With the preliminary signing of an American-Soviet nuclear arms reduction agreement in December, 1987, the world has entered a new era in its pursuit of peace.
If the proper steps are taken next, our world tomorrow will have little resemblance to that of yesterday, and the historic cycle of aggression between peoples, the abuses of fundamental human rights and human dignity, and the steady militarization of society at the expense of funding human needs so characteristic of past conceptions of "civilization" --will finally be replaced by the hopes in the hearts of human beings of goodwill since the pioneers in the struggle for peace first laid down their clubs and swords and lent each other brotherly and sisterly hands.
Ours is a world today that rapidly evolves towards the "global village" Canada's late social analyst Marshall McLuhan twenty years ago foresaw.
When a vulnerable baby today in Africa cries out from its hunger, "all of us" can see and feel its suffering before the day is finished by means of present media technology that can potentially once and for all show us it is, indeed, a small world we live in.
When a fist is raised today to protest the denial of human rights in Korea, Poland, South Africa, or any of scores of countries still struggling to determine and establish their own identities and values, the camera and notebook of the reporter are usually there to record that there are still pockets of darkness as the light of human compassion and understanding brightens overall.
The oppressors of today fight a lost cause--perhaps only against their own misconceptions and weaknesses.
More than a century ago, Britain's renowned philosopher and jurist Jeremy Bentham realized
that:
"In the darkness of secrecy, sinister interest and evil in every shape have full swing. Only in proportion as publicity* has place can any of the checks applicable to judicial injustice operate.
Where there is no publicity,* there is no justice."
And only a few decades later, France's philosopher Emile Auguste Chartier (Alain) noted that:
"Nothing is more dangerous than an idea, when it's the only one we have."**
Canada is a country that has developed as a multicultural and multiracial society from
foundations established by British and French pioneers centuries ago.
Until the recent dawning of a renewed commitment to democracy and human freedoms that has
ushered in an age of opening national borders and freer minglings of peoples, aside from
the United States--and on a different level, the Soviet Union--Canada was the only living
example of a successful multiracial democracy that comes to mind in reviewing human
history.
*-THE INTERNET BEING SUCH AN INTERNATIONAL FORUM--AN "OPEN BOOK," IF YOU WILL--I THINK IT'S RELEVANT HERE TO SUGGEST THAT VISITORS TO MY AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE TO CONSIDER A TERM OF REFERENCE THAT EXPLAINS HOW THIS WORD TRANSLATES IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE.
**-WITH RESPECT FOR SUSAN SONTAG AND MY CONTINUING BELIEF IN THE IMPORTANCE OF HAVING "ALTERNATIVES" TO VIOLENCE AND ANARCHY--AND I RESPECT THE RIGHT OF PEOPLE TO EXPRESS THEIR OPPOSITION TO GOVERNMENT POLICIES WITH WHICH THEY DISAGREE--ALSO ON THE SUBJECT OF "IDEA(S)", TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
IF I SUPPOSE THAT PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA JEAN CHRÉTIEN SOUNDS A BIT COMBATIVE IN WHAT YOU FIND IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE AND MIGHT BE FIXING FOR A CONFRONTATION WITH YOURS TRULY ALSO IMMINENTLY OVER WHAT UNDOUBTEDLY WILL BE BE WHAT HE IS MOST REMEMBERED FOR IN THE HISTORY BOOKS (WHAT IS FOUND AT THE END OF THE LINKS EVERYTIME HIS NAME COMES UP AT MY AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE)...OKAY.
LET'S NOT FORGET WHAT HE LIKES TO TAKE CREDIT FOR--HIS PART IN WHAT YOU FIND IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
IF I SOUND A BIT COMBATIVE HERE, PLEASE ALSO CONSIDER THAT ON THE SAME DATE AS WAS PUBLISHED THIS TERM OF REFERENCE LINKED FROM ABOVE RE CHRÉTIEN AND HIS "NERVOUS NELLIES," I FOUND THE FOLLOWING IN THE NEW YORK TIMES:
CANADA: QUEBEC VOTE SEEN Quebec's surging economy will embolden residents of the largely French-speaking province to vote to separate from Canada, the provincial premier, Lucien Bouchard, 61, predicted at a convention of his ruling Parti Québécois. Since the 1995 referendum, which the separatists narrowly lost, Quebec's unemployment rate has fallen to 8.8 percent from 14 percent, and a $4 billion budget deficit has been turned into the first surplus in 40 years. Mr. Bouchard did not set a date for a third vote in 20 years on Quebec separation, but said his party would start campaigning this fall.
James Brooke (NYT)
WHAT CAN I, WITH MY MOTHER'S SIDE OF OUR FAMILY CATHOLIC BUT HAVING BEEN RAISED AS A PROTESTANT CHRISTIAN LIKE MY FATHER, SAY NOW THAT WE NON-CATHOLICS ARE ON A LOWER TIER AGAIN TO THE CATHOLICS?
WELL, I SUPPOSE I CAN REMIND THOSE OF US WITH SHORT OR SELECTIVE MEMORIES OR TO WHOM "A HOUSE OF GLASS" INDICATES PERHAPS ONLY A PREFERENCE IN ARCHITECTURE OF WHAT YOU FIND IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
...I WOULD MENTION HERE THAT SINCE I DID THE 1978 STAGES OF MY "INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC WORK...ON A DIRECT BASIS" FOR THE WORLD'S CHILDREN CANADA HAS HAD SIX PRIME MINISTERS...FIVE OF WHOM ARE CATHOLICS.
TO PUT THIS "POLICY OF SILENCE" IN PERSPECTIVE, TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE.
WITHOUT THE "DIVERSITY" THAT INCLUDES THE ORGANIZER OF THIS AWARD-WINNING WEBSITE AND MY "INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC WORK...ON A DIRECT BASIS" FOR THE WORLD'S CHILDREN--NAMELY, THE PERSON SUBSTANTIATED BY WHAT YOU FIND IF YOU TAKE A BRIEF SIDESTEP HERE--AS OPPOSED TO WHAT THE BUNCH OF THEM COLLECTIVELY HAVE DONE TO DATE...WHAT LIES AHEAD OF "ALL OF US" IF PERHAPS ONE HUNDRED COUNTRIES ARE NOW ABLE TO BUILD WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION?
CONSIDER THAT AS YOU DECIDE WHETHER TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MY GUESTBOOK.