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  Uniting for Peace Summer Conference 2023 addresses Inequality and Instability – Peace Based Approach GB

  Inequality and Instability – Peace Based Approach was the urgently relevant theme of Uniting for Peace online summer conference on 18th of May attended by around 60 participants worldwide. Vijay Mehta, UfP Chair and Rita Payne, who chaired the conference, welcomed the participants. Federico Mayor Zaragoza – former Director General of UNESCO and founder of fundacion de Culturata said that now particularly relevant to put into practice the Agenda 2030. Only “we, the peoples” —already recognized equal in dignity and able to express ourselves freely— can redress the present trends and substitute the G-7 (plutocractic and supremacist) governance by a multilateral and democratic one. A new concept of human security must be adopted. The United Nations, after 75 years, cannot take action because of the five vetoes of the winners of the II World War. The European Union, as well, cannot take decisions because of the required “unanimity”, which is the antithesis of democracy. Now, for the first time “we, the peoples” can. Now, we must. Kate Hudson – General Secretary of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament said, that the role of the increasing militarisation in the worsening conditions that are facing the global majority and focus a bit on Britain and how its policies have developed in recent years leading to serious economic crisis for millions of people across Britain not to mention globally. In this context, one need to remember that UK has one of the largest military spending over £50 billion from the public purse. Boris Johnson, in his integrated review, announced an increase of 40 potentially new nuclear weapons at the time of offering nurses 1% pay increase. Now with war in Ukraine, with the emphasis of UK Prime Minister is towards increased military spending while £4 billion has been cut in the overseas Aid Budget. We would like Britain to be a force for peace and not war. It should not sacrifice schools and healthcare and we will all continue campaigning for that. Vijay Mehta – Chair of Uniting for Peace and author of How Not To Go To War stated Inequality is increasing as rich are getting richer and poor poorer and government are doing little to change this tragic situation. Vast majority of global population are confined to substandard living condition while global elite are increasing their wealth at a horrifying pace. Inequality leads to instability, which leads directly to civic unrest, violence and conflicts. To make matters worse, European Union have recently allocated €1 Billion to procure ammunition and missiles to support continuing war in Ukraine. UK is sending long range Storm Shadow cruise missiles along with US and NATO members, supplying arms to Ukraine resulting in overall world’s military expenditure to rise to $2.4 trillion with the spectre of a nuclear war looming on the horizon in Europe, we are sleep walking in to World War III. The challenges we face today can only be solved if we work for peace. One of the initiatives which can make a difference is establishing Ministries / Departments for Peace in every country which can work on promoting culture of peace and creating more opportunities for education, healthcare, jobs and social services. This will help building a more equal, stable and peaceful world. David Swanson – Executive Director of World Beyond War, and author of “War is a Lie”, in his contribution, invited delegates present to answer 9 questions in a quiz which they recently published as a collection of maps called Mapping Militarism. He showed multiple maps and asked delegates to put their answers in the chat. The maps are: Countries of NATO alliance – the 27 countries of NATO. The NATO is a disguise for the US Military.Where wars are happening on the ground now – drone wars (Pakistan and other countries), proxy wars (Ukraine, Syria and Yemen) and gun deaths (highest in USA and Mexico)Countries that manufacture and export weaponry of war – USA exports weapons to over 200 countries followed by France, Russia, China and India. In contrast, there is zero military spending by Iceland and Costa Rica.Map of number of dollars spent by each country on manufacture and export of the weapon which are over 2 trillion dollars.Military spending per capita – Qatar is the huge leader, Israel is the second, US is third, followed by Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Kuwait and Norway.Countries which are illegally punished with economic sanctions which is often a step towards war and also damage much of the world and also not just the place targeted. Some examples – Russia, Iran, North KoreaForeign US Military Bases on earth which leads to wars and not to prevent themThis map is about efforts for peace and countries which are nuclear free zonesThere is a map of peaceful individuals from countries who have signed the World Beyond War Declaration of Peace It was a good quiz and someone suggested to include refugees into a map which he said he will do. John Gittings – Former the Guardian journalist and author of the “The Glorious Art of Peace”, said that he is going to talk about the existential risk facing humanity and what we and the United Nations can do about it. The world is facing a perfect storm of pandemic, threat of nuclear weapons, war in Ukraine and artificial intelligence and unintended consequences that AI may bring to the existence of humanity. The problem of world poverty and inequality is minimised with the comforting belief that things are improving and trend is in the right direction. Although things have improved in East Asia and China, according to figures, there are 1.5 billion people living in moderate / extreme poverty. War and climate change have undoubtedly made these situations worse. UN is known for its peacekeeping role and often blamed for issues which are the result of the member states. UN’s economic and social forecast are very important and it needs all the help from the member sates to address economic inequality and deprivation. However, member states support the United Nations especially in its poverty reduction programmes then certainly we can reduce inequality and instability. UN should be more visible so that it can fulfil its role not only in peacekeeping but also reducing global poverty and inequality. David Adams – Former UNESCO Director of the unit for The International Year of Culture of Peace said this has been a very interesting and agrees with Federico Mayor who said that we have entered a new era in which people from all over the world can speak together thanks to this kind of media and thanks to the initiatives of people like Vijay Mehta who has brought us together. The good news is that what we see in the Culture of Peace News Network is that there is a developing global consciousness of the need and the possibility of a transition from the culture of war to a culture of peace. But the bad news, of course; is that global inequality continues to rise, as it has been already for centuries, and this rising inequality is leading us to a crisis in democracy. When people vote, they are voting out of their anger against their governments for allowing the exploitation which is the cause of the rising inequality. As a result we get the Trump syndrome. The people who support Trump do so because they are angry at the US governments support of Silicon Valley and Wall Street while they do not give support for the people’s needs. The History of the Culture of War, which shows how the culture of war has owed its success over the course of history to the profits gained by exploitation, whether through slavery, colonialism and imperialism abroad and or suppression of revolt at home. Well, how can we get to a culture of peace? A glimpse of this was visible when Federico Mayor was the Director-General of UNESCO. The UNESCO was able to develop peace initiatives to follow the UN blue helmets in Mozambique and El Salvador and was able to mobilise 75 million people to sign the Manifesto 2000 promising to work for a culture of peace in their communities; and to draft the Declaration and Programme of Action for a Culture of Peace, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1999, perhaps the most important document of the UN since the Declaration of Human Rights. Well, UNESCO can return to giving a priority to the culture of peace.” The event followed a vibrant Q/A session for 40 minutes which gave opportunity to delegates for an interactive session discussing various issues including war in Ukraine, Yemen and Sudan, poverty in Africa and the global South and initiatives how to upscale peace and reduce inequality. Report prepared by Vijay Mehta, Chair, Uniting for Peace

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  Upcoming Online Event – World Peace in Peril: Challenging False Narratives GB

  World Peace in Peril: Challenging False NarrativesDate and Time: Tuesday 29 November, 2022. 18:00 – 20:00 (UK Time)Speakers Invited: Vijay Mehta, Chris Hedges, Andreu Ginestet, Rev. Brian Cooper, Frank Jackson. Bernie Holland and Luke Addison.Online Conference – Zoom Details below: Vijay Mehta is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3482765417?pwd=dXI1WXJRUS9TbHowWVhVNDVMRlR5QT09Meeting ID: 348 276 5417Passcode: 2022Public Meeting. All Welcome to attend. Blurb: Why world peace is in peril? We live in an age of misinformation, rhetoric and propaganda. The brainwashing is so thorough that Western societies are programmed to swallow a pack of lies. If we do not recognise propaganda, we may accept it as normal and believe in it. That’s how submissive we have become. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and annexation of Crimea is inexcusable and a criminal act. It’s a crime to invade a sovereign country. Similarly, United States have been dropping bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and now fighting a US / NATO proxy war with Russia in Ukraine. US and Russia’s crimes are systematic, constant and vicious. But few people talk about it as Western media is dominated by US as top media companies are based in North America. The internet and social media – Google, Twitter, Facebook are mostly American owned and controlled. We live in a system of corporate democracy where war is a corporate necessity. If there are more wars, more bloodshed, it is good for business. Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Syria, Yemen are all evil regimes controlled by evil dictators – propaganda that originates in the US and transmitted through Western media, its proxies and think-tanks. Same is true of Palestine – misreported for decades. In this climate of constant lies, Uniting for Peace online conference with its distinguished speakers will explore how we can challenge false narratives and find ways to build a more peaceful world.

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