Dear Editor:
Increasingly it appears that a growing number of people from all strata of society and from all over the world are becoming aware that the existing world order, based on the sovereignty of nations, grows increasingly incapable of resolving modern, international issues.
Crises are present on every front. No nation can stand independent of the affairs affecting every other nation.
Economically, national markets are dependent on fluctuations in the comparative valuation of currencies, though there is little international control. The concentration of wealth is polarised: poor nations struggle to develop while feeding large populations. These same nations stagger under a growing debt; major defaults could result in world wide economic collapse.
The earth is an armed camp. Cost of weapons strain national budgets. Regional wars threaten to erupt into wider conflicts, while the ominous shadow of global nuclear war raises doubts about humanity’s survival. Even if the superpowers are able to maintain their delicate stalemate, the proliferation of nuclear weapons to other nations enhances the potential for disaster.
The spread of terrorism redefines war, disrupting social stability. How does a nation strike back when the enemy is not another nation, but a formless group that blends into the population?
These and other crises require solutions that the present order cannot provide. Baha’u’llah, prophet founder of the Baha’i Faith, and himself a prisoner and an exile for His vision of the oneness of mankind, stated over a 100 years ago that "the winds of despair are, alas, blowing from every direction, and the strife that divideth and afflicteth the human race is daily increasing.
"The signs of convulsions and chaos can now be discerned, inasmuch as the prevailing order appeareth to be lamentably defective"
He called upon the rulers of all countries to create, through a binding treaty, world unity upheld by international government.
Today’s world faces problems similar to those of the 13 American colonies after the revolution. All the colonies were in jeopardy, yet because of self interest they could not form an effective bond of unity. Only when they sacrificed some rights to a central authority could their true needs be met, leading to a new constitution and the formation of a great nation.
The unification of the colonies resulted in a new civilization greater than any they could have developed separately. Isolated nations must now take a similar step toward world solidarity - the highest stage of the development for the planet.
This is no small task. Like the 13 colonies, however, the bonds which unite nations are greater than the differences that separate them. Of course, Baha’u’llah’s proposal for world government does not undermine the existing order, subvert national loyalty, or suppress diversity of ethnic origin, language, tradition or habit. But "it calls for a wider loyalty, for a larger aspiration than any that has animated the human race. It insists upon the subordination of national impulses to the imperative claims of a united world."
Rooplall Dudhnath via email
|
Dear Editor:
The two regional summits held in the Caribbean recently did not provide the assistance Guyana desperately needs.
Guyana is facing a security threat from heavily armed bandits who have threatened the state. Guyana needs the friendly assistance of partner states of the RIO group as well as CARICOM to find the marauding gang of killers and eliminate them. Instead, apart from a call from Barbados to assist Guyana, the threat to Guyana was largely ignored.
At the Nassau (CARICOM) and Santo Domingo (RIO) summits, not much assistance was pledged to Guyana to help it overcome the serious threat posed by gunmen who many believe are part of an insurrectionist group.
Other countries can afford the cost of appropriate measures (with assistance from Washington) to address gang violence and challenges to their democratic structure. Guyana does not have the equipment or manpower (with required skills) or resources to confront the killers. The country’s small budget cannot afford a diversion of funds to acquire the needed equipment to find the killers. So the country needs immediate help from its CARICOM and RIO partners to address security threats. This assistance should be forthcoming from the more prosperous countries.
Trinidad assisted with the use of a helicopter for a couple of weeks. But that is not enough. CARICOM members talked about a regional rapid response initiative to deal with crime and internal security as part of an expanded and restructured Regional Security System (RSS). Enough talk! Action is needed now. This idea should become operational urgently. In the meanwhile, troops from member countries should be dispatched to each other’s country in distress to address security and crime challenges.
At the other summit in Santo Domingo, the focus was on the cross-border conflict between Ecuador and Colombia with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez smack in the middle. While it concerned security between neighbours and was of interest to Guyana, our immediate interest is protection from killer gangs.
President Jagdeo did try to shift the focus to security but did not get much play. What is needed in the Rio grouping is an arm that can provide assistance to countries like Guyana to deal with terror groups.
Guyana urgently needs foreign help of a technical nature to track down the killer gang. This can come from more developed countries like Brazil and Argentina from the RIO group. They are in a position to help Guyana and may be sympathetic to our concerns. There is need for greater regional cooperation for countries to effectively fight criminal nets, which are linked to arms and drug trafficking and in the case of Guyana, add insurrection to its list of problems.
Vishnu Bisram, New York
|
Dear Editor:
The recent decision of Caribbean leaders to help Guyana in the fight against crime is all nonsense. It is more important for Guyana to raise new regiments in the major regions, Berbice, East Coast, West Coast, Essequibo and Rupununi, from the population in these regions. Many countries have used this successful strategy including the UK, USA and India.
The training should be provided by outside help in the first instance and subsequently by officers locally. This is the only way that we will be able to stop the few individuals who have used the military as a training ground to unleash massacres on the local population.
Guyanese have to fight their own battles, win or lose, and not to rely on outsiders especially the Caribbean governments. They are suspect. In 1962, all the Caribbean leaders supported Burnham and they were all happy to see Burnham in power in 1964 and even when he rigged all the elections and discarded the UF and its leader, they did nothing.
So now they are going to help? We have to fight this battle on our terms.
D. Singh |