August 2009, Issue #18 of The WorldVoter

[The WorldVoter]

Hello from Vote World Government.

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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

Issue #18, August, 2009
(This issue and all previous issues are posted at www.RescuePlanForPlanetEarth.com)

Quotes of the month

You are leading the way, brother. Somehow, some way, this species
needs to embrace your leadership or, eventually, cockroaches will be
running the whole gig. Bless you for your vision. Jim Kanady, author
of Capital Offenses and A Different Winter

I am really impressed by the faith and courage of the VWG team. Most
people are not very interested in problems of global governance,
unfortunately … [so] I’m not terribly optimistic … but you never know,
perhaps [the global referendum] might suddenly take off! Christopher
Hamer, author of A Global Parliament: Principles of World Federation

Jim Stark’s suggestion for a global referendum is a great idea to kick
start a real democratic global government movement. I hope millions of
people around the world join in! David E. Christensen, author of
Healing the World: A Primer About the World and How We Must Fix it for
Our Children

News in brief

Canadian national opinion poll commissioned by Vote World Government

VWG has commissioned a national public opinion poll to find out
whether the people of Canada support our initiative. If the numbers
come back positive, we may try to have the poll replicated
internationally. The two questions are:

1. A directly-elected and democratic world parliament would have to
govern the world on global issues while respecting the legitimate
rights and powers of national governments. In your opinion, should the
United Nations pass a resolution asking all its member-states to
conduct national referendums to see if there is a mandate from the
whole human race for the creation of such a world parliament?

Yes, the UN should do that xx%
No, the UN should not do that xx%

2. If a global referendum were held today on the possible
establishment of a directly-elected and democratic world parliament,
how would you vote?

I would vote “yes” xx%
I would vote “no” xx%

Many thanks to Board member Bob French for financing this poll, and
thanks as well to Tanya Linse at Harris/Decima for giving us a one-
time 50% reduction in cost. Results of this poll will be delivered to
us on August 19.

Strategic partnership between VWG and Planetafilia

VWG placed a ballot on the Internet at www.voteworldgovernment.org (in
15 languages so far, including Spanish), but this effort has yielded
only 10,000+ votes in the years it has been available. Unless a
“multiplier effect” can be added to the voting process, there is no
chance that we will live to see the completion of this effort.

In Rescue Plan (Ch. 13) there is a presentation of how we could “fast
track” the voting so that instead of an arithmetic progression (1, 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7) there could be a geometric progression (1, 2, 4, 8, 16,
32, 64, etc.), whereby the vote tally would grow exponentially.
However, we could never find one person or group that would give this
fast-track plan a serious tryout.

One of our supporting authors, Joe Schwartzberg, suggested we contact
Planetafilia, in Mexico. Francisco Plancarte offered a “strategic
partnership” with VWG and then Jorge Luis Navarro Orozco (also of
Planetafilia) declared his faith in the integrity of this fast track
or “chain-voting” idea.

VWG sent a proposal to Planetafilia based on the fast-track concept.
They put it to a vote of their membership, and it was accepted
enthusiastically, with Erandi Dias named as the project manager. VWG
would like to thank Francisco, Jorge, Erandi and other members of
Planetafilia for the promise that flows from our alliance.
Planetafilia will be setting up its own site in Spanish, but linked to
VWG so that it is all one referendum.

Basically, the fast track plan is a pyramid scheme, but with no money
involved. To be a “chain voter” you’d have to votes “yes” and then
recruit two more people who will agree not only to vote “yes,” but
also commit to carrying on the chain and recruiting two more each
within one week of their own vote. Theoretically, we’d have the entire
human race covered in 32 weeks. Of course some people will forget, or
fail, or lie, but the principle is still valid as a means of getting
the online referendum to go viral, and if it does go viral, it is our
plan to leverage that support into a resolution though the UN General
Assembly for a formal global referendum (www.voteworldgovernment.org/
draftUNresolution.pdf).

Mexico is the perfect country to get the ball rolling. According to a
GlobeScan opinion poll in 2004, of 18 countries surveyed, Mexico had
the highest support (85%) for the goal of a UN parliament (essentially
a democratic world government). The next most positive country in that
poll was Brazil, which is not far from Mexico—their support was 73%
“yes” and 10% “no.” Brazilians speak Portuguese, but Portuguese is
close to Spanish in terms of vocabulary (89% similar), grammar and
sentence structure. Argentinians speak Spanish, and the poll results
for Argentina are 66% “yes” and only 6% “no.” And most of the rest of
Central and South America speaks Spanish, so the Mexicans are in an
ideal leadership position. (By the way, Canada was 65% in favour, and
28% opposed in that GlobeScan poll, which isn’t bad, but not nearly as
good as Mexico, Brazil or Argentina.) If the fast-track voting starts
with good publicity and momentum in Mexico (they plan to use TV, radio
and newspapers to promote and back up their campaign), it could spread
over the Internet and become global and “go viral” in a matter of
months.

For those who find this encouraging enough to want to be part of it,
there is a “fast track” link on our site now (http://
www.voteworldgovernment.org/fast_track.shtml) to help you get going.
Soon that link will be available in Spanish as well as English.

Documentary completed on world democracy through a global referendum

After eight years of intensive research and physical field-tests in 26
countries, in every region of the planet, writer-producer-director
Joel Marsden and an international team of democracy activists have
successfully completed the first hands-on study to see if a true world
vote is possible. The result is an 80-minute documentary entitled
World Vote Now (see http://www.worldvotenow.com/ for a 45-second
trailer).

“We’re told democracy creates stability and raises living standards,”
says Marsden. “So why not introduce it on a worldwide scale? Can every
person in the world have an equal vote? And if so, how can such a
seemingly massive feat be accomplished, logistically?” Joel Marsden’s
film attempts to answer these questions.

World Future Society conference and Ervin Laszlo

Ted Stalets (VWG VP) and Bob French (VWG CEO) attended the World
Future Society conference in Chicago, Ill. in late July, hoping to
advance the cause of democratic world government and the idea of a
global referendum. It’s too early to know if this investment will lead
to concrete results, but already we have a few new and very
interesting authors on our list, including Ervin Laszlo, the Founder
of Club of Budapest (see below).

Founded in 1993, the global Club of Budapest is an informal
international association dedicated to developing a new way of
thinking and a new ethics that will help resolve the social,
political, economic, and ecological challenges of the 21st century.
With its roster of internationally renowned members the Club initiates
a dialogue between different belief systems and world views in order
to co-create and develop effective strategies for responsible and
sustainable action with a global focus. (See www.clubofbudapest.org/
for more info.)

103 authors now support the global referendum on democratic world
government

We are very pleased to report that support from established authors
continues to grow. To see the full list, click on
http://www.voteworldgovernment.org/authorscampaign.shtml. It is clear
that the concept of a global referendum on democratic world government
is very credible, or we would not have this kind of support from
scholars and intellectuals. Two other recent additions are Dr. Robert
Muller, former deputy Secretary General of the UN, and Michael
M’Gonigle, a co-founder of Greenpeace International.