International affairs

How should the United Nations change to become more effective in promoting international peace?

Eric Ringham Sep 21, 2011
20

World leaders are gathering this week at the United Nations, where the General Assembly is in session from now until December. Today’s Question: How should the United Nations change to become more effective in promoting international peace?

  • Kurt

    Well it could start by refraining from giving the imprimatur of respectability to countries like Pakistan, Syria and (formerly) Libiya by giving them a seat on the Human Rights Council-or making Iran a member of Commission on the Status of Women-or generally from being completely hostile toward Israel, etcetera ad infinitum.

  • Wade

    Who cares. Get us out of the U.N.

  • Gary F

    What Kurt said.

  • Steve the Cynic

    The UN is better than nothing, but I’m not sanguine about improving it. Peace begins at home. It can’t be imposed. The UN is limited by the incompetence of its member states. As long as self-serving politicians and despots rally support from their people by fomenting fear, hatred, and a lust for revenge, there will be war. And as long as the people of the world allow themselves to be manipulated in that way, their leaders will continue to do it. And I don’t expect human nature to change any time soon.

  • Philip

    I like the way Jeremiah put it, which can be applied to the UN:

    “From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain…all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. ‘Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.”

  • mark

    What Steve said! :0)

  • Em Young

    http://endpoverty2015.org/

    Huh. Do you think the big donors/corporations know about this?

  • Tom

    Kurt said it best, nothing to add or change.

  • Twisted Gun

    While the criminals reign is nearly the driving force behind the legitimacy for Police State, bet your bottom dollar, the American People are wising up and becoming armed by the millions – at a minimum to protect their Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness – something again, the Elite deem unacceptable; they want us all to be happy followers of a United Nations Dominance and to be passive at the demise of our Constitutions and Bill of Rights.

    http://excalibur.theavalonroundtable.com/?p=150

  • Jack

    By promoting the global growing of ganja!

    The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world. – Carl Sagan

    The war on drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our nation’s marijuana laws. – Barack Obama, January 21, 2004 debate

    “We can each resolve, every last one of us, to do the maximum that we can, in each of our given circumstances and by making opportunities, and this then becomes our personal contribution towards ending the worldwide prohibition of cannabis.” – Jayelle Farmer

    “Herb is the healing of a nation, alcohol is the destruction.” – Bob Marley.

    “However, the connection of hemp as a crop and marijuana seems to be exaggerated. The drug is usually produced from wild hemp or locoweed which can be found on vacant lots and along railroad tracks in every state. If federal regulations can be drawn to protect the public without preventing the legitimate culture of hemp, this new crop can add immeasurably to American agriculture and industry.” – Popular Mechanics, 1938

    Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?

    – Henry Ford

    All life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.This is the interrelated structure of reality.

    -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

  • GregX

    eliminate the one-vote veto of the secruity countcil actions. russia, india, china, the usa …….. all have exercised this moronic power. ………… oh and the ganja thing … yes lets start using hemp and quit killing trees. why … cause hemp is better at soil stabilzation, can be grown every year, produces much better and consistent fiber, grows in more climate types, when converted to paper produces far less waste and requires none of the harsh chemical process of wood-paper to make a superior paper. GO HEMP!!

  • Sue de Nim

    The Security Council was designed to keep WWII from happening again. As such, it’s obsolete and should be revamped. The permanent members with veto power are the victors in that war: The US, Britain, France, the USSR, and China (not India, GregX). These days, Germany is at least as important as Britain and France, Russia is less important than the USSR was, and the exclusion of the world’s largest democracy, India, from the group is unjustifiable in the 21st Century.

  • Jim Shapiro

    Remove the veto power from members of the security council, and no country shall be exempt from the world court.

  • Chris

    Cut taxes and reduce regulations. That clearly solves ALL problems!

    Next question

  • Anna

    Speak only words of peace

    Wednesday, September 21, 2011

    WORLD PEACE

    Today I speak only words of peace.

    Words are powerful tools for building a world of peace. A good carpenter maintains his tools and chooses his materials with care. As I seek to contribute to a world of peace, I maintain inner peace and choose my words with care.

    If my thoughts have become as troubled as the challenging conditions around me, I pause and take a gentle breath. In that moment, I align my thoughts with Jesus’ teachings. I let Spirit guide me in choosing words that call forth the potential peace waiting to unfold in each situation. Casting aside thoughts and words of anger, hurt or revenge, I allow my words to honor the Divine in each of us as together we create a world of peace.

    Now, discipline always seems painful rather than pleasant at the time, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.–Hebrews 12:11

    http://www.dailyword.com/

  • Jim Shapiro

    Anna –

    Nice. Thanks.

  • Frank

    Eliminate Prohibition and encourage planting and FULL use of the Tree of Life. The leaves of The Tree are for the healing of the nations. Eliminate petroleum and promote green energies like seed oils, wind, water, hydrogen… When they cry things like “Weapons Of Mass Destruction”, ask for evidence first.

  • matt

    Are they the ones with the blue helmets and guns? Keep the blue helmets.

  • Kim

    The U.N. includes the terrorist assistance countries of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, and Egypt. Communist China doesn’t belong and should be excused. If the UN wanted peace they would have terminated those countries from the U.N. by virtue of their human rights atrocities upon their own people.

    At least North Korea is NOT in the U.N.

    The USA pays over 72% of the UN budget and we should/would quit our membership if not for the millions of dollars revenue for hosting the U.N. building in NY..

    and contrary to the earlier post, yes, India is a member state since October of 1945.

  • Sue de Nim

    @Kim,

    You weren’t reading very carefully. What I mentioned about India was that it is not a permanent member of the Security Council. No one here said India was not a UN member state.