CLIMATE ACTION AND INCLUSION
Climate change — or as Secretary General Guterres calls it, the climate crisis — is the defining development issue of our time. Failure to address it nullifies all other endeavors in the long run. As an economist puts it, “climate change matters so much for poverty: it is the poorest who are, and will be, hit earliest and hardest.”[1] Yes, Keynes was prophetic: “In the long run we are all dead.”
Climate change has brought my country – already one of the most vulnerable countries to disasters —extreme weather events of increasing recurrence and strength.
Disasters are the reverse of God; they can make nothing out of something already there; built with great sacrifice. They wipe out socio-economic gains like an eraser wipes the lesson off the blackboard at the end of the school day. Disasters do more — they reverse economic growth so you start not just from nothing but with far less strength and spirit to try again.
If climate action does not measure up to what is needed, we all face the same fate: a diminished existence then extinction altogether. But the most to blame will suffer less; and only much later than those who are the least at fault.
We already have the global frameworks to address poverty, sustain development, and combat climate change. So, let’s just do it. To borrow from Kung Fu Panda, “Enough talk, let’s fight.” The Secretary General urges us to actually plant trees than plan some more to plant them. I think he’s fed up.
PEACE AND SECURITY
When President Corazon Aquino addressed the General Assembly in 1986, after her Peaceful People Power Revolution, she said, “perhaps it is only the tragedy of conflict that teaches us the true value of peace.”
Everything we have, such as it is; everything we work for; all for which we wish and strive; indeed, the world as it is with much to be desired and the better world we think we can make — all that will be erased in an instant by nuclear war. We must eliminate this possibility. And we have tried. The Universal Ban on Nuclear Weapons was overwhelmingly adopted in the UN and swiftly ratified back home, except for the Philippines for bureaucratic reasons no one can divine — unless you work in government.
Let us not wait for the conflict to make us value the peace we have. Let’s hope Cory Aquino is proved wrong; and that we will learn by reading and recollection, rather than living through our violent mistakes all over again —and again.
Terrorism, with its links to drug trafficking and organized crime, is the most pressing threat to us all. The fight to retake the city of Marawi, which left it looking like Swiss cheese, was triggered by an attempt to serve a warrant of arrest for drug trafficking on the leader of an Islamic jihad. Some would argue; we should have just let him get on with his business. Unfortunately, my President won’t oblige. He wants to eliminate the drug trade. I know, I know; this is terrible; where will we get our fix?
Peace is out of the hands of peacemakers; it is entirely in the hands of lawbreakers, who have attained a level of organization far superior to poor states like mine. The violent initiative lies entirely with them.
But what lies with us is decency. How we fight, how we protect, how we defeat our enemies with arms when we are attacked with arms; with the truth when attacked with lies; always and ever — all constitutions mandate it — with only victory in mind; refusing anything less. Compromise throws away the advantage gained in a fight for survival, giving the other side time and space to recover and rally. But always and ever the fight must be fought with a decent regard for the civilized opinion of mankind.
Mr. President,
That the UN endures after nearly 75 years is an affirmation of the world’s abiding desire for peace in spite of its failures — which are broadcast; and the dispiriting silence, that greets its many successes.
With successes, continuing challenges, and unceasing criticism, the UN has demonstrated its resilience and affirmed its continuing relevance; something that cannot be doubted given the alternative: the terrible wars out of which the UN was born.
Shifting political realities, successive power configurations, and the increasing confused nature of global realities should not make the United Nations change its character and goals: peace and democracy, sustainable development if possible; climate action for our sake and our children’s. For God’s sake, they’re already screaming at us. They see what’s there and we refuse; none so blind, indeed.
Those grim realities teach no values; they only urge surrender by compromise. That is unacceptable to the community of civilized nations. There can be no other world order than the one established with the United Nations as its guardian.
As a sovereign country, the Philippines renews its commitment to the ideals of the United Nations: to end the scourge of war; to uphold justice and, yes, human rights but starting with the right of the many who are good, to be safe and be protected from the bad; and to maintain peace and amity among the nations under this one roof — united. Thank you.
https:/
Climate change — or as Secretary General Guterres calls it, the climate crisis — is the defining development issue of our time. Failure to address it nullifies all other endeavors in the long run. As an economist puts it, “climate change matters so much for poverty: it is the poorest who are, and will be, hit earliest and hardest.”[1] Yes, Keynes was prophetic: “In the long run we are all dead.”
Climate change has brought my country – already one of the most vulnerable countries to disasters —extreme weather events of increasing recurrence and strength.
Disasters are the reverse of God; they can make nothing out of something already there; built with great sacrifice. They wipe out socio-economic gains like an eraser wipes the lesson off the blackboard at the end of the school day. Disasters do more — they reverse economic growth so you start not just from nothing but with far less strength and spirit to try again.
If climate action does not measure up to what is needed, we all face the same fate: a diminished existence then extinction altogether. But the most to blame will suffer less; and only much later than those who are the least at fault.
We already have the global frameworks to address poverty, sustain development, and combat climate change. So, let’s just do it. To borrow from Kung Fu Panda, “Enough talk, let’s fight.” The Secretary General urges us to actually plant trees than plan some more to plant them. I think he’s fed up.
PEACE AND SECURITY
When President Corazon Aquino addressed the General Assembly in 1986, after her Peaceful People Power Revolution, she said, “perhaps it is only the tragedy of conflict that teaches us the true value of peace.”
Everything we have, such as it is; everything we work for; all for which we wish and strive; indeed, the world as it is with much to be desired and the better world we think we can make — all that will be erased in an instant by nuclear war. We must eliminate this possibility. And we have tried. The Universal Ban on Nuclear Weapons was overwhelmingly adopted in the UN and swiftly ratified back home, except for the Philippines for bureaucratic reasons no one can divine — unless you work in government.
Let us not wait for the conflict to make us value the peace we have. Let’s hope Cory Aquino is proved wrong; and that we will learn by reading and recollection, rather than living through our violent mistakes all over again —and again.
Terrorism, with its links to drug trafficking and organized crime, is the most pressing threat to us all. The fight to retake the city of Marawi, which left it looking like Swiss cheese, was triggered by an attempt to serve a warrant of arrest for drug trafficking on the leader of an Islamic jihad. Some would argue; we should have just let him get on with his business. Unfortunately, my President won’t oblige. He wants to eliminate the drug trade. I know, I know; this is terrible; where will we get our fix?
Peace is out of the hands of peacemakers; it is entirely in the hands of lawbreakers, who have attained a level of organization far superior to poor states like mine. The violent initiative lies entirely with them.
But what lies with us is decency. How we fight, how we protect, how we defeat our enemies with arms when we are attacked with arms; with the truth when attacked with lies; always and ever — all constitutions mandate it — with only victory in mind; refusing anything less. Compromise throws away the advantage gained in a fight for survival, giving the other side time and space to recover and rally. But always and ever the fight must be fought with a decent regard for the civilized opinion of mankind.
Mr. President,
That the UN endures after nearly 75 years is an affirmation of the world’s abiding desire for peace in spite of its failures — which are broadcast; and the dispiriting silence, that greets its many successes.
With successes, continuing challenges, and unceasing criticism, the UN has demonstrated its resilience and affirmed its continuing relevance; something that cannot be doubted given the alternative: the terrible wars out of which the UN was born.
Shifting political realities, successive power configurations, and the increasing confused nature of global realities should not make the United Nations change its character and goals: peace and democracy, sustainable development if possible; climate action for our sake and our children’s. For God’s sake, they’re already screaming at us. They see what’s there and we refuse; none so blind, indeed.
Those grim realities teach no values; they only urge surrender by compromise. That is unacceptable to the community of civilized nations. There can be no other world order than the one established with the United Nations as its guardian.
As a sovereign country, the Philippines renews its commitment to the ideals of the United Nations: to end the scourge of war; to uphold justice and, yes, human rights but starting with the right of the many who are good, to be safe and be protected from the bad; and to maintain peace and amity among the nations under this one roof — united. Thank you.
https:/
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