopi Indians (the Peaceful Ones), namely Kogyun Deyo, Spider Boy, meaning that my task was to make a huge spider web to catch all the evil in the world and to throw it far away into the universe. At the end of the meeting I was given the web as a souvenir and reminder of my duty.

~ Idea 1040 ~ 16 May 1997
In line with my recommendations that there should be more world universities, I proposed that the conference undertake the creation of a World Indigenous University, possibly located on the sacred indigenous grounds of the University for Peace. Such a University would study world-wide the linguistics of all indigenous people, their views and relations with the Earth, their spirituality and such remarkable cosmologies as the Maya, Aztec and Inka ones which were represented at the conference. The western world is in dire need of an appropriate cosmology and could be inspired by them. For instance, it is interesting that the world core curriculum for a new presentation of all our knowledge to children (inserted in the volume of the first 500 ideas), which I derived from my experience in the United Nations, is almost identical to the Mayan cosmology.
During the conference I received a remarkable paper proposing the creation of a University of Mother Earth (Madre Tierra) in Costa Rica to complement the work and efforts of the Earth Council created in that country as one of the outcomes of the Rio de Janeiro Conference on the Environment. The text of the proposal has been circulated to the Costa Rican Parliament to have it studied and proposed officially to the United Nations for implementation. A wonderful idea. I will do everything to get it accepted.

~ Idea 1041 ~ 17 May 1997
At the end of the conference the representatives of the Indigenous College of Saskatchewan in Canada, announced that they will convene a gathering of representatives of all indigenous peoples of the Americas, from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego during the year 2000 to celebrate humanity's entry into the 21st century, "which will be the century of the Earth and of the Indigenous People," they said. The various cultures of the indigenous people will be represented in dances, music, ceremonials, etc. It is conceived as an event of joy as we enter a new century.
I could not resist and played for them the Ode to Joy of Beethoven on my ten holes harmonica and distributed to them the text of my Dream 2000.
I also felt a sense of pride for having opened the doors of the United Nations, which had been closed for many years to the Hopi Indians, to deliver in the 1980's their prophecy on atomic arms, and for having obtained from the UN the celebration of the first International Year of the Indigenous People in 1993, followed by an International Decade from 1994 to 2004.

~ Idea 1042 ~ 18 May 1997
The representative of the Saskatchewan Indigenous College soon to become a University told us that when the idea of such a University was raised, the Canadians asked: "Why do you want to have such a University? We have so many first class, prestigious Canadian Universities where your people can study." The indigenous people insisted that they wanted to have their own University to teach their people their own culture and traditions. Today there are 17 indigenous Universities in the Americas, 3 of them in Canada.
This reminded me that when we proposed to create a United Nations University, we heard the same comment: why don't you use our prestigious Universities, like Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, the Sorbonne, etc.?
The fact remains that we need a whole series of true, universal, global Universities in the areas of common concern to humanity and to the United Nations. The Earth itself, the world ocean, the atmosphere, outer space, the deserts, the Arctic and Antarctic, and humanity deserve global universities which would be of vital benefit to the human fate and to our planet.

~ Idea 1043 ~ 19 May 1997
Elaborating on idea 1040 proposing a World or United Nations University for Indigenous People, I would see the following Departments established in it for the benefit of all humanity:
- a linguistics Department which would study all the indigenous languages in the world. We spend much money and talent in researching the Hindu sanskrit origin of the indo-european languages and very little on the living contemporary indigenous languages which are directly derived from observing nature and are a living laboratory of language formation;
- a cosmological and philosophical life science Department where the remarkable cosmologies of the Mayas, Aztecs, Inkas and others would be studied, again for the benefit of the western world which does not have a holistic cosmology and philosophy of life and death at this moment, but has a scientific one;
- a global spiritual Department to study the indigenous spiritualities and rituals derived from their intimate relation with nature and Creation.

~ Idea 1044 ~ 20 May 1997
The whole politics, economy, human behaviors, social organization of the human race on planet Earth must be rethought in terms of the primacy of the Earth. We must observe and follow the laws of nature which reflect the evolution of this planet in the cosmos, the cosmic laws and forces of the universe at work on our planet. Natural law is a reflection of cosmic laws. The science of nature, religions and the indigenous people should form for the first time a natural alliance, a tremendous force which would save humanity and our planet.

~ Idea 1045 ~ 21 May 1997
At the end of the conference of indigenous people at the University for Peace I rejoiced to remember that in the Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous People being drafted by the United Nations, it is foreseen that no indigenous people can be drafted in a national army or military service, and that no armaments can be placed on their territory. This will represent a total of 300 million people on this planet outside of military reach, and a substantial territory of the surface of the planet disarmed. I hope that more rights of the indigenous people over their former lands will be recognized and that people will donate in their wills land to the indigenous people for its preservation.

~ Idea 1046 ~ 22 May 1997
We always think in terms of the power of human groups, their wealth, their weight, their importance, their leadership: political leaders, business leaders, military, spiritual, labour leaders, leaders of peoples' movements, local leaders, provincial leaders, national leaders, global leaders. For thousands of years we have been doing that. It is only now that all this is in upheaval, that the Earth herself, nature around us, the air, the waters, the soil and other species are becoming our guides, our demanding leaders.
Leonardo da Vinci already said that in all human affairs including art, nature should be our supreme guide.
I am glad that a world party of Natural Law has been created in 85 countries. All other parties are on the way of becoming obsolete.
The Hindus and the great religions did not forget the heavens, the cosmos, the divine forces and laws, but they did not a give central place and role to nature, to the Earth as a manifestation of cosmic laws. Only the indigenous people around the world did. The 21st century might therefore indeed become the Century of the Indigenous People.

~ Idea 1047 ~ 23 May 1997
Let us set as our target to make the next century the century of romanticism, love, beauty and peace, burying once and for all wars, violence, injustices, discrimination and hatred. Why not try? I would like to head a World Commission of Loving Visionaries who would design a heavenly blueprint for such a world and humanity. Nothing is impossible when the proud human race, the most advanced in the evolution on this planet decides so. What is missing is the decision to do it. Mark my words, let us do it.
This thought was triggered off today when Barbara Gaughen phoned me to say that I am writing to her the most romantic letters and read to me a message from Bob Silverstein which says:
"As I was reading Robert Muller's ideas for a better world to post for the week on the web page, I had to pause and smiled at how blessed the world of the present and future are to have such an insightful, inspiring soul giving so much of himself to us all. He has provided for humanity a blueprint for creating the world we all long for. Please thank Robert for me for his wonderful and deep love of life and humanity."
Well, I have to merit these great words.

~ Idea 1048 ~ 24 May 1997
Barbara my love,
Here is a little report on the event at the National Theater in San Jose, where Shimon Peres, former Prime Minister of Israel spoke about the peace process in the Middle East. I had prepared a letter to him informing him that we had a bust of Yitzchak Rabin ready to be inaugurated on the beautiful grounds of the University for Peace and that we will invite him for the inauguration. I added to the letter the issue of our magazine which has the photo of the bust, and also a copy of my first 100 ideas for a better world as an upcount to the year 2000. The Theater was packed. It was the closing of one of the yearly courses on international relations. 700 students were there as well as the whole diplomatic community. There was not a chance of giving my envelope to Mr. Peres. He made an incredible speech, one of the best I ever heard in my life, without a note, a deep humanistic philosophy with great wisdom, good humor and plenty of an overflowing heart. He spoke about his collaboration with Rabin and how they spoke at an open air meeting. Rabin slipped the notes of his speech into a pocket on his heart and said to him: I want to keep these notes. Then a shot came and killed him...
When Peres finished his speech, after a long applause, the organizers asked if there were any questions. My hand was lifted by an unknown force and I went to the microphone in front of the tribune, saying that I could not hold the tears in my eyes, because I was so moved and reminded of the miseries I knew in Alsace-Lorraine where we suffered so many wars between the French and the Germans. This is why I commissioned a bust of Mr. Rabin to be erected on the grounds of the University for Peace, and handed to Mr. Peres a photo of it in my envelope. The audience applauded, the Apostolic Nuncio and the mother of President Figueres came to embrace me. I just could not believe what I had done out of a spontaneous, mysterious urging.
I hope that Mr. Peres will send me a note, whereupon I will beg him to make sure that Israel will ratify the University for Peace. This might have an influence on a possible ratification by the US too.
I thought that this little report will please you. Much of this is due to you: you make me dream and dare ever more.
With all my love,
Robert

~ Idea 1049 ~ 25 May 1997
I cannot repeat often enough that: humanity must give top priority to a new world political system for the proper government of this Earth. The UN Extraordinary General Assembly will meet at the end of this month to ask the question: why did governments not implement the urgent measures recommended by the Rio de Janeiro Conference? Well, in my opinion most national governments will not implement them, because they have only national and no world interests. Only a proper, supra-national, planetary government can save life on this planet. I will therefore distribute to delegates to the Assembly my ideas 502 and following which set this out most forcefully.

~ Idea 1050 ~ 26 May 1997
Today, when walking with Barbara in the primeval woods on sacred Mt. Rasur of our finca, and dreaming of various plans for this magnificent place on Earth, I remembered idea 965 regarding the wrong education of heads of states on this globe and decided to write a plan of studies and a curriculum for a School of Heads of States on this demilitarized, inspiring place.
Only once before in history did someone propose the creation of a school for heads of states: it was Confucius who faced at the time in China the same chaotic situation of divided, competing states as we know today in the world. The school was never established. It is not a reason for not proposing one and trying again.

~ Idea 1051 ~ 27 May 1997
A case of implementation, Benches of Dreams (see ideas 67 and 324):
Recently I was invited to speak to a group of senior students of psychology at the University of California in Santa Barbara. I noticed near the entrance of their building a well located bench to sit on and relax. I took out of my pocket a Bench of Dreams stick-on and affixed it on the bench.
During my speech to the students I spoke of the psychological importance of dreams and said: I just noticed outside of your building that you have a bench with a label Bench of Dreams. Well, sit on it and formulate your dreams. You will be astonished by the psychological effects.
I told them also how I escaped from an arrest by the Gestapo during World War II by putting myself into a positive psychological mood and then came up with the idea of how to escape from them (see story in my book Most of All They Taught Me Happiness and in the popular book Stone Soup for the World ).
Among the comments of the students sent to me by their professor, was this rewarding one: "From now on, after having heard Mr. Muller, I will never consider anything impossible anymore."

~ Idea 1052 ~ 28 May 1997
The idea has crossed my mind that if the United States does not pay its arrear dues to the United Nations, I will go and chain myself in the garden of the UN and go on hunger strike as a manner of protest. As a 50 years long servant of my beloved United Nations I must at least manifest to the world my distress at the policy of the US extreme right which is likely to repeat what happened after World War I when the isolationists defeated the US from joining the League of Nations, thus helping Hitler and Mussolini into power and to World War II.
I hope that I will not have to do that and that the US will pay its dues this year, after all the efforts made by the new Secretary General to satisfy US demands.*
It gave me another idea, namely that of love-strikes. For instance the wives of heads of states who will meet in a Summit of Peace in June in Vienna could declare that if their husbands do not make peace, they will go on love-strike. How about that unused women's power?
* December 1997: the US did not. If I were the Secretary General I would request the transfer of the UN to another country.

~ Idea 1053 ~ 29 May 1997
If I were the Chief Executive Officer of a big firm I would create a World Association of Chief Executive Officers to Reforest the Earth. Instead of paying high fees to golf clubs to put a little ball into a hole and to meet other businessmen, I would go with colleagues of that Association to a forest in a poor country or to a deforested area of my own country and together, for one or two weeks of vacations, plant trees and reforest a few acres of our beautiful Earth. As Barbara Gaughen points out in her idea 1004, these people surrounded by trees, the air, the sun would make some of their greatest decisions. And one never knows how a slight change in their decisions can preserve the world and nature for generations to come.

~ Idea 1054 ~ 30 May 1997
Often people tell me that I should create my own Robert Muller Institute or Foundation. Basically I like the idea and the purposes, but I do not like the words, they are too dry, too intellectual, they do not speak to the heart. What I would like to establish is a Robert Muller Dream and Ideas Lighthouse on magic Mount Rasur in Costa Rica, overlooking the UN University for Peace and International Radio for Peace. I will give further thought to it. The title, the idea and the magnitude of such a step still escape me. God will inspire me in my dreams in our wooden farmlet on that mountain.

~ Idea 1055 ~ 31 May 1997
I have received the sad news of the demise of Michael Harbottle who was the Commanding General of the United Nations troops in Cyprus and whose assistant I was as political adviser appointed by the Secretary General of the UN. Years later we met again and I suggested to him to create an association of retired Generals who would work for peace. He did. We remained in close touch ever since. He and his wife became patrons of the International Radio for Peace of the University for Peace in Costa Rica.
To put myself in the right spirit to send Mrs. Harbottle my condolences, I perused my correspondence file with him and her. She had asked me for advice on how to continue the work of her dear husband. I found in that file a remarkable proposal by her for the creation of Peace Ministries in all countries to replace the former war ministries now called ministries of Defense. She placed herself in the year 2000, five years after the 50th anniversary of the UN, assuming that such Ministries would exist by then. Since I have raised the idea and dream of the creation of Ministries of Peace in these 2000 ideas, I reproduce in Annex her remarkable proposal. May our dream be fulfilled.

~ Idea 1056 ~ 1 June 1997
If private industry and the market system were challenged to be the ruling system of the world, we would see a surprising result, namely the long list of expenses and responsibilities that system would lay upon the shoulders of government. It would be useful to do what I propose in idea 557. The notion and necessity of government might greatly gain from such an exercise and business would be less prone to condemn government incessantly and often very unjustly.

~ Idea 1057 ~ 2 June 1997
Instead of spending colossal sums of money on ecological tourism to permit people from the rich countries to see the remaining tropical forests in Central America for example, it would be better to use that money to give survival incomes to the poor people of this region in payment for the reforestation they would do instead of being unemployed and of youth deserting rural lands to add to the overpopulation and misery of the cities. It is fortunate that a number of well-off countries are beginning to give foreign aid for reforestation and that recipient governments channel that money to the poor. The rich countries should also consider channeling such aid directly to indigenous communities around the world. They are the best caretakers of nature and want to stay on their lands. They can represent a substantial force for the good care and preservation of the Earth.

~ Idea 1058 ~ 3 June 1997
I was thinking this the other day while waiting for the speech by Shimon Peres in the National Theater of Costa Rica on the peace process in the Middle East:
Conflicts, especially protracted ones, have often as their main reason to preserve and reinforce an identity. This is definitely the case of the continued Israeli-Arab and Greek-Turkish Cypriot conflicts. Religious fundamentalism is a determining factor.
As I proposed earlier in idea 59, if such conflicts last for more than 30 years, without solution, the rest of the world should ignore them, close the doors of the United Nations for further debates and withdraw the aid of the United Nations troops to separate the conflicting parties.
It reminded me of the following:
When I accompanied Secretary General Waldheim on a visit to China readmitted to the UN, when we were received by Premier Chou En Lai, Mr. Waldheim raised the question of the Middle East. Chou En Lai expressed surprise and asked: "Why do you want to discuss the Middle East?
Waldheim answered: "Because it is important."
Chou En Lai: "You can forget about solving this conflict. We will still have it in a hundred years." This was in 1972. A quarter of a century has already elapsed since then.
Another anecdote:
In 1964 I was sent to Cyprus as the political adviser of the United Nations troops to that conflict. After witnessing for six months the hagglings between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots, I left saying that I and the United Nations were losing our time. There just was no willingness whatsoever to come to agreement. On the contrary, the encyclopedia of arguments was increasing incessantly. That was a third of a century ago!
General Harbottle, not long before his death, told me that he had paid a visit to Cyprus and discovered that it is now the sons of the leaders of the two conflicting parties whom we knew in our time, who were arguing and discussing the same issues and arguments as their fathers!
Hence my proposal that the UN should close the door to such conflicts and let their stubborn leaders continue to love them and to thrive on them. Except for the beauty of Cyprus and the nice populations on both sides, I have lost six months of my life in that country. Journalists should no longer pay any attention to them either, because often the parties fight or resort to terrorism in order to get visibility, especially from the world press.

~ Idea 1059 ~ 4 June 1997
The United Nations should receive a yearly report from all poor countries showing the total sums of armaments they have paid to countries from which they have received foreign aid. The results would be very interesting. Taxpayers of the well-to-do countries would learn that in many cases the taxes they pay for foreign aid are in reality taxes for the sale of armaments to poor countries which often do not even want them but are under pressure to buy them.

~ Idea 1060 ~ 5 June 1997
The great men and women of today who will be remembered in history are those who had the courage to be global world citizens and to build a new world order against all odds and obstacles, the same way as those who created the nation state especially the United States as a historic advance over their time are still remembered and celebrated today.

~ Idea 1061 ~ 6 June 1997
I have never understood why nations condemn murder as a crime and often punish murderers with the death penalty, when they themselves send their youth to kill other youth in wars and give them medals for it. It is not called murder in that case, but duty or heroism. I predict that in the next century this will change:
1. a new human right will be adopted, the sacred right not to kill another human being not even in the name of a nation;
2. in a universal declaration of human duties, it will be specified that nations have the duty to solve problems with other nations through peaceful means;
3. that any nation who breaks this duty, will be condemned by the International Tribunal for Crimes against humanity.

~ Idea 1062 ~ 7 June 1997
We have learned of late to love the sky, the sun, the seas and oceans, the birds and all nature. Why should we not learn to love also our human brothers and sisters world-wide? Aren't we all children of the same Earth? Are we not created in the image of God, a cosmic phenomenon of the first order?

~ Idea 1063 ~ 8 June 1997
I propose the creation of a World Association of Love as a contribution to our entry into a new century and millennium. Let us make them the century and millennium of love.

~ Idea 1064 ~ 9 June 1997
Someone should create a world association of global politicians or planeticians, a global political science and action groups, thinkers and activists who would think first of the world and humanity and secondly of nations, and not the reverse as is the case today. No wonder that the Earth and humanity as a whole suffer from their secondarity. Planeticians, planetic science and administration are words which should come into use, since polis in Greek meant only the city.

~ Idea 1065 ~ 10 June 1997
Patriotism should never be allowed to lead to hatriotism. We should coin a new word meaning love for the world. Earthlove? Earthtriotism? Gaiaphily?

~ Idea 1066 ~ 11 June 1997
When we speak of the environment, we should always keep in mind that we are really speaking of the future evolution of this planet, of Earth, of humanity and of all living species on it. It is one of the most sacred challenges the human species has ever faced in all history.

~ Idea 1067 ~ 12 June 1997
It is high time to create a new discipline or field in Universities which would include but go far beyond marketing and advertisement, namely the ways, strategy and methodology of influencing people psychologically. It should include the propaganda of dictators and the means employed by the rich and powerful to stay in power and in wealth. The media would occupy a high place in such a discipline which I would call psychocracy: power and government through psychology.

~ Idea 1068 ~ 13 June 1997
Democracy, the government, the power of the people is of such importance and has been so distorted of late that every University on Earth should create a Department of Democracy.

~ Idea 1069 ~ 14 June 1997
The International Association of University Presidents should take up the subject: what are fundamental new preoccupations of the human society or subjects which have been neglected and should be reestablished as disciplines in Universities?

~ Idea 1070 ~ 15 June 1997
Providing the peoples with objective information has become a major aspect of democracy. Noone on Earth could probably imagine the amount of distorted, false, planned misinformation which is being served daily to the people. Governments, business and many other institutions are involved in this power game. I fully approve the proposal of Carol Chase, a Pre-school teacher, author and children's advocate, to have the Trusteeship Council of the United Nations transformed into a Peoples' Council which would have as one of its main roles to provide truthful, objective information to the peoples of the world.

~ Idea 1071 ~ 16 June 1997
In each government, global agency and institution, corporation, etc. there should be created two central Councils: a Council of Youth, because their future is concerned, and a Council of Wise Elders to provide their wisdom and advice so that decisions concerning the future will not be detrimental to the seventh generation.

~ Idea 1072 ~ 17 June 1997
What a symbol and privilege it is for me to live, after a whole life of world service in the United Nations, in a demilitarized country, in the first University for Peace on this planet, on a sacred hill from which according to indigenous prophecy a civilization of peace will extend to the entire world. And none of it was planned. It was the will of God or of the mysterious forces of the universe. I have become convinced that if one is of service to peace and to a better world, God or the universe's forces help you in the most incredible, unexpected, unplannable ways.

~ Idea 1073 ~ 18 June 1997
The date of 18 June always reminds me of the French underground group to which I belonged during World War II. It was named the Group of 18 June, date of the appeal by General de Gaulle to the French people. Remembering all the killings I saw, I am reminded of the idea in which I recommend that all mothers should claim the fundamental human right not to see their sons, the flesh of their flesh, kill or be killed by other sons of mothers, not in the name of a nation or a religion or of anyone else. Conflicts between all groups must be settled by peaceful, non-violent means.
Someone should collect cases when mothers were able to prevent their sons from being drafted into military or war service. I have heard of two: some US mothers decide to give birth to their children at home and not to register their sons, but to do it only after they are 25 years old, i.e. beyond the age of military service.
Another case was when American mothers went to Viet-Nam, took off the uniforms from their sons, dressed them in civilian clothes and took them home. The military authorities did not challenge them in order not to draw attention to the act.
As a pretending civilized human species we should solve all conflicts by intelligent, civilized and non-violent means. Even better: let us have a disarmed and demilitarized planet with a good world security system at the top. This is what the United Nations were created for, and now that the excuse for not doing it, namely the cold war, is gone let us do it instead of extending military alliances like NATO and SEATO.

~ Idea 1074 ~ 19 June 1997
Benjamin Franklin, at a session of the Continental Congress trying to ratify the US Constitution rose to say: "Gentlemen, if a sparrow cannot fall on the ground without the knowledge of the Creator, how can we expect to give birth to a new nation without His assistance. I propose therefore that we open each session with prayer."
This beautiful remark is relevant to all human affairs. I therefore propose that every family meeting, every school class, every meeting of institutions, government, business and people will begin with prayer. May the whole world follow the example of the yearly sessions of the United Nations General Assembly which open and end with a minute of silence for prayer or meditation.

~ Idea 1075 ~ 20 June 1997
Yesterday I implemented idea 1049 by making available the following appeal to the members of the Extraordinary Session of the UN General Assembly in New York, held to review after five years the implementation of the recommendations of the Rio de Janeiro Conference on the environment:
Dear Esteemed Member,
After the world's concern for peace, humanism and economic development:
After the world's concern for the population explosion;
After the world's concern for the environment;
After the world's concern for the Earth's climate;
The new, even vaster concern is now how to save this planet and the human race by creating urgently
A PROPER EARTH GOVERNMENT
This is the absolute priority which faces us, the top item on the agenda of world affairs as we enter a new century and millennium.
I appeal to you, I beg you, Member of the UN Extraordinary Session, to adopt a resolution requesting an Initiative for URGENT PROPER EARTH GOVERNMENT.
This text was followed by my ideas 502 to 547 and 556 to 564.

~ Idea 1076 ~ 21 June 1997
We need not only daily weather reports, we now need also daily Earth reports.
Barbara Gaughen

~ Idea 1077 ~ 22 June 1997
We should replace Stock Exchanges by Earth Exchanges to give us daily valuations of the main Earth conditions: quality of the atmosphere, of the waters, of the top soils, of the forestry cover, of the seas and oceans and their oxygen production, of climatic changes, of living species, etc.

~ Idea 1078 ~ 23 June 1997
An important element to obtain a better world is for each individual to look deep inside and to dream what kind of a world his inner nature desires and dreams of. Dream first. Get your dreams straight including of the role you wish to play in order to fulfill your dream. You will be surprised by the wonders which will happen. God or the invisible forces of the universe will help you beyond all imagination. Coincidences will happen of which you could not have any idea. God recompenses in astonishing ways those who are of service to a peaceful, better world.

~ Idea 1079 ~ 24 June 1997
When you pick a fruit from a tree or get a vegetable from a garden you will receive a life force at its best. The fruit and vegetable are at their optimum life intensity. This is a fact which must obtain first rate consideration in the marketing of such products. There should be laws providing that each product should have a label indicating on what date it was picked. Associations including a World Movement of Fresh Cut Produce should be created. It would be a further progress in addition to the concept of organic foods.

~ Idea 1080 ~ 25 June 1997
I approve wholeheartedly and applaud this draft resolution to be presented by the Netherlands World Federalist Movement to the 50th anniversary session of the World Federalist Movement in Montreux:
The World Federalists,
Gathered in Montreux, Switzerland, September 1997,
Considering the proximity of the Centennial World Peace Conference in the Hague, in 1999 to commemorate the first World Peace Conference of 1899;
Considering the proximity of the year 2000 and humanity's entry into a new century and millennium;
Considering that our Earth is in urgent need of proper global government for the preservation of the Earth and the benefit of all humanity;
Calls for a world-wide alliance of all federalist movements, world government associations, world constitution authors, planetary, global and world citizens to obtain from the 185 national governments of this planet the creation, early in the 21st century, of the proper Earth Government so urgently needed;
Appeals to the Centennial World Peace Conference in the Hague in 1999 to endorse and recommend this proposal for World Government to the community of nations;
Recommends for the United Nations to convene in the year 2000 a general conference on proper Earth government, and to draft a World Constitution to that effect;
Hopes that by the year 2007, the centennial commemoration of the Second World Peace Conference of 1907, in the Hague, the new World Constitution will come into effect, having obtained the ratifications of the required number of states;
Appeals to all peoples of the World to plead and pray their leaders for the fulfillment of this historic, indispensable institutional progress of humanity.

~ Idea 1081 ~ 26 June 1997
Barbara Gaughen and I, both members of the Club of Budapest on planetary consciousness, sent today a message of congratulation to Mikhail Gorbachev who was receiving in Frankfurt, the city of Goethe, this year's prize for planetary consciousness. We ended our message as follows:
We are sending you our warmest love, congratulations and prayers. May you become the prophet of a united human family, and the global architect who will give the world his vision, plan and proposals how the Earth and humanity can become the ultimate cosmic success of the universe and of God. May we be privileged to see soon a Gorbachev Plan for a World Union or Proper Earth Government as we saw a Robert Schuman Plan for a United Europe, now an astonishing reality. May you, all your co-workers and guests contribute to our entry into a new phase, the cosmic age of our evolution into the 21st century and third millennium.
Let us all heed the advice of the great Goethe, the honor of the city of Frankfurt in which you receive the Planetary Consciousness Prize:
"Whatever you can do or dream you can begin it,
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it."

~ Idea 1082 ~ 27 June 1997
There are people who achieve greatness by being the perfect realization of the ideals and values of their time. Businessmen are mostly these people nowadays. There are others who will achieve greatness because they embody and are the prophets of the values and ideals to be achieved by humanity tomorrow. Who are these prophetic leaders today?

~ Idea 1083 ~ 28 June 1997
There is a great need for global saints. My candidates would be Dag Hammarskjöld, U Thant and Robert Schuman. I am glad to be a member of the canonization committee of the latter. Perhaps the United Religions Organization could proclaim global, planetic saints.

~ Idea 1084 ~ 29 June 1997
I am delighted that Mrs. Mary Robinson, the President of Ireland has been appointed Commissioner of Human Rights at the United Nations. My correspondence with her in which I had exhorted her to be a candidate for Secretary General, will allow me to submit to her a whole series of human rights which should be considered during her mandate. There are already several others proposed in these 2000 ideas, but here are three which come forthwith to mind, even if one or two have already been stated elsewhere:
- the fundamental human right of all people to participate and contribute to the birth of a meaningful, orderly, just world society;
- the fundamental human right to a new, objective global education;
- the fundamental human right to move and to establish oneself in any country of this Earth, on any place of this planet, except where specifically prohibited by world law to preserve the Earth and its basic functioning.

~ Idea 1085 ~ 30 June 1997
Message to the Club of Budapest
During fifty years of world service with the United Nations, I have observed three major phases in recent human history: from 1945 to 1970's a period of most intensive, unprecedented global humanism (peace, human rights, health, well-being, economic development, racial equality, decolonization, human longevity, literacy, etc.); from 1970's to 1980: the birth of a novel, unprecedented concern for the environment (UNESCO's 1968 world conference on the biosphere, the UN's 1972 world conference on the environment); since the 1980's (the 1978 UN world conference on the ozonosphere, the two UN conferences on the climate in 1979 and 1987) the problem number one has become the fate of the Earth itself. Throughout this period I have considered the birth of a global consciousness to the human species and the creation of global institutions and convening of world conferences as the major hopes for humanity to cope with the acute global problems all of a sudden facing us. I became therefore an enthusiastic member of the Club of Budapest created by my former colleague and friend Ervin Laszlo, a world thinker, servant and activist of great vision.
Having just now followed the UN extraordinary General Assembly convened to assess the road covered since the UN Rio de Janeiro world conference on the environment of 1992, I was appalled by the resistance, slowness, if not opposition of many governments, including major ones, to act upon the recommendations and agreements of the Rio Conference. In the meantime the world population continues to increase at an alarming rate, and so does the deterioration of our environment and the outright destruction of nature. I consider it therefore to be my duty to make the following recommendations.
1. to declare a state of emergency of the Earth;
2. to consider the present situation as an outright war, a World War III against the Earth and its elements and we humans must end this war;
3. to request a second world conference on the biosphere, thirty years after the first one in 1968, to see what the state of our biosphere is today;
4. to support the extension to other countries of the World Party of Natural Law already existing in 85 countries due to the initiative of British scientists;
5. to place all our weight behind a radical change of the political system of our planet which provides for services and financial resources from local communities, cities, provinces to nations, but leaves almost entirely the Earth and the human family without adequate common services and financial resources at a time when these are most desperately needed;
6. in view of the chaos of the purely nation-state system and its colossal duplications of services (e.g. the military establishments) and their financial costs, I recommend that we urgently agree upon the absolute and imperative necessity, unavoidable sooner or later, to create a proper Earth Government either in the form
of a profoundly transformed, strongly upgraded, powerendowed, well financed, second generation United Nations
of a federal Earth Government
or a United States of the World,
or a World Union on the model of the recent European Union,
or an extension of the European Union to other regions,
or of five continental unions with a world super-structure,
or an Earth Government patterned on bio-regional or bio-organizational models responding to nature's diversity on our planet.
In the absence of such initiatives and a new political system for planet Earth we are likely to see the disappearance of most life forms, including human life from this planet in the 21st century.
Robert Muller

~ Idea 1086 ~ 1 July 1997
Through business and profit, marketing and advertising we are made to admire things which are not admirable and not necessary.
Personally I have no admiration for monstrous, overcrowd cities which try to attract me with museums, world fairs, meetings of famous people, national or world conventions and sports events. I prefer to go to a conference held in a beautiful natural surrounding.
It is not the monstrous cities on the ocean coasts of this planet which are the object of my admiration, with their boats, yachts, wharves and businesses. My admiration goes to the vast oceans, to the natural, unencumbered seashores, to the snow-capped mountains often to be seen on the horizon.
I can have endless love for the Earth, for God's divine creation. But I will never be able to love skyscrapers.
It is not the construction of more skyscrapers and cities which must be the ideals and objectives of humanity. It must be the preservation and embellishment of our miraculous home and garden Earth, the masterpiece, the cathedral, the Temple of God.
Humanity must get its loves, admirations, values and wisdom straight.

~ Idea 1087 ~ 2 July 1997
I am so glad that I came across one of the most important books of our time, World War III, Population and the Biosphere at the end of the Millennium, by Michael Tobias, Bear and Company, publishers in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Michael Tobias and I could be twin brothers. His evaluation of the current world situation and dangers is identical to mine. His book and my 2000 ideas should be world enlightening best-sellers.

~ Idea 1088 ~ 3 July 1997
Message to the Chairman and Members of the group of 77*
In view of the defensive position in which the United Nations finds itself at the end of this century, your meeting in Geneva takes on a very particular historic importance for the future of the world. Here are a few ideas from someone who has served the United Nations for forty years in various capacities, including as aide to three Secretaries General:
1. introduce a draft resolution in the General Assembly asking for the transfer of the main seat of the United Nations to a lower cost member country known for its staunch adherence, support and strengthening of the UN and offering the best financial conditions for such a transfer. Keeping the seat of the UN in the US will hamper progress of the world;
2. request the Secretary General of the UN to publish a report on the geographical distribution of all the seats of the UN and of its 32 specialized agencies and world programs, with figures of the incomes derived by the countries of location from the local expenses of these organizations, from the local representations of member countries, from conferences held at these seats, and other possible expenses;
3. solicit from the European Union a report on the structure, functioning and financing of that most recent innovative and progressive model of international cooperation, strikingly better than the United Nations;
4. request a yearly report from the UN Secretary General comparing funding for peace and international cooperation through the United Nations with yearly military and armaments expenses in the world;
5. replace in all UN debates and documents the word "reform" by "strengthening" of the United Nations;
6. undertake a study and consideration on the eve of a new century and millennium of models for world cooperation better than the United Nations, e.g.
- the creation of a federal Earth government;
- a World Union on the model of the European Union;
- the extension of the European Union to wider areas and its progressive transformation into a world union, as envisaged by its founder Robert Schuman, the first extension being to the Eastern European countries;
- the creation of five continental unions with a world superstructure;
- any other ideas and proposals for an urgent better management of our Earth and human affairs.
7. implement the recommendation of the European Union Parliament that the UN create urgently a UN Consultative Parliamentary Assembly made of representatives from all national parliaments to express their views, ideas and plans for the strengthening or new forms of world cooperation. It would play a role similar to that of the earlier European Consultative Parliamentary Assembly which played a fundamental role in the creation of the European Union;
8. request that on the occasion of the year 2000, all member governments of the United Nations should review the successes and failures of humanity in the last 100 years and formulate ideas and proposals to achieve a better world in the next century;
9. take note and keep being informed of the meetings and celebrations to be held in the city of The Hague in 1999 as the centennial anniversary of the first World Peoples' Peace Conference held in that city in 1899, followed by a second peace conference in 1907. Despite the 1914-1918 war which prevented a third conference in 1915, these efforts led to the creation of the International Court of Justice, of the International Labor Organization and of the League of Nations, the precursor of the United Nations.
I