January 13, 2003
The big question of the less than one month old New Year is: Where on earth are we going with Canadian business man Maurice Strong out on the centre of the world stage? To be more specific, what precisely is Strong doing in North Korea?
We do know that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan sent a special envoy to North Korea last Monday "to assess the humanitarian situation" as Pyongyang came under global pressure to shut down a suspected nuclear arms program.
We know that North Korea, only last Friday threatened a Third World War, boldly claiming it could hold its own in a ‘fire-to-fire standoff’.
We now know that two North Korean envoys met in Sante Fe, New Mexico, with Governor Bill Richardson, a former U.N. ambassador and diplomatic troubleshooter.
We do know that Strong is now in North Korea.
Strong, a special advisor to the secretary-general, is the architect of the Kyoto Protocol.
According to unidentified U.N officials, the Canadian "has been involved in humanitarian operations in North Korea for some time."
In what way? For how long, and most especially why were there no reports on Strong’s involvement as a humanitarian in North Korea in the people’s main form of information: the mainline international media?
"North Korea has thumbed its nose at the international community," said U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell. "It is a very serious situation."
And for those claiming that Americans are in overreact mode, this is what South Korea had to say: The potential nuclear standoff (is) a matter of "life and death".
Why is the U.N. sending Strong into a situation of "life and death"?
What credentials does this Canadian-born environmental guru have to meddle in crucial international matters?
Although the name Maurice Strong has been bandied about in U.N. environmental parlay for decades, the vast majority of average Canadians know him best as the architect of the recently signed Kyoto Protocol. Next to that, Canadians know Strong best as the man who wanted to sink their hard-earned tax dollars into a Costa Rican rain forest when he was Chairman of Ontario Hydro.
How does any of the experience gleaned from either of these two portfolios help Strong help us in what is being described as a "brinkmanship" situation?
This is how an editor’s note in Prophecy Magazine (May/June 2000) describes our man in North Korea:
"Strong chaired the Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. He, together with Mikhail Gorbachev, founded Green Cross International of which Gorbachev is now president. Strong was appointed by Annan to preside over reform at the U.N. in order to prepare it for governing the world in the 21st century. He is now serving as the president of the U.N. University of Peace in Costa Rica. In March of 2000, Strong and Gorbachev co-authored the Earth Charter, which they hope will become a globally accepted statement of principles that will ultimately bring all of mankind together."
Gorbachev has described the Earth Charter as the replacement for the Ten Commandments.
Did the first two weeks of 2003 create an international chess game where environmental ego is moving the ivory pieces?
The global chess game is real and includes the potential of nuclear war.
According to recognized terror and military expert John Thompson (see Over a barrel with North Korea), "proportional to its 22 million population, North Korea is the most heavily armed country in the world."
South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported last Monday that U.N. envoy Strong was expected to travel to Pyongyang to urge the North Koreans to attend the World Economic Forum and to take part in its annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland between Jan. 23-28.
Until last November, Strong was a member of the Forum’s foundation board.
Founded in 1970, the Forum’ annual meeting was until recently a low-key affair which encouraged the heads of multinational companies to rub shoulders with leading politicians and academics, as well as some informal international diplomacy.
Daniel Wood wrote about Strong in an article entitled The Wizard of the Baca Grande (West Magazine, Alberta, Canada, May 1990): "From an interview with Council of the World Economic Forum co-chairman Maurice Strong, in which he outlines the plot of a novel, `he would love to compose if only he could write.’
"Each year, (Strong) explains as background to…the novel’s plot, the World Economic Forum convenes in Davos, Switzerland. Over 1,000 CEO’s, prime ministers, finance ministers, and leading academics gather in February to attend meetings and set economic agendas for the year ahead. With this as a setting, he then says: ‘What if a small group of these world leaders were to conclude that the principle risk to the earth comes from the actions of the rich countries? …In order to save the planet, the group decides: Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized nations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring this about?’
"This group of world leaders,’ he continues, ‘forms a secret society to bring about an economic collapse. It’s February. They’re all at Davos. These aren’t terrorists. They’re world leaders. They have positioned themselves in the world’s commodities and stock markets. They’ve engineered, using their access to stock markets and computers and gold supplies, a panic. Then they prevent the world’s stock markets from closing. They jam the gears. They hire mercenaries who hold the rest of the world leaders at Davos as hostage. The markets can’t close…’ This is Maurice Strong. He knows these world leaders. He is, in fact, co-chairman of the Council of the World Economic Forum. He sits at the fulcrum of power. He is in a position to do it. ‘I probably shouldn’t be saying things like this.’"
Those words were written about Maurice Strong in 1990.
In August 2002, John Passacantando, executive director of Greenpeace U.S. wrote an article entitled ‘George W. Bush, Meet Maurice Strong.
"The study of leadership is a great American obsession," Passacantando wrote. "We make rich men and women out of the historian who can teach us something new about those who led us in crisis or into new eras."
Passacantando went on to look at the profiles of two modern leaders, Bush and Strong, "two men with backgrounds in the energy industry whose emerging legacies look like a Hollywood caricature of good vs. evil."
In ending the piece, Passacantando wrote that "The great historians will have to sort out why these two men differed so much, although at the current rate, kids the world over will want to know who stopped Bush; and Strong is on the shortlist to do that right now."
"Strong is on the shortlist to do that right now?
The burning question is: Why?
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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