I’ve been listening as I know we all have with such
deep interest to the previous speakers and I realize I need to tell you
that the only possible justification for my standing here, is that I could
be seen as one member of that majority of ordinary people who must become
ever more actively involved in the harnessing of the vision of a global
neighbourhood.
Because as speaker after speaker has stressed in different ways, without the resolve and commitment of us people, the vision will simply not be realized. The choice is either to continue to repeat old habitual patterns with their predictable and familiar outcome or decide to break the mould. Individually and collectively we must decide: will we or will we not work for a world of good neighbourliness? And following this decision comes an even more challenging and crucial one: Will I myself, whatever the challenges, be a good neighbour.
Because when it comes to the crunch, it is all about relationships, and good and trusting relationships depend on the values we choose to express in a sustained way.
It is really difficult to stay in touch with the vision of one humanity in all its many-facetted splendour; when you see the tearful panic-stricken eyes of the North Ireland school children, shielded by their parents, trying to reach their school through the barrage of insults and abuse from other parents; when you see the desolate refugee camps with homeless people, welcome nowhere on a planet belonging to no one more than another; when you hear of thousands upon thousands killed in ethnic cleansing or through the singleminded destructiveness of a handful of persons who have lost all hope of a meaningful future in this life, aiming for glory in the next. Neighbourhoods, villages and towns everywhere are harbouring people ; with such predatory and barbaric behaviour and bearing the brunt of their action.
These kinds of tragedy on whatever scale prey on our hearts and minds and can make us fearful and at a loss what to do. But we must not allow the scourge of terrorism to poison or cripple our spirit. As the president of the UN General Assembly (Han Seung-soo) said on United Nations Day this year: "Let us always remember that the terrorists’ capacity for evil is infinitesimally smaller than humanity’s collective capacity for good". There is a great need for us to be much less timid about goodness.
I truly believe that when the concept of globalisation began in earnest to affect our minds humanity did in fact break the mould of an old and outdated mindset. The way we think can no longer stay the same. All issues of relationships are under public scrutiny and going through the difficult process of being re-defined; sovereignty and community left open however reluctantly by some to be given new meaning. The vision of the UN Charter’s preamble can at last be realized and people throughout the world can now collectively go to the task of creating a world in which they can to use the words of the preamble: "live together in peace with one another as good neighbours."
The report, published in 1995 by the Commission on Global Governance, called "Our Global Neighbourhood", emphasizes the difference between the concept of global government and global governance, saying that governance should be seen as: "the sum of the many ways individuals and institutions, public and private, manage their common affairs. It is a continuing process through which conflicting or diverse interests may be accommodated and cooperative action taken."
We, the members of a local community, must now learn to see ourselves also as members of a global one, whose scope and dimension we have yet to comprehend and embrace. And together we shall need to find peaceful and innovative ways of bringing together all the conflicting and diverse interests of a multinational, multicultural community of peoples and creating tools and structures through which the common good of all can be served.
The commission calls for a common commitment to uphold core values which they name as: respect for life; liberty; justice and equity; mutual respect; caring and integrity. I believe these values sum up the sentiments of most, although perhaps not all, of the many conventions, resolutions and declarations adopted, some even ratified, by most UN member states. So these basic values are thus to a large degree already at least in theory accepted by the global community and its leadership.But the gap between theory and practice, between thought and action, vision and its realization, is every bit as wide, if not wider, than the yawning gap between the rich and the poor, gluttony and deprivation.
Today’s world presents a living testimony to the saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.. We are all contributors to the great divide created by unfulfilled promises, by good intentions not acted upon by half-heartedness. But as his Holiness the Dalai Lama said in relation to the recent tragedy in New York: "let us seek not to pinpoint blame, but to pinpoint cause." He also suggested that if we want a better world for future generations we shall have to become spiritual activists, right here, right now, and cause such a better world to happen. It is we, the individual human person, who must be the cause and catalyst for transformation.
The New York catastrophy certainly brought home to people everywhere the vulnerability of any neighbourhood to the impact of a dangerously unbalanced state of world affairs. The devastating effect of the atrocious act of a few individuals, first and foremost upon the lives of the thousands of people who went about their daily business that September morning, but also on society as a whole, is still to be fully realized. That it has taken us this long - so many centuries and generations of wars and acts of atrocity - is a responsibility that humanity must suffer and shoulder together.
The Commission on Global Governance identifies seven main responsibilities which it believes all people should share together. These are:
Could this recommendation which forms part of the commission’s "Call
for Action" be given emphasis in some way at this seminar? Perhaps in the
form of a resolution or commitment? In my view, it comprises the good,
sound and down to earth common sense of us all, on which we depend for
right, responsible and well-tempered and timed action.
As public awareness and understanding grows and expands, the primary
role of us people will be to intensify our influence on people in power,
through the increasingly enlightened decisions we make both individually
and collectively. Furthermore, the riches diverse experiences
and practices of the peoples of the world will become an invaluable and
constant resource for a developing global community.
The United nations is the natural forum for such a complementary
working relationship between the nations and the peoples of the world in
a two-chamber assembly a truly democratic partnership for peace.
In theory we know of the inter-connectedness and inter-dependence of all living things in our hearts we know what is right and we have a common vision of a global community of good neighbours. We have in fact all it takes to create a whole new civilization all but sufficient will to cause it to happen.
We are still struggling I think to re-define sovereignty and community; the relationship between one and the many between the individual and the whole. While the rights and freedoms of the individual are becoming known worldwide, individual responsibility is, as perhaps it should be, depending less on written law and more on values and on heart : a personal resolve and commitment to make a difference to the dysfunctional relationships within the world community.
Untill we the peoples, as individuals, give power and substance, body and soul, to the creation of a global neighbourhood of friends, it won’t happen. Let us therefore harness the vision and so cause it to happen.
Let it be our gift to a divided and troubled world. Let it be our labour of love to coming generations.
