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| | The Building an Open Future Network is not currently active and cannot accept new posts | | Worldwide Perspective | Views: 784 | | Feb 18, 2009 1:26 pm | | Worldwide Perspective | # | 
John Stephen Veitch | | http://www.openfuture.co.nz/depression/worldwide.html
Part of a three page essay.
"We do live in a global world. When I was a child the threat of nuclear war was the proof of that. Fifty years later we've recognized the ability to destroy the ozone layer existed in the finger of each person who used an aerosol can. With regulation, not very well enforced, we might have put that problem behind us.
We recognize another self-created danger. The lifestyle of "modern people" is producing pollution of the oceans, consuming far too much of the oil supply, making un sustainable demands on water supplies and changing the atmosphere to such an extent that the climate is changing. The earth cannot provide the resources for large numbers of people living as American's do, nor even for Americans to continue living as they do. We are faced with some unpleasant choices.
World Governance
We have some old instruments that are intended to help in the process of global management. The most obvious of those is the United Nations and some of it's 100 plus associated bodies, the World Health Organization, the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the UN Children's Fund are examples.
All of these organizations were designed in a different time, many were intended to solve the problems of the USA and post WWII Europe, and they are not adapted to today's problems. For instance, many UN organizations have a purpose of promoting economic development, industrialization, and the production of food. The record of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the World Trade Organization in the last 20 years is rather inglorious.
The IMF, controlled by the USA, enforced the American orthodox economic theory. America has always had on economic policy to itself and another for the rest of the world. China to prove the point has succeeded by ignoring the IMF and American advice. Widespread disrespect for the idea of world governance is a status earned by politicians who have no democratic legitimacy and have abused their power.
The United Nations
Part of the problem lies in the United Nations. When the United Nations was formed it was created to accommodate the needs of the five permanent members, by giving them a Veto Power in the security council. From the beginning the UN was not a democratic body. Nor of course can it be "democratic" if each country has one vote, regardless of size. We badly need an organization like the United Nations, but it does need to be genuinely democratic. The world badly needs some form of world government that really works because its source of authority is respected.
I don't have a magic wand. Perhaps a two house system is needed. A General Assembly of representatives based on population, maybe 2000 representatives. A General Congress, of perhaps 500 members based on the financial contributions various nations make to the United Nations. A Security Council with no veto powers, but the power to pass a problem to the General Assembly for guidance. "
John Stephen Veitch
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