A world federation

The voting system of the General Assembly should be reformed. Onepossible plan would be for final votes to be cast by regional blocks, eachblock having one vote. The blocks might be. 1) Latin America 2) Africa 3)Europe 4) North America 5) Russia and Central Asia 6) China 7) India andSoutheast Asia 8) The Middle East and 9) Japan, Korea and Oceania.

In a reformed, democratized and possibly renamed Security Council, theveto power would be absent, and final votes would be taken between regionsof roughly equal populations.

Hope for the future

Can we abolish the institution of war? Can we hope and work for a timewhen the terrible suffering inflicted by wars will exist only as a dark memoryfading into the past? I believe that this is really possible. The problem ofachieving internal peace over a large geographical area is not insoluble. It

has already been solved. There exist today many nations or regions withineach of which there is internal peace, and some of these are so large thatthey are almost worlds in themselves. One thinks of China, India, Brazil,the Russian Federation, the United States, and the European Union. Many of these enormous societies contain a variety of ethnic groups, a variety ofreligions and a variety of languages, as well as striking contrasts betweenwealth and poverty. If these great land areas have been forged into peacefuland cooperative societies, cannot the same methods of government be appliedglobally?

Today, there is a pressing need to enlarge the size of the political unitfrom the nation-state to the entire world. The need to do so results fromthe terrible dangers of modern weapons and from global economic interdependence. The progress of science has created this need, but science hasalso given us the means to enlarge the political unit: Our almost miraculousmodern communications media, if properly used, have the power to weld allof humankind into a single supportive and cooperative society.

We live at a critical time for human civilization, a time of crisis. Each ofus must accept his or her individual responsibility for solving the problemsthat are facing the world today. We cannot leave this to the politicians. Thatis what we have been doing until now, and the results have been disastrous. Nor can we trust the mass media to give us adequate public discussion ofthe challenges that we are facing. We have a responsibility towards futuregenerations to take matters into our own hands, to join hands and make ourown alternative media, to work actively and fearlessly for better governmentand for a better society.

We, the people of the world, not only have the facts on our side; we alsohave numbers on our side. The vast majority of the worlds peoples long forpeace. The vast majority long for abolition of nuclear weapons, and for aworld of kindness and cooperation, a world of respect for the environment.

No one can make these changes alone, but together we can do it. Together, we have the power to choose a future where international anarchy, chronic war and institutionalized injustice will be replaced by democraticand humane global governance, a future where the madness and immorality of war will be replaced by the rule of law.

We need a sense of the unity of all mankind to save the future, a new globalethic for a united world. We need politeness and kindness to save the future,politeness and kindness not only within nations but also between nations.

To save the future, we need a just and democratic system of internationallaw; for with law shall our land be built up, but with lawlessness laid waste.