April 2009, Issue #14 of The WorldVoter

[The WorldVoter]

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The WorldVoter
the newsletter of
Vote World Government
— democratic world government through a global referendum —
www.VoteWorldGovernment.org
Vote World Government President is Jim Stark; Vice President is Ted
Stalets
www.RescuePlanForPlanetEarth.com
This site, above, is for the new book Rescue Plan for Planet Earth
www.MayorsForWorldDemocracy.org
This site, above, is for the new effort to involve municipal
governments in this issue
www.WorldVoting.net
This site, above, is to connect national elections with the global
referendum

Issue #14, April, 2009
(This issue and all previous issues are posted at www.RescuePlanForPlanetEarth.com)

Quotes of the month

The nations of the world have a stake in one another. Barack Obama, “A
time for global action,” an Op-Ed piece, March 23, 2009

Law is merely what enables us to live together in peace without having
to love one another. Mark Van Doren, American Pulitzer Prize-winning
poet and critic

The essential notion is the replacement of anarchy with the rule of
law reaching to individuals. Joseph Preston Baratta, Ph.D., from an
article entitled “The World Citizens Party: Ideas for the Future”

There are no passengers on spaceship earth. We are all crew. Marshall
McLuhan

News in brief

Flyers sent to 30,000 libraries

Flyers (in full colour) about Jim Stark’s book, Rescue Plan for Planet
Earth: Democratic World Government through a Global Referendum, are
being sent by The Key Publishing House Inc. to 30,000 libraries in the
USA at the end of April.

Mayor on Board

Albert Armstrong, the mayor of Shawville, Québec, Canada (where the
headquarters of VWG is based) has become the first mayor to join the
Board of Vote World Government (see www.voteworldgovernment.org/who.shtml
and scroll down). We warmly welcome his participation and hope that
eventually many other mayors will follow his example.

New article by VWG Liaison Officer Brian Coughlan

Go to www.free-press-release.com/news/200904/1239114898.html. The
article is entitled “G20 and President Obama endorse increased global
governance.” Brian is currently emailing hundreds of schools in India
encouraging them to let their students express themselves informally
concerning the Indian election through www.WorldVoting.net
(specifically, http://www.worldvoting.net/c/india/).

Authors’ Campaign gearing up well

We are aware of more than 150 books on cosmopolitanism (world
citizenry, democratic world government, world federalism, etc.) Some
authors of such books have passed away, of course, but Earleen and
Brian have worked hard to get email addresses for the rest. Beyond
this list, Joseph Baratta kindly made available to us a 58-page
annotated bibliography! The initiating “core group of 12” for our
Authors’ Campaign is composed of the following (alphabetical order by
surname; degrees and positions not included):

Daniele Archibugi - The Global Commonwealth of Citizens: Toward
Cosmopolitan Democracy
Mary-Wynne Ashford - Enough Blood Shed: 101 Solutions to Violence,
Terror and War
Joseph Preston Baratta - The Politics of World Federation, Vol. 1,
United Nations, U.N.
Reform, Atomic Control; Vol. 2, From World Federalism to Global
Governance,
Benjamin Barber - Fear’s Empire: War, Terrorism and Democracy in an
Age of
Interdependence
Byron Belitsos (with Jerry Tetalman) - One World Democracy: A
Progressive Vision for
Enforceable Global Law
Christopher Hamer - A Global Parliament: Principles of World
Federation
Fernando Iglesias - Globalizar la Democracia: Por un Parlamento
Mundial (Globalizing
Democracy: Appeal for a World Parliament)
George Monbiot - The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World
Order
Jim Stark - Rescue Plan for Planet Earth: Democratic World Government
through a
Global Referendum
Torbjörn Tännsjö - Global Democracy: The Case for a World Government
Jerry Tetalman (with Byron Belitsos) - One World Democracy: A
Progressive Vision for
Enforceable Global Law
James A. Yunker - Political Globalization: A New Vision of Federal
World Government

We have written to yet more authors of books on cosmopolitanism to see
if they wish to participate, and eight have already agreed, as follows
(alphabetical order by surname; degrees and positions not included):

John Avery - Against the Institution of War
Matthias Lutz-Bachmann - Perpetual Peace: Essays on Kant's
Cosmopolitan Ideal
Frank Barnaby, ed. - The Gaia Peace Atlas
Gillian Brock - Global Justice: A Cosmopolitan Account
Sohail Inayatullah - “Why I Hate Passports and Visas: A Personal Story
of Globalization
and Fairness” (article)
William Knoke - Bold New World: The Essential Road Map to the Twenty-
First Century
Dada Maheshvarananda - After Capitalism
John Stewart - Evolution’s Arrow

After we have our full complement of authors, we will start contacting
many thousands of NGOs by means of an email co-signed by all of these
authors—tens of thousands of NGOs, actually (there are 2 million of
them)—as many as it takes to well and truly light the fuse and reach a
point where we can rely on others to build momentum. Anyone with a
list of NGOs (with email addresses) is asked to send that list to us
for this Campaign.

Declaration of Interdependence

One of the authors participating in our Authors’ Campaign is Dr.
Benjamin Barber. He is a former advisor to President Bill Clinton, the
author of Fear’s Empire: War, Terrorism and Democracy in an Age of
Interdependence, the Founder of Interdependence Day and President of
CivWorld. He will be contacting our list of authors about his campaign
later, and we will be asking him to ask his supporting individuals
(and also organizations) to do similarly, and vote in the global
referendum. In the meantime, I would encourage you to go to www.civworld.org
and, if you feel comfortable doing so, sign their “Declaration of
Interdependence” (lower right-hand side of the front page after you
enter the site). It’s a great idea, and it’s very much in harmony with
what we at VWG are doing. Some day, I hope soon, we will be formal
allies in a common cause.

Seeking funding

VWG CEO Bob French has accepted responsibility for fundraising. (VWG,
if you didn’t already know this, is in desperate need of funds.) Our
first inquiry has gone out already to the Ford Foundation. We likely
need $3 or $4 million dollars over the next decade to get the job
done. In the meantime, if you are embarrassed by great wealth, or even
if you are just doing OK, a donation at this time would really help.
(About seven person-years have already gone into this project, all
without pay for the persons who did all that work.)

Earth Hour

From Daily Express, Malaysia, Kota Kinabalu, Saturday, March 28, 2009—
Government departments, hotels, NGOs, commercial outlets, homes and
even churches will be switching off their lights during Earth Hour
between 8.30-9.30 pm tonight. What started in Sydney, Australia, in
2007, is now targeted to involve one billion people in over 1,189
cities in 80 countries.
Sandakan Sepa Chairman Charles Chow urged the “caring” community of
Sandakan to respond wholeheartedly. “We credit WWF for this noble
initiative to rally one billion people across the whole world to take
a united stand against global warming,” he said. “We consider Earth
Hour 2009 the world’s first global referendum - a choice between Earth
and [sic] Global Warming.”

Ed. Note: A global referendum!? Now there’s a thought! However, those
who didn’t turn off their lights weren’t voting “for” global warming.
How about a global referendum with actual ballots and in aid of a cure
for what ails us, such as democratic world government? Now there’s a
formidable thought!

Dealing with push-back

As a result of efforts by VWG Board member Raj Chandola, Lucy Law
Webster, a long-time American World Federalist, is going to research
and counter the various conspiracy theories that exist (to the effect
that world government of any kind is likely to be one of global
dominance by power elites). People who come to our movement are often
stunned at the ferocity and certitude of those who claim we must be
working for one or another of the power elites that are trying to
“take over the world,” such as the Illuminati, the banks, the
Bilderbergers, the Communists, even WalMart (there are perhaps a dozen
or so main themes). The latest incarnation of these vile scare-stories
is called The Obama Deception, and it claims in a series of YouTube
videos (which likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce)
that … well, you get the idea. If these fear-mongers can expend such
boatloads of resources and energy to shoot us down while we’re still
taxiing on a runway, I have little doubt that the pushback will expand
exponentially if the DWG movement ever strikes a cord with the human
race at large (which of course is exactly what we hope the global
referendum will do). Frankly, if we can manage to set up a democratic
world government with total transparency, I think Obama would make a
first-class candidate as the first-ever secretary general—but that for
another day. In the meantime, we wish Lucy all the best in her new
adventure.