IDEAS 2501 TO 2600

INTRODUCTION

DECIDE TO BE PEACEFUL

Decide to be peaceful
Render others peaceful
Be a model of peace
Irradiate your peace
Love passionately the peace
of our beautiful planet
Do not listen to the warmongers,
hateseeders and powerseekers
Dream always of a peaceful,
warless, disarmed world
Think always of a peaceful world
Work always for a peaceful world
Switch on and keep on, in yourself,
the peaceful buttons,
those marked love,
serenity, happiness, truth,
kindness, friendliness,
understanding and tolerance
Pray and thank God ever day for peace
Pray for the United Nations
and all peacemakers
Pray for the leaders of nations
who hold the peace of the world
in their hands
Pray God to let our planet at long last
become the Planet of Peace
And sing in unison with all humanity:
"Let there be peace on Earth
And let it begin with me."

~ Idea 2501 ~
"A people without a vision perishes" (The Bible)

Unfortunately this is what is happening to the United States government these days.  It has no vision of the world of tomorrow, except in terms of its power, military supremacy and the obsolete 19th century dream that capitalism is the recipe for a perfect world.  But see what it is doing to the Earth!

Why doesn't the President of the United States bring together the best brains and visionaries of his country somewhere far away in nature, isolated from all world noise and daily affairs, the same way as the British government did during World War II with scientists to devise the best ways to win the war.  He would ask them to come up with a vision of the world of tomorrow, a well-preserved Earth, administered with peace, justice and well-being for all.

~ Idea 2502 ~
Why can't humans live happily in peace on this beautiful, miraculous planet?  Why do we need wars, armaments, militaries, competition, wealth, glory, ever more business, money, goods and hectic activities?

I will never understand it.

It is high time for all people of the world to declare: we don't understand it, we are sick and tired of the mismanagement of this planet which has gone on for so long.

This is why it is an important historical event that a World Peoples' Assembly will meet for the first time in the year 2000 at the suggestion of the UN Secretary General.

A permanent Peoples' Assembly must absolutely be created as a principal organ of the United Nations.

~ Idea 2503 ~
Message to a meeting of non-governmental organizations in New York City to launch the Jubillennium Initiative:

Dear visionaries:

We humans should be very exalted and jubilate (overflow with joy) for all the knowledge and capacities we have acquired after millions of years of evolution.  An even greater, as yet unfulfilled task awaits us:

to avoid wrong avenues, destructions, wars, mistakes, prejudices, wrong values, and fashion a new, next more accomplished era of evolution of our Earth and human family.

Our entry into a new century and millennium uplifts us to that task.  Each of us and all of us in groups can be miracle workers for our cosmic evolution.

Please, dear friends, fulfill your individual and group vocations to help the Earth attain the stage we dream for the next century and millennium.  Do it with all your being, mind, heart and soul.  With your means and capabilities give reality to your dreams and ideas, embodying them in writing, speaking, daily actions and ceaseless networking.  Be jubilating cosmic entities radiating and networking all around you in all directions your dreams of a better world.

Try to visualize how humankind will remember you and thank you in the year 3000 as those who made the next thousand years a great evolutionary success, the true Jubillennium under whose auspices you meet on the eve of a new century and millennium.

Please receive all our love and gratitude and
enthusiastic wishes and prayers

Barbara and Robert Muller

~ Idea 2504 ~
The Earth, through the human species, is acquiring a brain, a heart, a nervous system and a soul.  This is why the Earth must be present at every level of the human society.  We must now conceive a wonderful, perfectly functioning Earth with humanity as her main artisan.  Perhaps the Natural Law Party, created already in 100 countries, will perform this task.

~ Idea 2505 ~
Outer space beings visiting someday planet Earth might find that the human species became extinct.  Their research would reveal that humans invented money as a means of exchange.  It did wonders for many centuries, but then it became the purpose of life and it was the end of that species.

~ Idea 2506 ~
The builders of large airplanes and world airlines will someday be accused to be among the main destroyers of the Earth.  The damages they cause to the atmosphere by far outstrip their benefits.  But they will answer: We cannot help it.  The market demands it.

~ Idea 2507 ~
There is so much advertisement in New York City, in the streets, in the buses, in the subways, in the suburban railroads, in the newspapers, in magazines that one gets immune to them.  This is a hopeful sign of natural human immunity, resistance and healthy evolution.  The only trouble is that consumers and nature have to pay the price for all that waste.
 

~ Idea 2508 ~
There was once in the 1930's a great economic depression.  In the next century the world is likely to suffer both a great ecological and economic depression.

~ Idea 2509 ~
Every law, every decision on this planet as distinct from the earlier eras of evolution must henceforth be preceded by the fundamental question: What effect will it have on the Earth?  This new era of evolution must be called the Era of the Earth, of God's Creation.

~ Idea 2510 ~
The United States is unable to produce great world leaders and heads of state these days.  Why?  Because the United States does not have universities duty-bound to the rest of the world.  It has only universities catering to United States interests.  This is true of all other countries too.  The result is a deplorable absence of visionary political leaders for the Earth and humanity.

A solution would be to create a World University for Heads of States.  It could be established at the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica.

There was only one time in history when the same proposal was made.  It was in China which was in such a political mess that Confucius proposed the creation of a school for heads of states to heal it.  The same is true today of the world.

~ Idea 2511 ~
I sometimes think that there must be a kind of permanent craziness or percentage of misguided leaders in the human species.  When it is not war, they do something else.  Now it seems to be business, industry and the destruction of the Earth.  The role of philosophers should be to identify them.

~ Idea 2512 ~
I prefer to write beautiful books and stories in heavenly Costa Rica likely never to be published than to write texts of best sellers in overpopulated, overpolluted New York City.  More authors should do the same.  The Earth needs them.

~ Idea 2513 ~
A totally new era in the evolution of this planet has begun recently: the Earth first, the fundamental era of the Earth with priority over all plans, wishes, dreams and priorities of humans, harbored and developed over thousands of years.  Yes, this is the first time but we have not yet realized it fully.  Human power and interests are still first in the political, economic and social systems grown and refined over the past without need of any consideration for the Earth and her biosphere.

I recommend the urgent creation of a group of eminent thinkers and scientists on the future of the Earth and that the United Nations should be renamed and reformed into the United Earth or Earth Evolutionary Organization.

~ Idea 2514 ~
A world movement and policy for the abandonment of over-crowded cities should be created.  Tax incentives and subsidies should be given to people doing it.

~ Idea 2515 ~
By the time new airports are built the architects have already plans for new, bigger ones.  At one point in the future more than half of humanity will be in cars, trains, subways, buses and airplanes rushing where?  To do what?  To plan and promote more means of transportation for more activities and dreams for travel and transportation?  What will be the end result of it all?

~ Idea 2516 ~
The more I live, the more I observe, the more I come to the conclusion that capitalism and the freedom of enterprise system which were right in the nineteenth century have become a disaster in the present century and will soon collapse.  Their ways are so contrary to the requirements of our further evolution and to the conservation of the Earth.

~ Idea 2517 ~
How wonderful, what a happier, deeper, more elevated world it would be if the media, news, films, television, press, radio, etc. - would adopt the World Core Curriculum for the Media published in Volume I.  Then they would help humanity to progress and the Earth to be saved.  We need elevating media not diminishing, debasing ones.  They need to show a great, hopeful, incredible, beautiful future for the Earth and humanity.  Please leaders of the media, stop your decadence and profit priorities.  Make a better, peaceful, happier, well-preserved planet your ideal.  You cannot imagine the happiness it will give you.

~ Idea 2518 ~
At a graduation ceremony at the University for Peace I was introduced as the visionary of the university.  I liked that title better than that of Chancellor which originally meant the man who put his stamp on documents to certify them.

When I reported it to Barbara she was thrilled and said, "Report it in your 2000 ideas and recommend that each university on Earth should have a visionary."

Yes, this is indeed a new function which should be established for many, if not all Earthly institutions whose presidents or managers do not have the time or the preoccupation for visions, absorbed as they are by innumerable immediate tasks and demands.

A visionary on the contrary would have no administration and managerial tasks.

I could well see a visionary as a direct collaborator of every head of state and head of world institution.  I played this role with three UN Secretaries General.

~ Idea 2519 ~
I said to Barbara, "I dream that you will do two important things in your life ahead:

1. To offer the world your plans, concepts and ideas of the right government which this planet urgently needs, namely the United Nature of which you speak so often.

2. That you become the pioneer of new public relations, advertisement and media devoted to good causes and public services needed for our salvation and further evolution on this planet in the universe.

Together we should become an exemplary couple at the entrance of a new century and millennium.

~ Idea 2520 ~
Gerardo Budowski, the famous ecologist who presided over some of the most prestigious US ecological societies, now a volunteer professor like me at the UN University for Peace, holds the view that only ecological catastrophes will force governments to act and people to fully understand.  The only measures he can see is to forecast emergency situations and to provide measures and resources to cope with them.

He might be right.  Twenty years ago in 1979 I convened the first UN World Conference on Climatic Changes, followed by a second one in 1987, and it is only in the late 1990's that the problem began to be recognized and seriously discussed in governments and in the media.

For my part I believe that we need long-term forecasting, future scenarios, positive and negative visions as well as proper planning for emergency situations and catastrophes.

~ Idea 2521 ~
Often the thought arises in me that at some time in the future humanity will regret the invention of automobiles and of airplanes.

Poor countries of the third world, I beg you to stop following blindly the so called advances of the western world.  On the eve of the 21st century and 3rd millennium you should create your own United Poor Nations Organization which, side by side with the United Nations, would appraise the past and develop a vision of their own for the future.

~ Idea 2522 ~
The world does not need as much heads of states as it needs Earth-carers and humanity servants.  Perhaps these should be recognized as a new profession trained in a World School of Earth Careers and Humanity Servants.

~ Idea 2523 ~
It is not wars which are the main problem of humanity at this end of a century and millennium; it is not even the poverty and misery of two-thirds of humanity; it is the destruction of nature, of the elements of the Earth from which we are born and on which we live.

If humanity survives, future historians will not consider the 20th century as the most brilliant one due to its inventions, industry and commerce but as the dismallest due to its blind destruction of the Earth.

~ Idea 2524 ~
The automobile and airplane industries and users alone are sufficient to put an end to life on this planet.  The consumption of resources, the competition, the wastes of the construction of automobiles are colossal and constantly increasing.  Most wastes are not recycled but dumped into the oceans.  There should be this obligatory inscription at the front seat of each car:

"Beware: every minute twelve thousand tons of carbon dioxide are emitted into the air of this planet.  Automobiles are one of the main sources.  Please use this car only if really necessary.  Think of the future generations"

~ Idea 2525 ~
Hitler has still left a small impact on the Earth: the Volkswagen, his people's car which is built to use the minimum of steel and gasoline is still very popular.  It should be a dominant car in big cities and poor countries.

~ Idea 2526 ~
Someone told me that President Jose Figueres of Costa Rica was once asked by a US journalist why he had demilitarized Costa Rica. He answered, "And why not?"

~ Idea 2527 ~
The most important mobilization on this planet should be that of governments to put order in their political mess and to save the Earth from ecological disasters and a possible end of evolution.

~ Idea 2528 ~
Democracy, the word makes me laugh.  How can there be democracy when all humans are pressed into and kept reduced to 189 national, sovereign and political enclaves, at a time when global ecological and economic problems and disasters are building up at a frightening pace all over the world, and the people have no say.

~ Idea 2529 ~
The Earth:
"Why do so many humans destroy me to such an incredible degree?  Why, why, why?  I am asking you, is it so necessary?"

I:
Well, we must take care of 6 billion people on your surface and the number is still growing by almost eighty million a year.

The Earth:
"You make me laugh.  Taking care of humanity when in your century you had two world wars, hundreds of regional and local wars and killed close to a billion of your brothers and sisters.  You must be kidding.  I'm almost rejoicing that these at least do not draw on my resources anymore.  I wonder if I should not pray for more wars, even a world holocaust which would put an end to all of you and allow a new evolution to proceed according to the laws of nature, of the sun and of the cosmos."

I:
Well, we simply do not have the necessary financial resources to take care of you in addition to the needs of the people for education, health, food, lodging, communications, etc.

The Earth:
"You must be kidding.  One half of all your national budgets are for armaments and militaries to kill each other.  You do not even have a world budget as I'm keeping one of my resources.  It is a budget of a species become insane."

I:
Well, what do you suggest?

The Earth:
"The first step would be to combine your forces and resources.  The same way as most ethnic groups have become nations, transform nations into one united human family, create a proper Earth government with a world parliament, with a central world security system, with an intelligent world budget.  Submit your ideas for a peaceful, better world to the Year 2000 UN General Assembly.  A new world thinking and order should occupy the first place of your deliberations."

I:
That is a wild dream which many humans had before and it was never implemented.

The Earth:
"But this time the situation is totally different: I am now at stake.  My death would mean the death of all of you.  You have no choice.  Ask your heads of state who will meet in the Year 2000 to stay in session until they have hammered out a system of proper Earth and human government.

And remember, intelligence is not enough.  It must be lifted by the heart, by love for me and by prayers to the God of the universe of which you and I are living servants."

~ Idea 2530 ~
The US dream of the 19th century is now becoming a catastrophe.  Free enterprise, yes freedom to destroy the Earth for the sole purpose of making money as if the billions of years of evolution on this planet creating many diverse species, transforming humans from animals into intelligent beings had as sole purpose to make money.  God does not understand it.  Jesus gave the warning when he chased the merchants from the temple.  They have to be chased from the temple Earth, of this paradise of nature.  They cannot be left to destroy it.

~ Idea 2531 ~
Which countries on Earth will have the courage to declare themselves no longer developing and say, "We have developed enough, we have sufficient goods and services to enjoy happy lives, from now on we will give preference to the Earth, restore as much as possible what we have destroyed of its beautiful nature, return to the land and live in harmony with it."?

~ Idea 2532 ~
Two new parties should spring up in the world, one in the rich countries, the other in the poor countries: an Earth conservation party in the first and a stable population party in the second.

~ Idea 2533 ~
The peoples around the world should begin to boycott the products of countries which behave contrary to their ideals, for example products from countries which continue to produce, stock and sell nuclear armaments.  This would be the best action to stop the further risks of atomizing and destroying this planet.  The people should buy instead products from countries which do not have nuclear armaments.  The list of nuclear countries is as follows (1998):

Russia              21,000 atomic missiles
The United States 11,500
France                   450
China        400
United Kingdom      260
Israel            100-200
India     60-80
Pakistan    15-25

~ Idea 2534 ~
All young people of this planet should refuse to become militaries and claim the fundamental human right not to kill other human beings, not in the name of a nation, nor a religion nor an ethnic group nor anyone else.  They should refuse to be trained as murderers and submit their right and protest to the International Court of Justice, to the Secretary General of the United Nations and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who happens to be a woman, Mrs. Mary Robinson.  She will have a greater understanding for their claim.  It is high time to claim this universal human right in the new millennium.

~ Idea 2535 ~
Names I would like to see given to planet Earth:

Planet of God
Planet of Peace
Planet of Justice
Planet of Unity
Planet of Diversity
Planet of Happiness
Planet of Human Fulfillment
Planet of Beauty
Planet of Kindness
Planet of Forgiveness
Planet of Love
Planet Paradise

~ Idea 2536 ~
Einstein said, "The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking that created the situation."

I would say, "The world will not evolve past its current state of crisis by using the same thinking, values and institutions that created the situation."

The values to be changed would be, in my view: economics, wealth, business, militarism, national sovereignty and religious fundamentalism.  The institutions to be changed would be nations.

~ Idea 2537 ~
To be a human being among 6 billions of them may mean nothing.

And yet, that human being can aggrandize himself to the whole planet, to the universe, to the entire knowledge acquired by humanity from the infinitely large to the infinitely small.

Therefore a human has become an extraordinary being.

This is what is taught to children right from the beginning in the Robert Muller Schools and in schools using the World Core Curriculum I derived from the United Nations and reproduced in Volume I.  They are told that they are miracles.  Pregnant mothers tell this already to them in their wombs.

~ Idea 2538 ~
All people living in warring or conflictual countries of the world should remind their governments of their sacred right to peace proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in a Declaration of the Right of Peace of 12 November 1984 (see Idea 2223).

I recommend that this declaration be reproduced as a letterhead in the correspondence of all peoples of the world, that it be widely reproduced by the world's media and religions and that each year the International Day of Peace on the third Tuesday of September, when the United Nations General Assembly opens its session, should be solemnly celebrated everywhere in the world.

~ Idea 2539 ~
The elements and goods provided to us naturally by the Earth outweigh all human goods and inventions, whatever we may think and believe.  We will have to pay dearly for our destruction of nature.

~ Idea 2540 ~
Since the Earth is becoming the main preoccupation of humanity there should be a law that all newspapers on Earth must devote at least half of their content to news about the Earth, her nature, preservation, beauty, conditions, care, losses, gains and destructions.

~ Idea 2541 ~
Several western products' advertisements should be prohibited in the poor countries because they increase the exploitation and misery of these countries.  Thus, there are villages in Guatemala where they have no electricity but Coca Cola is advertised and sold there to the people.  This is not right.  Where is business ethics?

~ Idea 2542 ~
Henceforth we should no longer speak of a western culture or civilization because what the West is really doing it to destroy the vital, miraculous, precious nature of this Earth; it is a deculture, a denaturing, a decivilization.

~ Idea 2543 ~
On 19 August 1999, the news appeared on the front page of Costa Rican newspapers that the government had approved the operation of US war vessels along the Costa Rican coasts to prevent the traffic of narcotics.  My peasant caretaker had this comment, "How stupid they are to give this news to the narcotics traffickers.  If they know that, they will find other ways to get the narcotics into Costa Rica."  I told him that it had little to do with narcotics traffic.  It had to do with building more US war boats and having more US militaries controlling more countries and being everywhere in the world.  It is a US victory against the total demilitarization of Costa Rica.  They have tried everything else, even the request to build a military airport in Costa Rica for the same purpose.  That is the world in which we live!

~ Idea 2544 ~
My large number of ideas for UN actions in this collection should make heads of states ashamed.  Don't they want a better world?  Don't they want happier people?  Don't they want to be remembered in history as the architects of a peaceful, better world?  Don't they want to be admired and loved by all their human brothers and sisters on this planet?  Why don't they come up with great ideas, much bolder than mine?  We shall see what happens at the historic, much heralded Heads of States UN General Assembly 2000, how they will cope with the global problems and menaces affecting the world and how the means of government must be reformed.

~ Idea 2545 ~
The more I advance in life, the more I agree with Gandhi, U Thant and several other great minds that a new education is essential to achieve peace on this planet.  And this includes henceforth peace with nature, peace with the Earth.

Proper Earth government and a right global, universal education are humanity's two pillars of survival and continued progress.

~ Idea 2546 ~
The Earth:

You westerners criticize and often condemn tribes and call them primitive people.  I, for my part, consider nations to be the worst tribes on my surface.  What you do to me and to each other is appalling. Yes, your nations are tribes and the heads of states are tribal chiefs.  They do a lot of harm to me and to the future of humanity and their own people!

~ Idea 2547 ~
What do we need most on planet Earth?

We need a world order for peace

We need a world order for justice

We need a world order for proper Earth government

We need a world order for spirituality

We need a world order for the well-being of all

~ Idea 2548 ~
In the 21st century humanity will need a change of mind, a change of heart, a change of soul and a change of direction.  It is absolutely essential.

~ Idea 2549 ~
A Costa Rican university professor visiting the UN University for Peace commented to me, "What a beautiful, magnificent nature you are situated in."  I answered, "Well, a University for Peace must be located in nature because nature gives peace."  He commented, "How right you are.  Among my students I have a girl who is very unhappy, deeply depressed.  I tried everything but did not succeed.  Recently I took the students out into nature and asked them to sit down and just be still and silent.  After a while I saw the tears run down the face of the unhappy girl.  I asked her why she cried.  She answered: 'I have at long last found myself.'"

Yes, by segregating humans in big, monstrous cities far away from nature we have created a lot of unhappiness, dissatisfaction with life and even causes of violence and death.

I told him that in my 2000 ideas I recommend that all heads of states should have their offices in nature where they will find peace, take the right decisions and receive the messages of God and the universe who speak to us through nature, their creation.

He was surprised that a new Natural Law Party created by British scientists existed already in 100 countries and was the third main party in the United States.

May it become the first and visionary party in the whole world.

~ Idea 2550 ~
My volumes of 2000 ideas and more are not best sellers now, but in the coming centuries they might become a major curiosity. It will be fascinating for the people to have these volumes of perceptions, concerns, dreams, ideas and state of the world conditions, dating from the year 2000.

~ Idea 2551 ~
I learned with relief that consumer's movements are now beginning to introduce lawsuits against unethical, untruthful solicitations and advertisements by big firms.  The case drawn to my attention is the United States Consumers Against Publishers Clearing House and Campus Subscriptions.  Apparently since 1992 this firm has been sending out thousands and thousands of envelopes on which was written, "You are a winner" and inside they had only advertisement for what the people should subscribe to.  There was no winner ever.  I think it is high time for UNESCO or the United Nations to convene a world conference on advertisement, or a World Commission of Eminent Persons on the Media and Advertisement should be created.

~ Idea 2552 ~
If there were as many doctors, health faculties, research institutes and hospitals for our mother Earth as there are for human beings we would not have to fear the end of her life.  Why doesn't humanity and especially all governments realize that?  How stubbornly wrong, ungrateful and visionless can we be?  At least the same resources devoted to humans should now be devoted also to the Earth.

~ Idea 2553 ~
We have statistics and surveys on almost any conceivable subject on Earth except one which is fundamental: happiness.

There is need for a whole education, science, inquiries and surveys of happiness.

As a first step the UN could inquire what definition of happiness each nation, each culture has, since the pursuit of happiness is or should be the main purpose of government.  And we should ask religions to do the same: What were the messages on happiness of their founders, the messengers from the universe, Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed, the Great Spirit of the indigenous people?

~ Idea 2554 ~
Political isolationists in human history have been a great obstacle to evolution, causing immense damages: their success in obtaining the non-ratification by the United States of the League of Nations which led to World War II is a famous example.

Today we must add the new isolationists who refuse to recognize our interdependence with the environment, with nature, with the climate and with numerous other globe-wide interdependencies of this planet which is our home.

Isolationists are a very sad, negative species.  One new disturbing fact is that most big business also isolates, distances itself from nature, and big business is ruling the world.

~ Idea 2555 ~
Here is a dream which came true:

When I suggested to former Secretary General U Thant to invite Pope John Paul II to speak at the UN General Assembly since he wanted to hear a voice of spirituality, he put me in charge of the invitation and the visit.  I was told that the Pope wanted to offer me a gift at the end of his visit.  What kind of a gift would please me?  I answered: a modest crucifix which he had used personally.  Well, I had a wonderful surprise.  He gave me a golden cross and chain of his which would be worth being exhibited in a museum, perhaps some day in a Robert Muller Museum!

~ Idea 2556 ~
Governments would better shift their 'military expenditures' to 'nature expenditures', for example reforestation in order not to be vanquished by nature which will simply give up and let humans perish by not renewing her airs, waters and other life giving resources.  This is one further reason why armaments and military expenditures have become so unnatural, not only from a human point of view but also from an evolutionary one, from the Earth point of view, from God's Creation point of view.

The military of course, have found a new reason for their continuance: to protect the natural resources of a country and to conquer the resources of others if need be.  Well, that would be a new facet of the apocalypse.

~ Idea 2557 ~
More women should be candidates and elected to parliaments.  They are more favorable to the environment and to the reduction or elimination of militaries and armaments: they do not want their sons, the flesh of their flesh to be killed.  They could have a determining influence on the fate of the Earth and of our evolution.

A good example to follow:

Since the 1960's the nation of Sweden has worked hard to bring women into govenment positions and now the govenment is made up of a majority of women.  Forty percent of the Swedish Parliament are women.

~ Idea 2558 ~
There is no intelligent employment policy for this world.  Most employment is left to the decision of business: more construction, more production, more services, more sales, more marketing, more advertisement, more profit.  As a result young people are compelled to leave the land to seek employment in the expanding cities.  Governments employ 'militaries' and public servants, but whom do they employ to save and take care of nature, of the Earth, of God's Creation?  Unemployment is also sizable.  There should be yearly States of the World Employment Reports.  They should be widely publicized and contain very concrete ideas and recommendations responding to the crying needs of youth, of the Earth and of evolution.

~ Idea 2559 ~
When teaching world affairs I teach first the Earth and humanity to whose global needs almost no resources are appropriated.

Then the continents where the situation is nearly the same.

Then nations whose governments allocate vast sums to the nation's needs, half of them being military and armaments expenditures, except in a few small countries.

Then I come to provinces and states which have moderate resources, to cities where the situation is the same, to neighborhoods which have nothing and to families which receive an income tax declaration which forms a main basis for this whole system.

Conclusion: We are probably the worst administered and financed planet in the universe.  Given the growth of global problems and the neglect of the Earth we might soon see the end of evolution of the planet.

~ Idea 2560 ~
A World Peoples' Association or Movement should be created on where to invest or not to invest money.  It would publish information on good businesses, on bad ones, on companies which are unethical or produce products which are harmful to consumers and to the Earth.  Since governments do not want to create Ministries of Consumption the people should take this in their own hands.

~ Idea 2561 ~
All governments should adopt a law that advertisements must all be published in a separate section of newspapers which the customers would be free to buy or not to buy.  That would really be a measure in favor of the freedom of the people vis a vis the news companies and media.

~ Idea 2562 ~
I:
Dear Earth, you complain all the time about us.  This cannot be just.  At least give us some hope and advice.

The Earth:
Well, my first advice to you personally is to write 2000 ideas or more on how to love me, hear me, preserve me, not destroy me and regain the loss of a third of my vital nature since 1970. The second is that you ask all humans to do the same individually, in their groups, professions and institutions.

Regarding groups these would be the family, the neighborhood, the city, the province or state, the nation, the continent and the world.

Regarding professions there would be bakers, butchers, carpenters, painters, architects, builders, transport professions, public services, politicians, and so on.

Regarding institutions there would be government at all levels from the city to the United Nations; from labor unions to corporations, to religions, etc.

I gave you just a few examples.  All this would represent billions of action units.  Just think of 6 billion individual actions alone!

This reminds me of your beautiful story, The Cleanest Mile on Earth (see Volume III, Annex to Part V).  If everybody would clean a mile on Earth there would not be enough miles to clean.  This applies to everything else.  One drop of water saved by 6 billion people every day would represent at the end of the year a river.

Start writing such ideas.  Your 2000 and soon 3000 ideas for a better world are fine but they are too dispersed.  Remember and put into action what you repeat so often, namely that I the Earth am now number one priority!  Apply this great principle I beg you to everything you think, everything you dream, everything you write and everything you do.

These are only my first few ideas.  I hope that we will continue this dialog.  I will give you many, many advices looking at things from my point of view while you humans look at them from your point of view.  There is no doubt that you must change your philosophy, values and ways of life now that you are so many billions of people.

~ Idea 2563 ~
Our current return to the love and beauty of nature must be accompanied by a return to beautiful love stories, a beautiful loving literature, a beautiful loving art and above all the miraculous love and beauty between husband and wife and a beautiful loving family and home.  There must be an incredible renaissance of love, beauty and happiness on this planet.  This will lead us to peace.

~ Idea 2564 ~
Why capitalism?

Why not Earthism?

Isn't the Earth our main, incredible, vastest capital?

~ Idea 2565 ~
People around the world should begin to dis-admire, pity, criticize and disapprove the United States whose government now practically wants to rule the world and refuses to ratify, to adhere to the environmental treaties of the United Nations, thus becoming one of the main factors of the destruction of the Earth, God's creation.  Please, dear American people, force, convince your government to dream again and care for the entire humanity and Earth.

~ Idea 2566 ~
The Earth:
Dear Robert, you cannot imagine how I rejoice at the news  from the UN that the population of the western countries will diminish by 40 million between now and the year 2050!  Just multiply the average life-time consumption of an American, 56 million gallons of water, 37,000 gallons of gasoline, 51 tons of meat and 9 tons of milk and cream, by 40 million and you will see what a benediction this population decline of the rich will represent for the conservation of my resources and my future survival.  I almost cannot believe it!  If you could see me from the heavens, you would see me smile!

But why don't you do something more, namely avoid the increase of the poor population of the world from 4.7 billion to 7.7 billion in 2050?  This will far outweigh the benefits from the decline of the rich population.  Moreover, your world corporations are now targeting the poor countries as the biggest potential markets for more sales and consumption, assisted by huge advertisement campaigns which are very cheap in these countries.  And if there comes a world economic crisis, the west will pump a revival with a gigantic Marshall Plan of aid to the poor countries.  I sometimes think that the biggest of the rich countries and their big corporations are happy with the population increase in the poor countries.  They are a future immense market.  This is why the UN does not get substantial funding to stop or reduce the world population increase.  It gets only meager 'voluntary' contributions!  I still feel that my end is inevitable.

I:
The UN is trying to do its best but a small minority of US far right extremists opposes them.  They even obtain that the US refuses to pay its yearly contribution to the minimal budget of the UN called "petty cash" in the US Treasury Department.  In the name of human life they are likely to bury you and with you the entire human race, God's Creation.

There are two more things I can do: I will recommend that the heads of states UN General Assembly 2000 to declare a world population emergency situation and put as a deadline the year 2020 to stabilize the world population.

~ Idea 2567 ~
The karma of the universe:
If you do what the universe or God expects from you, you are helped by invisible forces and recompensed with untold happiness.

The karma of the Earth:
If you do good for the Earth, the Earth will help you with her goods and invisible forces and recompense you with untold happiness.
The karma of the family:
If you do good for your family, the family will help you with her goods and invisible forces and recompense you with untold happiness.

The whole universe and our Earth are filled with these invisible forces of goodness and reciprocity which we call love, the Hindus karma and the physicists the unified field of the universe.  Please enlist them, draw them to you.

~ Idea 2568 ~
St. Francis said: "It is in giving of ourselves that we receive."  Yes, giving ourselves to God, to the universe, to the Earth, to humanity, to our family, to others who will respond to us with happiness and love.

~ Idea 2569 ~
Someone said:

We need optimists to build airplanes and pessimists to build parachutes.

Alas, political and economic leaders tell us that everything will be fine and rare are those who build parachutes for possible political and economic crashes.

~ Idea 2570 ~
Most people of the world take loving good care of their homes and beautify them.

Why don't we do it also for the Earth, for nature, for this miraculous planet which is our home, more precious, vulnerable and perishable every day?

~ Idea 2571 ~
Since generals were among the greatest US Presidents (George Washington who created the United States, General Eisenhower who created the first Ministry of Peace) perhaps the next best President of the United States should again be a general.  They are at least daring, have power and are strategists.  Perhaps General Butler, who fights for the total elimination of all nuclear weapons on Earth should become the President of the United States.

~ Idea 2572 ~
I have recommended that Mrs. Julia Alvarez, for many years a one-dollar-a-year Ambassador of the Dominican Republic to the UN and I, the one-dollar-a-year Chancellor of the UN University for Peace should create an Association of One-dollar-a-year Diplomats and World Servants.  The subject could be taken up by the International Labor Organization.  Voluntary, non-remunerated employment and services are a substantial and growing phenomenon in the world.

~ Idea 2573 ~
One of the greatest achievements of the UN would be to convene the Military Staff Committee at the heads of army level as stipulated in the UN Charter in order to design a world security system and after that disarm the planet.  Now that the cold war is over this crucial provision of the United Nations Charter can and must be implemented.  If I were the Secretary General of the UN I would request such a meeting and menace to resign if the five veto powers of the Security Council refuse to convene it.

~ Idea 2574 ~
Why not transform all the world's police forces into national and a world Peace Corps?

~ Idea 2575 ~
The poor countries of the world are robbed of their natural resources and then again exploited by loans!  These loans should be free of interest payments and called reparations or forgiveness for the robberies.  Instead of so called 'aid', forgiveness and reparations should be basic concepts in international relations.  There is so much to be done for forgiveness and reparations of past sins of nations.

~ Idea 2576 ~
Why not transform the debts of the poor countries to rich countries as follows:  the debts would carry no rates of interest and would be reimbursed only when the country will be prosperous.  The year 2000 would be a great occasion to do that.  Please, rich countries, have a conscience or remorse and do it.  Announce it at the year 2000 heads of states UN General Assembly.  Or even better, forgive the debts of all the poor countries, as a compensation for having robbed them of their natural resources.

~ Idea 2577 ~
The same way as we have Franciscans and many followers of ancient saints, we should have followers of modern saints and inspirers.  For example Mother Teresians, Robert Schumanians, Albert Schweitzerians, Gandhians, Martin Luther Kingians, and more.

~ Idea 2578 ~
From the point of view of the evolution of this planet and of humanity atomic weapons are a total, incomprehensible madness.  We do not need guided missiles.  We need a right guided evolution.  The United States and other atomic countries will go down in history as the anti-evolutionary countries of this century.  General Butler and seven other US Generals are right when they request the total destruction of all nuclear arms.

~ Idea 2579 ~
We need as much a cerebration as a celebration of the year 2000, namely a deep, intelligent evaluation of the status and future of our planet and of humanity in space and in time.

~ Idea 2580 ~
There is little doubt that the United States, its absolute, fundamentalist business philosophy and obsolete capitalism have become a major evolutionary aberration to be avoided by other countries for the sake of their own survival and the survival of the Earth.

~ Idea 2581 ~
To make this Earth a paradise all militaries and armaments must disappear.  There are none in God's paradise.  There cannot be any in the paradise we must become.

~ Idea 2582 ~
The scientific, technological civilization of the last two centuries has done marvels.  The trouble is that it has created an overpopulation and overconsumption of Earth resources both of which combined are now putting the whole Earth into jeopardy.  This has never happened before in all human history.  It has to be taken very seriously and faced with daring, courageous countermeasures if we want to save our planetary home and our humanity's future.

~ Idea 2583 ~
If we eliminated the wrongnesses from the greatnesses of our discoveries, we would become the most incredible, successful planet in the universe.

~ Idea 2584 ~
Flows and structures, humanity has become a vast flow on this planet, the vastest ever of any species'.  In our past we have created institutions, structures, laws and education meant for what was right in that past.  These have now become obstacles to the immense, global flow we have become.  They must all be revised, renovated and adapted to the new evolutionary phenomena.  This goes far beyond peace.  It now concerns the fate of the entire Earth and of the whole humanity.  This is an enormous challenge to the leaders of humanity, for which none of them has really been prepared by education.  When will at long last humanity adopt in all schools the World Core Curriculum which I derived from my long, world-wide experience in the United Nations, the first greatest modern global school ever?

~ Idea 2585 ~
The Nobel Prizes are too oriented to the conditions, needs and  philosophy which prevailed at the end of the 19th century.  Since then only one additional prize, for economics, was added.  There should be several new Nobel Prizes responding to the needs of today, namely:

Compassion
Cooperation
Dreams
Education
Faith
Forgiveness
Generosity
Hope
Imagination
Love
Philosophy
Spirituality
Thanksgiving

~ Idea 2586 ~
I hope that someday all my human brethren and sisters will say:

Never in my life a drug
Never in my life a cigarette
Never in my life a glass of alcohol
Never in my life a carbonated soft drink
Never in my life excessive meat

What a healthy, wonderful humanity this would produce.

~ Idea 2587 ~
The second overwhelming, most urgent human priority item on the agenda of world affairs after the Earth and her nature must be the total disarmament and demilitarization of the planet.  With that, all the rest will follow and can be resolved thanks to the liberation of immense financial resources.

~ Idea 2588 ~
Only twenty-eight percent of the annual world military expenditures would pay to end hunger, stabilize population growth, prevent soil erosion, provide clean energy, retire the debts of developing nations, stop ozone depletion, prevent acid rain and climatic change, provide safe water for all, eliminate illiteracy, stop deforestation, eliminate nuclear weapons, provide health care and Aids control, remove land mines and provide refugee relief and shelter.

Why don't we do it?  What miracles we could do with a total elimination of the militaries and armaments.  Do we really need 174 national armies on this planet?  They are totally obsolete, needless remnants from the past.

~ Idea 2589 ~
A proper art of living is extremely important because what is the sense of wanting to 'develop' ever more when as an end result the already 'developed' rich people are not much happier than they were before and are often even more miserable, especially in huge, monstrous cities and skyscrapers.  Hence, again my recommendation that Ministries of Happiness should be created in all governments.

~ Idea 2590 ~
Is there any school or university on Earth which teaches happiness?  I don't think so.

How strange that the most important purpose, ideal and dream of life is ignored by education and academics.  Perhaps we are not supposed to be happy, so that business and activism can continue to grow forever, at the expense for the first time of the Earth.

~ Idea 2591 ~
During the year of the 5th centennial of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus the Spanish government was dismayed that with the exception of the Dominican Republic no other Latin American country wanted to celebrate that event.  They feared upheavals of their indigenous populations.

The then Prime Minister of Spain, Mr. Gonzalez Videla decided to make the UN University for Peace in Costa Rica a new page in the relations between Spain and Latin America.  The government financed up to seventy scholarships a year.  After a few years Videla's government was accused to spend too much money and as usual 'foreign' aid and projects were the first to be eliminated.  Since then the University has not heard any more from Spain.  Isn't it strange that when something deals with the whole Earth and the whole humanity it is always called "foreign" and given lowest priority unless it represents a national interest?

~ Idea 2592 ~
Readers, when reading some of my pessimistic statements might say: "Well, why don't you give up?"

You are right.  My wife Barbara has the answer to that.  She waits until I had a good night of sleep to see me in full optimism again.  One of my first sights in Costa Rica in the morning are the two crosses erected on sacred Mt. Rasur, the Cross of Pain and the Cross of Resurrection.  And I say to myself what I said to Secretary General Pérez de Cuellar when he sometimes asked me to come to his office and cheer him up from his despair with world affairs, namely "How can you dare to complain when you are not menaced of being crucified?"

~ Idea 2593 ~
Many western people have already less children and begin to consume less (see Volume V, Index and Idea 2566).

Soon for obstinate capitalists their greatest market will be the 7.7 billion people in the poor countries by the year 2050.  Get for them already now a gigantic Marshall Plan from the US and other rich countries.  That will permit you to survive for another ten to twenty years.

~ Idea 2594 ~
National governments do not want to take the conservation of nature seriously because it is not in their current economic interest.

Petroleum companies do not want to take the conservation of nature seriously because it is against their economic interest.

Architects and builders do not want to take the conservation of nature seriously because it is not in their economic interests....

... and there is a very, very long list of others.  Poor Earth, you do not seem to have a chance unless there is a radical change of values, of wisdom from purely economic to ecological, survival and evolutionary interests too.

~ Idea 2595 ~
Let us build ceaselessly new temples, each more beautiful than the last.  This is what I have done relentlessly since World War II.  Several of these 3000 Ideas and Dreams can be foundations for new temples.  Please dear reader, select one or several of them speaking to your heart and build on them.  Do not consider these ideas and dreams to be too lofty, too audacious, too irrealistic.  In reality they are only stepping stones to even higher ideas and dreams as God and the cosmic forces of evolution want it.

~ Idea 2596 ~
What an incredible natural miracle planet Earth is!  Why don't we take good care of this treasure instead of exploiting it recklessly?  It is infinitely more important than any human invention.  What a pity, what an unintelligent, misguided species we have become.  The Earth reality should always be first and humanity a second, well-integrated part of it.  Wasn't that the will of God who created paradise first and continues to speak to us through nature to re-establish it?

~ Idea 2597 ~
 

Perhaps the time has come to consider a bio-capitalism or eco-capitalism, a system where capital would go to the preservation, improvement and beautification of the Earth and life on it.

Perhaps the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) could devise such a system which could consist among others of Earth stock, Earth shares and Earth stock exchanges.  And why not change its name to the World Earth and Humanity Bank (WEHB)?

A World Commission of Eminent Personalities should be created to look into this foremost priority of our time.  The Commission should include elders and indigenous people.

~ Idea 2598 ~
Ideas are produced by dreams.  They come as creations of our wisdom, knowledge and experience.  They usually come late in the night or at dawn.  This is when I wake up and write them down as part of our evolution of which I am a sensitive agent.  We should not underestimate or ignore our dreams.  They are major factors of our evolution.

~ Idea 2599 ~
To have right dreams and ideas you must be in optimum physical, mental, sentimental, moral and spiritual health.  Non-smoking, non-drinking, right nutrition and a long healthy sleep are primary conditions.  And above all, you must be in passion with the miracle of life, your life and with our divine, miraculous Earth.

~ Idea 2600 ~
What a blessing it is that I worked so many years in the United Nations and can now live a free, wonderful life devoted to the first UN University for Peace created with my help in demilitarized Costa Rica.  The ways of the Lord are indeed mysterious and wonderful.  The last years of my life are a miracle which I could have never expected in my wildest dreams, especially not in the depth of the horrors of World War II.  I repeat the great words of Goethe:

Until one is committed,
there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back,
always ineffectiveness.

Concerning acts of initiative and creation
there is one elementary truth
the ignorance of which kills countless ideas
and splendid plans:

That the moment one definitely commits oneself
then Providence moves too.

All sort of things occur to help one
that would never otherwise have occurred.

A whole stream of events issues from the decision,
raising in one's favor all manner
of unforeseen incidents and meetings
and material assistance
which no one could have dreamt
would come their way.

Whatever you can do
or dream, you can begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.

Begin it now.

Please dear reader, dream your wildest dreams for a better, peaceful, happy, more beautiful, more wonderful, just world.  You will be heard, guided and recompensed by God and by the invisible forces of the universe in the most extraordinary ways.  Look out for the occasions, the 'coincidences' offered to you constantly by the invisible saints floating unemployed around this planet, rushing into and helping all those of us who are opened to them.

ANNEX

My Spiritual Journey
Speech by Dr. Robert Muller in Sao Paolo in October 1998 at a conference
organized by the Coalition for Religious Freedom, Falls Church, Virginia, USA

I was born with a deep spirituality.  When I was a child I looked at the stars, at the moon, at nature and at the whole Creation as miracles.  I also considered human life to be a miracle.  We spoke German in Alsace-Lorraine at the time and I used to say: "Das Leben ist göttlich, life is divine."  I used this word because it was the biggest adjective I could find.

My father could not understand it.  Here was a four years old boy who was going around saying that life was divine and who took his cap off when he met an old person.  He asked me: "Why do you greet old people?"  I answered: "Because they know so much about life."  That was my attitude as a little boy.

I couldn't understand that just across the river there were people called Germans whom we as French people were supposed to hate.  Why were these borders between humans?  We looked alike and they had names like Muller and Schneider which were the names of my father and mother.  Why could the sun, the clouds, the birds, the winds, the moon cross the border freely and I could not?

I would leave the house early in the morning to go to church and attend the mass at dawn, attended mostly by old people.  There I was fascinated by the prayers, the playing of the organ by an old invalid and above all by the "elevation" of the host by the priest.  That represented to me the consciousness and union with the heavens, the endless, mysterious universe and God.

Then came education.  French education prohibited religious education.  This was due to the separation between church and state established by the Revolution against the Church leaders of France coalesced with the King and the aristocrats to exploit the people.  In Alsace-Lorraine we got a separate statute allowing religious education, but it was voluntary, did not count for the grading and it was ridiculized by our professors.  As a result I began to forget my spirituality, replaced by the values of French education.  My deep love for nature however persisted as well as my respect for old people.  I will never forget the death of my 80 years old grandfather at which I saw a Catholic sister hold his hand and help him to die peacefully, praying with him and telling him about heaven.

Then came World War II.  We were refugees twice.  The Nazis occupied us.  I had many adventures because I did not want to serve in the German army.  I experienced German prison.  I was a partisan, a member of de Gaulle's mountain fighters in France.  I saw the most horrible acts between two white, highly civilized countries.  There was no spirituality in all that.  But there was an incident which I have never forgotten: we had captured a group of French people who had collaborated with the Germans.  They were condemned to death.  When they were taken to their place of execution in the woods where they had been forced to dig their graves, I saw the men protest, throwing themselves on the ground, having to be pulled by their legs.  But there was one woman who walked in peace, praying.  When she was shot she was reciting the Hail Mary and her last words before falling into her grave were to forgive us.  I finished her prayer and never forgot her example of deep spirituality.

When the war was over and I returned home, I learned that my father had spent several months in prison because I had escaped from the Germans.  He asked me what I was going to do with my life.  I replied: "I will work for peace.  I do not want my children and grandchildren to see the horrors I have seen in this war."  He said that there were no peacemakers on this planet and that I would lose my time.  But during my doctorate of law studies at the University of Strasbourg I participated in a French essay competition on the subject "How would you govern the world?"  I won the essay which earned me an internship with the United Nations in an abandoned war factory near New York City.  I was hired as an official and stayed with the UN for the rest of my life.
The first surprise I had at the United Nations was that they had a meditation and prayer room and that the meetings of the General Assembly started with a minute of silence for prayer or meditation.  I said to myself:  "This is wonderful.  That is exactly what we should do when we meet among nations and people: we should invoke spirituality to fully understand what we are doing and pray for good results."

Another surprise was our second Secretary General, Dag Hammarskjöld.  He came to the United Nations as a very rational economist.  But he went every Sunday to a church or meeting place of another religion.  When he died we found on the night table of his bedroom in New York the book of a mystic Thomas Kempis.  When you read his Markings, or Journal, now published in many languages, you will see how from a pure rationalist at the beginning he became himself a mystic, almost in constant communion and dialogue with God.

Another surprise to me was U Thant, the Buddhist Secretary General whose direct aide I was for two years.  He was the most deeply spiritual person I have ever known.  He once said to me: "Robert, I cannot understand you Catholics who limit spirituality to an hour in church on Sunday.  I am a spiritual person from the moment I wake up until I go to rest."  One day I said to him: "When you receive visitors, why don't you tell them to do something for peace and a better world?"  He answered: "How could I do that?  These people come to see me to tell me something.  I must therefore open myself to them, empty myself of my self, so that I can receive them entirely as a human brother or sister."

From my experiences and lessons at the United Nations I decided to write a book on spirituality recommending that all religions should work together, with spirituality as their common values and objective.  I called it New Genesis, the Birth of a Global Spirituality, published in several languages.  Ever since that time I have been working toward the recognition of a global, all-human spirituality, out of which the various religions were born, either with one God, several gods or spirits, or nature and the Earth herself as the manifestation of the Great Spirit, or even a deeply spiritual person doing good for the Earth and humanity without belonging to any religion.

What is this concept of spirituality?  In my view: it is very simple.  It is what I felt as a little boy.  It is to receive from the religions help to understand the mystery of the universe and time.  This is what all religions have in common.  They help us, they elevate us, while the mysteries of the universe and time have never been resolved by the scientists, not even by Einstein.  They will always remain mysteries.  Religions give us hope that there is a spirituality, a soul in us which binds us as sentient beings with the entire universe and time, that we are children of God, active, living cosmic beings, each one the true miracle I felt already to be as a child.

As a consequence I created several spiritual associations in the UN and brought many outside spiritual associations in contact and relation with the UN.  I had contact with the Mayor of Assisi who at my suggestion arranged for the Pope to have yearly meetings in Assisi with the heads of other religions.  I convinced U Thant to invite the Pope to the UN and was put in charge of that visit.  I could write a whole book What the UN Taught Me About Spirituality   as I wrote What War Taught Me About Peace.

The greatest chance given to me was the invitation to be the opening speaker of the second World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1993.  I made a passionate appeal to the religions to create a world organization similar to the United Nations.  Why?  Because it was not sufficient for the religious leaders to meet, there was need also for a permanent organization with an inter-religious Secretariat to study in common all religions of the world and their contributions to a global spirituality as we have done at the UN for peace and other common ideals and needs of humanity.  In my view there was an absolute need for a spiritual Renaissance on planet Earth.  I also made an appeal that the Parliament of Religions should not wait another hundred years to meet again but should meet before the year 2000.  Bishop Edmund Tutu heard me and decided to invite the Parliament to meet in South Africa in December 1999.  Six thousand people from around the world attended it.

My proposal to create a world organization of religions is being implemented.  The Charter of a United Religions Organization, still called Initiative was adopted June 2000, in Pittsbough.  That organization can then help the peaceful resolution of the several religious conflicts we still have on this planet, develop a common modern global science of spirituality, a strategy and a methodology of spirituality (e.g. prayer, forgiveness, sanctity, thanksgiving, confession and so many other helpful practices).  It will create a different, better, spiritual world, with religions united in a wonderful, non-fundamentalist diversity.

There are now many good signs of a spiritual Renaissance in the world: the World Bank is meeting with spiritual leaders to see how poverty in the poor countries can be healed.  Harvard University has conducted a vast survey of the contributions of the religions to the environment and safeguard of the Earth.  Secretary General Kofi Annan will meet in the year 2000 with the leaders of the main religions of the world.  A World Commission on Global Consciousness and Spirituality has been formed.*

This is where we stand.  I will leave with you various extracts of texts I have distributed to the Parliament of Religions at its Chicago session.  One of them describes my vision of a spiritual world in the year 2013, twenty years after that Chicago session.  Another is a chapter on the UN and Spirituality from my Testament to the UN  published after I retired from the UN and became the first one-dollar-a-year Chancellor of the newly created UN University for Peace in demilitarized Costa Rica.

Let me finally report on this great experience in my life: when you are a deeply spiritual person in the sense of doing good, working for the great ideals of humanity, suppressing injustices, helping the poor, the downtrodden and the helpless, you are recompensed with untold happiness.  The invisible forces of the universe make sure of it.  Extraordinary circumstances and coincidences come your way.  You take good care of your health in order to live longer and do more good.  You feel younger.  You do not fall sick nor become old.  You have no time to think of it.

Let me tell you the anecdote of a beautiful coincidence.  A few years ago I got the UN General Assembly to adopt a resolution of the return of stolen works of art to their countries of origin.  Each year a number of such returns are reported.  One day, during a mission to Hungary I heard the people complain that the United States did not return the golden crown of their beloved king Saint Stephen.  They kept it as a war memento in the cellars of Fort Knox.  It was a long difficult story but with my obstinacy  I finally obtained its return to Hungary where it is displayed in all its glory.  Later I met in California a wonderful US lady of Hungarian origin with whom I fell in love.  That was six years after my first wonderful wife from Chile died.  Barbara Gaughen became my wife, although she is 18 years younger than I.  She is the most extraordinary companion I could expect to help me in my efforts for peace and a better world.  On 11 June 1994 she told me that there were 2000 days left to the year 2000 and that since I had so many ideas I should write one down every day to have a total of them by the 1st of January of 2000.  I did and as a result four volumes of 2000 Ideas and Dreams for a Better World  are available for the year 2000.  From these ideas I was able to extract 56 pages of ideas on religion and spirituality.  Well, I have come to the conclusion that it was St. Stephen in heaven who made us meet and get married because I got his crown returned to his beloved Hungary!  I will ask him if it was the case when I meet him in the other world.

There is still so much to do.  It is not even governments who are responsible for the current disorders in the world.  It is the lack of spirituality, the lack of respect for God, for His miraculous creation which I loved so much already as a child.  Please, dear friends, be the active defenders of these miracles so that we can at long last become the paradise of peace, beauty and happiness God and all religious leaders wanted us to become, a true jewel in the universe.  The progress I have seen achieved since the horrible World War II gives me good hope, even conviction that we will succeed.

To end, let me play to you in memory of my grandfather who taught me to play it, the Ode To Joy of Beethoven on my little ten holes harmonica.  Its words written by Schiller about the brotherhood of all humans are very appropriate to our hearts and souls at the end of this conference.

*  I have the honor of being its co-chairman with Dr. Karan Singh of India.

Ode to Joy

Translation of Schiller's original German 1785 Version
    ________________________________________

Joy, beautiful spark of Gods,
Daughter of Elysium,
We enter, fire-drunk,
Heavenly, thy sanctuary.
Thy magic powers re-unite
What custom's sword has divided
Beggars become Princes' brothers
Where thy gentle wing abides.

Chorus
Be embraced, millions!
This kiss to the entire world!
Brothers - above the starry canopy
A loving father must dwell.