February 2010, Issue #24 of The WorldVoter
The WorldVoter
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The WorldVoter
the newsletter of
Vote World Parliament
— democratic world parliament through a global referendum —
www.VoteWorldParliament.org
Vote World Parliament President is Jim Stark; Vice President is Ted
Stalets
www.RescuePlanForPlanetEarth.com
This site, above, is for the companion book Rescue Plan for Planet
Earth
Issue #24, February, 2010
(This issue and all previous issues are posted at
http://voteworldparliament.org/about/newsletter/)
Quotes of the month
"Our global referendum is the best instrument to put pressure on
governments to accept and embrace world democracy." Francisco
Plancarte, founding member of the World Alliance to Transform the UN
(WATUN); Chairman, Planetafilia; member of the Inter-American Bar
Association
"The most important decisions have migrated away from institutions
under citizens’ control and towards international power centres free
from any form of democratic supervision. Globalisation thus brings
about the crisis of democracy. How long can democracy last in a world
where citizens are excluded from participating in decisions which
determine their destiny? Globalisation must be democratised before it
destroys democracy." Lucio Levi, Crisi dello Stato e governo del mondo
(Crisis of the state and world government)
News in brief
World Vote Now documentary to be shown in European Parliament
Kudos to filmmaker Joel Marsden. His documentary World Vote Now has
been granted a special screening inside the EU Parliament on February
23 (Room PHS 7C050). After 8 years of research and physical field
tests in 26 countries, Joel and an international team of democracy
activists have successfully completed the first hands-on study to see
if a true global referendum is possible. See brilliant trailer at:
www.voteworldparliament.org or on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rK2WPtzAnk.
Beware the partial world parliament
In a new article entitled “A green world order,” British PM Gordon
Brown blames “the lack of a global body with the sole responsibility
for environmental stewardship” (quote from
http://www.myjoyonline.com/tools/print/printnews.asp?contentid=40984).
This is just one more unaccountable quasi world government with its
pants on the ground and its democratic deficit showing … vividly. What
about the other global issues that are just as threatening, like
nuclear war? Should we set up a separate “global body” for that issue?
For each global issue? This problem is elementary. If we are to govern
ourselves globally such that we don’t wreck the planet and render Homo
sapiens extinct, we need a directly-elected, representative and
democratic world parliament that is authorized to legislate on global
issues, and we need it right now. And because democracy is defined as
governance with the consent of the governed, we have launched a global
referendum on that issue.
New Board member starts chain voting project in Brazil
Vote World Parliament is very pleased to welcome Kelvin Paul Scholz to
our Board. This young Brazilian law student has responded to our
initiative in the way we expected most intelligent young people to do—
by embracing it and finding a way to promote the global referendum in
his native language and culture. He has taken the idea of chain voting
(aka “the fast track” - http://voteworldparliament.org/you-can-help/fast-track/),
called it by his chosen nickname (the “CV” project), and will be
launching it in Brazil on February 28. Part of his long-term plan
involves using our Student Referendum Program (see program at
http://voteworldparliament.org/you-can-help/student-referendum-program/)
at several universities. (More about Kelvin Paul at
http://voteworldparliament.org/about/who-we-are/).
New video
VWP president Jim Stark was asked by Deepak Vyas, head of The Global
Trust in India, to make a 5-minute video to be shown at their
anniversary gathering (50 NGOs attended). It is posted on YouTube
(downloadable at http://www.sendspace.com/file/0c124l).
Facebook campaign
VWP Board member Brian Coughlan has kicked off a Facebook initiative
which will “go live” February 16. If you have a Facebook account,
please join the group: “Can we find 100,000 people willing to put
human beings ahead of banks?” Brian is currently looking for admins,
so please drop him a line on Facebook if you are willing to be one.
The group explains what you need to do, so please follow the
instructions detailed on the group wall. If you need an incentive to
join, the group features a trailer to Joel Marsden’s documentary film,
World Vote Now. On the 16th we will begin to forward invites to our
own Facebook networks, and this should generate votes for the
referendum.
Peace talks with the Taliban?
(See: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/reuters/100128/world/international_us_afghanistan
for article entitled “Karzai government invites Taliban to peace
meeting”)
The Karzai government has invited the Taliban to a peace meeting, and
Western prime ministers and pundits are lining up to cheer. To suggest—
even one year ago—that peace negotiations involving the Taliban should
be held to resolve the conflict in Afghanistan would have produced a
chorus of indignation and high dudgeon from the USA and its so-called
coalition of the willing. “We don’t negotiate with terrorists” they
would have said, or “You can’t negotiate with terrorists.” Now, even
the USA’s General David Petraeus supports the idea, and says, “There’s
been enough fighting.” (Oddly, but predictably, the word “enough” is
not defined, nor is the question answered: “Enough for what?”) If we
create a democratic world parliament that criminalizes war (just as
national governments criminalize theft, murder, etc.), negotiations
would have commenced when the first bullet was fired, even before
9/11, no matter how awful either party had behaved in the past. All
really serious conflicts will get either fought out or talked out, and
with weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that could threaten all life on
Earth, fighting out our differences must become a thing of the past,
and talking them out must be come mandatory. To do that, to make that
into a legal obligation, we need a directly elected democratic word
parliament.
Editorial, by Brian Coughlan
Missing the mark … big time
I recently stumbled across an article by Michel Rocard (“The UN to the
Rescue on Climate Change” www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rocard29/English).
In a nutshell, it is a call for the UN General Assembly to take the
lead on formulating and applying climate change legislation globally,
to make the UNGA function like a genuine global parliament. The author
argues that the nation states have failed in Copenhagen, and only the
UNGA has the relevant authority and gravitas to press on with the
agenda without being obstructed by major players like the US or
China.
Rocard has an impressive resumé; former Prime Minister of France, a
former leader of the Socialist Party, and currently an elected member
of the European Parliament. Note that word “elected,” since it will
shortly become obvious why I choose to highlight it with italics, and
why Michel Rocard should know better, much better, than is apparent
from his article.
Reading the piece, I couldn’t help but think: “What a great idea!” A
global parliament is exactly what we need to legislate on the climate
change issue. But there is the tiniest of snags, the merest of
drawbacks, the most infinitesimal of objections.
The UN General Assembly is not a democratic world parliament … not
even close. Its members are not elected by the people. They are
usually political partisans, appointed and paid by national
governments, and one doesn’t have to be a political scientist to know
that on this planet, “he who pays the piper calls the tune.” UN
ambassadors are interested almost exclusively in promoting the
interests of their home government.
But even if we were to grant that UN ambassadors somehow theoretically
“represent” the citizens of the home country, there is another reality
that is fatally damaging to Rocard’s proposal; the complete lack of
population-based vote weighting in the UNGA. Andorra, with a
population of 80,000, has one vote, and so does India, which has
1,200,000,000 citizens; as many people as 15,000 Andorras! This—if you
will forgive the Anglo-Saxon understatement—is not ideal.
To be fair, the one-state, one-vote model is not an unprecedented
concept in the annals of parliamentary bodies. The US senate is not
dissimilar. Still, even the most broadminded of democrats must balk at
a system where UNGA resolutions could be passed by the unelected
appointees of states representing less than ten percent of the global
population. That is so egregiously anti-democratic as to make one
upchuck, or at least choke.
I’m sympathetic to the impulse that led Michel to write his article.
I, too, want to see a global parliament legislating on issues of
global interest like climate change. But who could seriously agree to
live under legislation imposed by the unelected national partisans of
as laughably undemocratic a body as the UNGA? Not this global
democrat! I am arguably part of the demographic that at least has some
empathy for this proposal, and if I can’t countenance it, what will be
the reactions of US and Chinese hyper-nationalists? I’m guessing … not
good at all.
Michel Rocard’s heart is in the right place here, but his august head
… not so much. A genuine global parliament of directly elected
representatives, weighted proportionally to global population, is the
only answer that has a chance of general acceptance. The sweep of
human history testifies to this reality, from the Greek city states
2,500 years ago, to the EU Parliament today.
* * *
Brian Coughlan is the Liaison Officer of Vote World Parliament, an NGO
dedicated to launching a global referendum on the creation of a
democratic world parliament (more info at www.voteworldparliament.org
or www.RescuePlanForPlanetEarth.com; 123 supporting authors at
http://voteworldparliament.org/allies-initiatives/authors-campaign/)