United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres introduced his “Common Agenda” plan to the General Assembly and the media on September 10th to address what he called “a pivotal moment” for humanity.
Guterres painted a picture of a world facing a perfect storm of simultaneous crises, including the pandemic, climate change, nuclear weapons proliferation, lethal autonomous weapons, cyberwarfare, rising inequality, and discrimination and violence against women and girls.
President Biden, with his America Last policies, will no doubt go along to get along
The Secretary General declared that “We don’t need new multilateral bureaucracies.” He said he wants “multilateralism with teeth” – presumably, globalist governance bodies that would claim binding legal authority over yet to be defined “global public goods.”
Guterres said that he would “ask an Advisory Board led by eminent former heads of state and government to identify what are the global public goods and potentially other areas of common interest where governance improvements are most needed, where the systems we have now are not sufficiently effective and to propose options for how this could be achieved.”
Guterres also wants to “align the global financial system with global priorities, from sustainable development and climate action to addressing inequality.”
To accomplish his utopian vision of a brave new world, Guterres is calling for a series of summit meetings, including a global “Summit of the Future” that would consider a a “New Agenda for Peace," and a “World Social Summit.”
“These summits would be a corrective to historic injustices and imbalances in the global economy, from trade to the development of technology,” the Secretary General told reporters.
President Biden, with his America Last policies, will no doubt go along to get along.
Guterres, of course, wants a revitalized UN, which he calls UN 2.0, to play a central role in implementing his Common Agenda. But his suggestions for a UN 2.0 do not include any concrete measures to deal with the problems of corruption, lack of transparency and accountability, double standards, and sexual discrimination and abuse that continue to fester within the UN system itself.
Guterres displayed his socialist roots while describing his Common Agenda plan. His recommendations on handling the economy amount to little more than relying on top-down centralized planning at a global level.
The Secretary General recommended, for example, ending “the tyranny of Gross Domestic Product” as a yardstick of economic success, and “replacing it with metrics that measure our wellbeing and that of our planet.”
Universal Internet access should become a basic human right by 2030, Guterres insisted. Who should pay for all this, Guterres did not say. But socialists invariably believe in spending other people’s money.
The Secretary General’s utopian vision for a new Global Agenda embraced by the whole world unfortunately founders on the shoals of reality.
Guterres called for “ending the epidemic of discrimination and violence against women and girls that holds back all of humanity,” for example. But at the same time, he admitted that the UN had to engage with the Taliban conquerors of Afghanistan, the Islamist terrorist organization with one of the world’s worst records against women and girls. Sharia law, which governs in many Muslim countries, codifies the treatment of women as inferiors. Islamists are not about to sign on to a "Common Agenda" that they believe violates Sharia law.
Guterres said that he wants to end “the scourge of racial discrimination.” But he defended holding the Durban IV Conference at the UN on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the first Durban Conference, despite the disgraceful record of anti-Semitism displayed during prior Durban Conferences.
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Secretary General Guterres had a chance to condemn the anti-Semitism that pervaded prior Durban Conferences
At least 16 countries have reportedly decided to boycott the Durban IV Conference because of its checkered past, including the United States, France, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Germany, and other members of the European Union. But when asked for his message to the Durban IV Conference and how he would address the concerns of multiple major member states, all Guterres had to say was the following:
“Well, I believe that Durban represents an important moment in the history of the United Nations. I believe that that should be effectively commemorated, and I hope that there is a dialogue among countries to make sure that the present situation is overcome.”
Secretary General Guterres had a chance to condemn the anti-Semitism that pervaded prior Durban Conferences and to warn the organizers of Durban IV that such expressions of hate at another conference under UN sponsorship that purportedly deals with combating racism will not be tolerated. Guterres missed the chance.
In other words, business as usual at the United Nations.
Evil in the world will not be eliminated by nice-sounding plans and resolutions that simply gather dust over time. History has shown that only peace through strength can work if followed through to victory.
United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres introduced his “Common Agenda” plan to the General Assembly and the media on September 10th to address what he called “a pivotal moment” for humanity.
Guterres painted a picture of a world facing a perfect storm of simultaneous crises, including the pandemic, climate change, nuclear weapons proliferation, lethal autonomous weapons, cyberwarfare, rising inequality, and discrimination and violence against women and girls.
