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Just got this notice from the Better World Campaign:
Today, at 11:30 a.m. EST, Secretary-General Kofi Annan will deliver his last major speech as leader of the United Nations. The speech will explore issues of global governance and the role of the United States in international affairs. Click here to watch the webcast from the Truman Presidential Library or visit www.betterworldcampaign.org to read the transcript. Afterwards, you can share your thoughts on the speech by joining in an online forum hosted by The People Speak, a multi-media discussion series on international issues.
The People Speak is an online space for people
to "explore and discuss global challenges and opportunities and the
value of international cooperation." It’s great to see the growth of these electronic forums for people around the world to gather and discuss important political issues. I’d love to see virtual environments like Second Life bring together people for more immersive interchanges on occasions like this.
UPDATE 1PM: Read the full text of the SG’s speech here.
And Second Life? Could it be done there?
The speech is already leaked, as you may know, and blasts the U.S.
And, while blasts are in order, given what lack of respect and seriousness the U.S. shows to the UN, which does accomplish quite a bit in the world, one does have to wonder: Rwanda, Darfur, Chechnya, oil-for-food scandal — all of these happened on this watch or Kofi’s previous watch — and while his role in mitigating them is acknowledged, he cannot be said to have stood up to the perm 5 in quite the way Mary Robinson did — with all perm 5.
I do believe that Kofi’s greatest accomplishment was mainstreaming human rights through all UN agencies, so that no more, could they segregate problems like childrens’ vaccinations or clean water as somehow being unrelated to human rights writ large, both civil/political and economical/social.
If carefully organized and promoted, I’m sure SL could be an good venue for dialogue around important addresses like this. It would have to be done with some hooks into a web-based discussion, using something like DestroyTV or a SL<->web forum tool.
I agree that one of Annan’s greatest accomplishments is his pushing human rights from one of a large collection of concerns to a central organizing principle for all UN activities. Scandals notwithstanding, it was also on his watch that the moribund Committee on Human Rights was replaced by the potentially more vital Human Rights Council and that the International Criminal Court, after decades of discussions, finally became a reality.
I did not hear the speech, I was looking for it on CNN, I should have checked Fox News, NBC and CBS. As a matter of fact I probably got up too late. Anyway, I think Kofi Annan critique of President Bush’s policies is a just and accurate one as well as one that should have curtailed a Member Nation (The United States) from taking such action in Iraq. It is strange how everyone, the Democrats, Bush’s Critics as well as the United Nations all began to come up with all these criticism and miles and miles of solutions toward Bush’s actions in Iraq. Yet, they refused to challenger Bush’s actions when this situation first took place.
It appears to me that President Bush is doing everything the Democrats, as well as his Critics, wanted to do or would have done but did not have the balls to do so. And now, a year or so later they all are the good guys trying to maintain the dignity of humanity. I guest that is what is meant by the quote in his speech, Annan refers to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. “When military force is used, the world at large will consider it legitimate only when convinced that it is being used for the right purposes…. in accordance with broadly accepted norms.” The speech continues that “governments must be accountable for their actions in the international arena as well as in the domestic one.”
This is exactly my criticism of the Democratic Party in regard to their action toward President Bush’s policies. If President Bush’s policies are wrong now, why weren’t they wrong when President Bush enacted his policies? Everyone knows that war is hell and people get killed in wars. After thousand and thousand of deaths, now the Democratic and President Bush’s Critics are saying that the war in Iraq is wrong.
I am an American and I love America yet I still say that President Bush had no rights acting as an independent force invading a foreign Country. The Iran-Iraq war as well a the tragedy that happened on September 11 are matter of International security regardless the non-compliance toward the UN Resolution. It is the United Nations job to police the World regardless of it efficiency.
Ernest Herron
Katy, Texas