Archive | September, 2021

Busy Body: Contemplating a Frenetic UN Week, Dr. Robert Zuber

26 Sep

I did things I did not understand for reasons I could not begin to explain just to be in motion.   Dorothy Allison

It is not enough to be busy; so are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?  Henry David Thoreau

It’s amazing how busy someone gets when they have no interest in connecting with you.  Steve Maraboli

I do a million things and nothing comes out. Dominique Goblet

One of the necessary correctives that must be applied to the character of humanity is a massive strengthening of the contemplative element.  Friedrich Nietzsche

The business of living can steal away the wonder of life.  M.J. Rose

Inevitably we find ourselves tackling too many things at the same time, spreading our focus so thin that nothing gets the attention it deserves. Ryder Carroll

As of this writing, another General Assembly High Level week has concluded its formal business for the year.   Despite residual pandemic fears, many delegations were represented in New York at Foreign Minister and/or Head of Government level. 

We ourselves were not present in the UN Headquarters building for any of this activity as we have not been allowed engtry for the past 20 months.  But we have seen all of this before and had some inkling of the energy levels this year via both the wonders of digital technology and the in-person presence of a colleague who gratefully kept us in the loop as best as he was able.

And what a loop it was.  In addition to the bilateral and regional discussions which this High-Level format makes possible, the week provided opportunity for the UN to show off the range of both its policy concerns and the expertise which it is able to assemble to help frame issues and potential solutions. While some of those events were a bit too glossy for our taste and tended (as they often do) to highlight the same group of voices, the same policy preferences (at least in their opening segments), the events themselves ably called attention to more than a few of the multiple problems that face the global community and that we mostly do better at identifying than resolving.

In what was a frenetic week of diplomatic activity, several events stood out for us.  The long-anticipated Food Systems Summit was dedicated to enabling what one delegate called a “hard reboot,” on how we grow and distribute food, the “moral consciousness” (as noted by Ireland’s president Higgins) that we need to cultivate in order to eliminate food waste, increase food and nutritional access and, as noted by DSG Amina Mohammed, learn how to “feed the planet without destroying it.”

We were also intrigued by an event focused on the anniversary of the Durban Declaration, an important (if anti-Semitism challenged) event which highlighted what the PM of St. Vincent and the Grenadines called our “skewed international system” which has yet to own up to – or provide reparations for – a long history of colonial violence and abuse.  While the new president of the General Assembly (PGA), Abdulla Shahid of Maldives, called for higher levels of  “self-awareness” regarding the failings of our collective past, the PM of Fiji lamented outbreaks of “hate speech” in our troubled present which seem to have no difficulty finding online enablers.  

And there was plenty more where this came from – discussions in the Security Council on the climate-conflict nexus; discussions on the status of efforts to end war and avert famine in Yemen and protect the now-fragile rights of women and girls in Afghanistan; discussions on the unique social, economic and trade-related challenges affecting Landlocked Developing Countries in a time of pandemic and climate risks; discussions on promoting accountability for what are still too-numerous violations of international humanitarian and human rights law; even youth-led discussions (in Geneva) on global peace which directly challenged the notion that a  policy community often “disconnected from human misery” can necessarily make the world a safer, saner place. In one of the more interesting side events by our reckoning, these youth held up both the inspiration of artists and the abundant, if anxious, energies of younger generations as keys to affecting changes which have largely proven elusive to date.

And then there were the speeches in the GA Hall by heads of government, both in person and virtual. Such speeches by government leadership are generally a highlight (albeit stress-filled) for New York-based delegations who often have limited access to their leaders and want to demonstrate that funds expended on mission-related activities to drive policy change and enhance the reputation of states are funds well spent.   From Brazil’s defiantly unvaccinated Bolsonaro on Day 1 to India’s confident and reflective Modi on Day 6, all leaders who wanted their say got their say in a high-profile General Assembly format that remains largely misidentified as “debate.” 

Virtually all leadership identified the global pandemic and climate change as existential threats to their societies, with many calling once again for that elusive “vaccine equity” which can stem infections at local and national level while enabling a more effective pandemic recovery.  One leader after another also directed attention, often with grave concern, towards the uncertain prospects for the upcoming COP 26 event on climate change to be held in Scotland, wondering just how progress on reversing what Chile’s president called our “ecological apocalypse” can be sustained, wondering as well if the extinctions now upending our planetary rhymns can be rolled back before we humans join their number.  

And there were many heads of delegation who joined with US president and others in stressing the importance of upholding the values of multilateralism and the UN Charter, committing to use this UN policy space as a conduit to “fight for our future” in the multiple forms which this now takes.   

Despite some insight-filled events and positive rhetoric, we wonder if all this “busyness” could well be, as it often is, a cover for the “anxiety” highlighted on Day 1 by the General Assembly president. Such anxiety stems from the fact that too many global threats, too many sustainable development targets, are headed in the wrong direction, victims of pandemic spread to be sure, but also of our collective inability to focus our energies and honor our pledges; our unwillingness to curb our collective appetites for everything from unregulated weapons to the fruits of unsustainable harvests; even a function of our reluctance to confront our past and “make good” towards those many persons, past and present, caught in various webs of violence and indifference, webs that continue to keep people stuck in place when what they seek (according to the PGA) is more “peace of mind” courtesy of more tangible solutions to current challenges.

All year long, but especially during this High-Level week, the UN seems to be “doing a million things,” but many wonder about what comes out?  Yes, it is important to the UN (and to us as well) that commitments to multilateralism be renewed.  Yes, it is important that UN agencies and their large NGO partners put their best face forward such that the governments which authorize projects and provide needed funding will continue to do so. Yes, it matters that government leaders can use this annual opportunity to hold serial bilateral discussions beyond the reach of the press and/or their political critics. 

But as some thoughtful government leaders recognized during these days, it is not sufficient or even at times helpful, for the UN system to be in the throes of perpetual motion, for the UN to steer global energies in dozens of directions without priority focus or assessment of its practical consequences for the world.  After the barricades come down and the planes return leaders to their capitals, it is not unreasonable to ask what difference all this activity, all this motion has actually made?  Was this mostly about ceremony and protocol, mostly about political theater, or has it lent itself to tangible solutions for which people yearn?  Is the UN community content to “sound the alarm” on so many global concerns, threats which are surely linked and which the UN has done much to keep in the public eye, but which also require priority focus if we are translate the sounds of alarm into practical and timely progress?

Some global leaders, especially from the Caribbean and Pacific Small Island States, seemed unconvinced that all of this activity, this perpetual motion of delegations, this endless parade of policy reports and press statements is sufficient unto itself to deliver as the UN seeks to do for people and planet. To that end, the PM of the Bahamas demanded fresh measures to ensure that those countries primarily responsible for global emissions take stronger action to reduce them.  The PM of Fiji advocated for a “new UN” which fully commits to the empowerment of those on the margins of our global societies.  The PM of St. Vincent and the Grenadines insisted on a UN that can break “hegemonic patterns” of global policy which often fail to address discriminations of gender, culture or religion. And, in perhaps the most compelling statements of the week, the PM of Barbados, HE Mia Amor Mottley, called out our busy and often distracted international community for “dividing rather than lifting,” for being constantly in motion but not “moving the needle” sufficiently on the crises demanding the most urgent attention. The question she sought to answer is not about the volume of our policy activity but about “how we restore development hope to populations long exploited and rarely supported?”

This represents, for me at least, the “contemplative element” that stands in judgment of our habitual motion, that questions the busyness in personal lives and policy settings which seems as often a cover for anxiety and ineffectiveness as its antidote.  What are we busy about?  What precisely are we busy for?   What is the hope for the world generated by all these UN words, all these resolutions, all this policy activity?  After almost a generation spent in UN policy spaces in part attempting to discern the diferences between activity and agency, between motion and movement, we still struggle to answer these questions to the satisfaction of those who continue to pose them.

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Word Play: Expectations Fit for a World in Crisis, Dr. Robert Zuber

19 Sep
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Expectations were like fine pottery. The harder you held them, the more likely they were to crack. Brandon Sanderson

If it be now, ’tis not to come. If it be not to come, it will be now. If it be not now, yet it will come—the readiness is all. William Shakespeare

Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own. Paulo Coelho

To wish was to hope, and to hope was to expect. Jane Austen

It wasn’t that things were harder than you thought they were going to be, it was that they were hard in ways that you didn’t expect. Lev Grossman

After all, what was adult life but one moment of weakness piled on top of another?  Tom Perrotta

You are one of the rare people who can separate your observation from your preconception. John Steinbeck

Earlier this week, my dear friend and Green Map colleague, Wendy Brawer, sent me a photo of a group of young people staging a “die-in” in front of UN Headquarters to protest the lack of movement on climate change from the world body and, more specifically, from many of its member states.

This protest occurred on a week when the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report which reached conclusions more discouraging than shocking – that at our current rate, we will not only fail to reach the Paris Climate agreement goal of remaining at or below 1.5 degrees C, but that we are likely to exceed 2 degrees C of warming leading to a bevy of unwelcome consequences including exceeding “critical tolerance thresholds for agriculture and health.”

The Secretary-General, as is his want, warned states yet again of the “insufficiency” of current efforts to reduce emissions, proclaiming that we are running out of time to do so while acknowledging in public (as we and others have been warning for some time) that the COP 26 climate conference scheduled for later this year in Glasgow carries “a high risk of failure.”  Indeed, we have been concerned for months that COP 26 might well generate more emissions than its outcome document will mitigate; moreover that we don’t need yet another major conference to underscore the urgency of the moment, an urgency well documented in a bevy of UN reports as well as at prior COP events which, collectively, do not seem to have yet inspired anything akin to a proportionate response.

The young people lying on First Avenue are certainly taking climate warnings seriously.  Their youthful years already compromised by a raging pandemic, personal debt burdens and shrinking economic options, these activists recognize a threat to their future that may soon reach a point of no return, the effects of warming that will keep their adult lives pivoting endlessly from one crisis to another, from drought to flooding, from farmlands which no long yield their bounty to pandemics and hurricanes creating fresh human emergencies with equal frequency.

That they chose to lie down in front of the UN was, to my mind at least, communicating a dual signal; on the one hand a recognition that the UN as a body has not met expectations, has not converted the warnings it liberally proclaims into tangible and proportionate responses by many of the member states which pay its bills and authorize its policy commitments.  At the same time, there is a sense that, if only it could speak with one voice, the UN is still a place where aspirations for peace, equity and environmental health could be converted into something more concrete and results-oriented than large conferences making even larger promises unlikely to be kept.

Assuming that I have this pegged correctly, this dual assessment by these youth activists closely mirrors our own.  As we start to wind down nearly 20 years in and around UN Headquarters we are inspired by the range (and sometimes depth) of issues on the UN’s agenda, but also discouraged by how many of those issues get bogged down in matters both political and procedural.  We are dismayed at how often statements by governments are as likely to cover up key truths as to magnify them, how often the things left unsaid are more significant to the future of the planet than what states actually share, how much easier it is for states – whether on climate or armament, whether on vaccine distribution or aid to Yemen — to make pledges than to honor them.

Like others around this UN system, our assessments are largely a function of our expectations.  We know that people can observe, even without preconceptions, the same institutional circumstances at the same moment and come away with quite different assessments of their value and significance, depending of course on their expectations of those institutions in the first instance.  If we expect little and those expectations are exceeded, assessments are likely to be positive.  If we expect much and such expectations are not met, assessments are likely to be considerably more pessimistic.  And if we expect too much, more than the UN or perhaps any institution can bear without cracking apart altogether, we risk deep disappointment much more inclined to cynicism than to activism.

We have long been in this second camp and sometimes had to struggle not to be in the third. We have always been of the belief that the UN community –including we NGOs — has been insufficiently willing to match policy to urgency, has been insufficiently willing to convert its institutional processes and commitments into actions which demonstrate that we truly understand the times we face, the burning of forests and bridges, the flooding of waters and excessive armaments, the states that talk a better game on multilateralism than their domestic political situations allow them to play.  We have witnessed, time and again, states verbalizing support for urgently-needed policy change or even institutional reforms only to undermine either when the time comes for the UN to meet the moment.  We have also witnessed, more than we would ever wish, states equating national interest with global interest or other stakeholders assuming that one single policy lens or set of recommendations would ever be suitable to reset a world now characterized by such cultural, economic and ideological disharmony.

But to be fair, there are pockets of forthrightness in this multilateral system which give credence to higher expectations that the UN itself continues to both encourage and frustrate; states, UN agencies and NGOs insisting that we talk about reducing the production of armaments and ammunition as well as about arms diversion and trafficking; states and others insisting on fair and equitable representation in Secretariat offices and even in the Security Council; states and others which have shown the way on sustainable energy and ocean health critiquing those still addicted to fossil fuels and/or oblivious to biodiversity loss; states and others urging “readiness” for future pandemics even as we struggle mightily, if unevenly, to contain the current one. 

As this strained planetary moment unfolds, we are compelled to honor all who dare to elevate levels of expectation for the UN system. To that end, one of the signature events of this UN week was the handover of the presidency of the General Assembly from Turkey’s Volkan Bozkir to the Maldives’ Abdulla Shahid.  During his final remarks as president, one which we felt he was a bit sad to relinquish, Mr. Bozkir provided what characterized his entire term, what he himself called a “blunt” assessment of our planetary conditions and the role that the UN should play – must attempt to play – in shaping a more peaceful and sustainable world.  He noted here as he did throughout the year the heavy lifting which must be assumed by this “most representative” Assembly in meeting our responsibilities to sustainable development, to peace and security, and to the reduction of global inequalities.  He implored colleagues to abandon nationalist lenses and “go it alone” approaches, including on climate change, and urged greater attention to how this “unique body” can be used more effectively in the pursuit of a sustainable peace.  And as though any of us around the UN should ever need this reminder, he reminded us anyway that “words are not enough.”

Not nearly enough.  Not now.  Not at this precarious moment in history.  Not for the millions of global constituents longing for peace and the development “dividends” which peace brings.  Not either for youth lying prone on First Avenue hoping both for a voice in global policy and for a clear sign that those working a stone’s throw from their street protest can match the urgency of the moment with leadership and resolve to take at least some of the grave threats facing these young people off their collective plate.

If such an expectation is too much for the UN system, if the bar of an inclusive and sustainable peace proves to be just too high, then we would do well to wonder if the institution will ever be, as we say over and over, “fit for purpose.” Whether we are strong enough to pursue this or not, whether the UN is ultimately able to assume a loftier mantle or not, that “purpose” now is nothing short of saving us from ourselves, of peventing the symbolic “die ins” of our activist youth from becoming an omen of our collective future.



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Island Innovation Holds its 2021 Summit, by Jessali Zarazua

17 Sep

Editor’s Note: Jessali is our fall 2021 intern sent to us by our good friend and colleague Dr. Simone Lucatello at the Instituto Mora in Mexico City. While here, Jessali will explore every possible facet of UN policy, including time with one or more diplomatic missions, as she pursues research interests for her thesis. Jessali took an immediate interest in the Island Innovation “Virtual Island Summit” which highlighted an extraordinary array of isses relevant to sustainable devevelopment, especially in the world’s many small island states. Her summary of what she saw and heard is below.

Between the 6th and the 12th of September, the Virtual Island Summit (VIS2021) was held with world-class speakers and more than 10,000 attendees from over 100 island communities including from the Arctic, Caribbean, Europe, Indian Ocean, Pacific Islands, South America and beyond. This conference included input from policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, and NGO leaders who for one week shared their expertise regarding the unique threats and circumstances of island communities, sharing recommendations and examples of good practices from around the world.

One of the most noteworthy aspects of the conference is that it was a zero-carbon event thanks to the use of modern technology that facilitated participation and minimized harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Also, through a cross-section of collaborative perspectives, the Summit emphasized the need for input and partnerships from across private, public, academic and NGO sectors. Furthermore, during the sessions there was discussion of all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in addition to other topics pertinent to island communities, such as the blue economy, education, renewable energy, climate change and how to finance sustainability projects. The following is an abstract of some of the sessions we followed, their core ideas and themes.

On day 1, the session “Renewable Microgrids: An Economic, Reliable and Sustainable Energy Transition for Islands” featured discussions on how renewable energy, implemented through microgrids such as islands, can guide sustainable development resulting in a substantial reduction in both CO2 emissions and fuel imports.

On day 2, during the “Save it from the Shore – A Circular Economy for Islands” session, it was brought-up that island beaches increasingly suffer from marine plastic pollution, revealing the fact that what is carelessly thrown away in one place inevitably turns up somewhere else, adding to the pressure on island communities to find sustainable ways of dealing with others’ waste as well as their own. The objective of this session was to give an opportunity for knowledge sharing. For example, sargassum might actually be one potential solution to climate change when used as a bio stimulant or in building materials.

During day 3, the session “Forging the Future of Food: Building Security and Resilience in Agriculture,” analyzed how best to implement sustainable agricultural practices and food systems that can contribute to more resilient communities for the benefit of current and future generations. In this context, food security and food sovereignty are two important pillars of the agricultural sector where science is crucial to informing policy, ensuring that resources are used sustainably for future generations, including sustainable uses of extractive economies such as fisheries. One of the conclusions was that while islands are currently overly dependent on food imports, small countries can grow a lot of food; it is simply a matter of using land more efficiently.

The same day, the session “Climate and Environmental Justice: Island Perspectives” highlighted the importance of justice as both a core tenet of societies and a core principle of sustainability. Within the context of the climate crisis and while taking action to mitigate it, justice becomes even more important. Climate and environmental justice is supporting a global shift towards sustainability by providing equitable and inclusive solutions for all those affected by the climate crisis.

On day 4, there was a session “Innovation and the Future of Tourism” with case studies highlighting innovative and green tourism initiatives. The main pourpose was to show that sustainable tourism is a key component to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and  is also needed to help the tourism industry to recover from the global pandemic. On that same day, the “Why are the UN High Seas Treaty Negotiations important to the Caribbean?” sesion highlighted this first global negotiations to address sustainable ocean policy in over 30 years, one which provides a once-in-a-generation (and perhaps final) opportunity to conserve ocean biodiversity. One of the conclusions was that if island states are to be able to continue to rely on the ocean, then we need to think about how we govern, preserve and protect the high seas. Rather than belonging to anyone, ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction should be seen as belonging to everyone. This session also provided an overview of negotiations to date, as well as highlighted the Caribbean’s role in the negotiations by leading stakeholders in the region.

On day 5, the “Pioneers of the Caribbean in Renewable Energy” session highlighted how Curaçao set the objectives and priorities for the development of an effective and sustainable energy system so as to reduce dependence on petroleum imports. Efforts are also being taken to modernize the electricity distribution structure, optimize mobility and replace the use of crude oil-based products with natural gas to facilitate the transition to a fully sustainable society. All of this answers one or more problems faced by small islands regading their high electricity costs. There is no doubt that combining tourism with renewable energy is a very important sustainability step.

During day 6, the “Breaking Echo Chambers: Innovating Inter-island Knowledge Sharing” session featured a panel discussion focused on bottlenecks in communicating information to bring about effective action. Island nations face many shared struggles against the impacts of climate change such as vulnerable coastlines, damaged ecosystems, and people on the receiving end of the impacts of global inaction. In this context, webinars provide a really good opportunity for people to break silos, abandon their echo-chambers and meet people outside their usual spaces to share knowledge and best practices.

Finally on day 7, the session “Unite Behind The SC1.5NCE – an Intergenerational Dialogue on the Future of Islands” was held. Here the SC.15NCE NOT SILENCE campaign was analyzed, including its call for governments to publicly support the IPCC 1.5C Special Report and urgently align their climate goals accordingly. This session was very fruitfull because of its  intergenerational dialogue about the future of islands amidst a bevy of climate and ocean threats.

The Island Summit also included interactive sessions in various formats that imitated a traditional in-person event with digital opportunities to interact with speakers and other attendees towards creating an online community and network. Discussions of a global nature were held about climate action, the blue economy, clean energy transitions, post-pandemic recovery, island sustainability, migration, and cultural preservation. There were also “Supporting and financing climate and clean energy projects” sessions focused on specific regions, such as the Indian Ocean, the Caribbean, and Lusophone states. Potential investors were given guidance on how to invest in climate adaptation and clean energy projects in these and other regions.

In addition to the content sessions, stories were shared from the islands, such as by “Chagossian Voices”, a grassroots organization of Chagos Islanders who depicted the decades of trauma and injustice suffered by the forcibly displaced Chagossian community. During that session, Louis Elyse, a member of “Voices”, asked the international community to recognize Chagos as an independent nation. Participants also were treated to a collection of previously unseen pictures of everyday life in the 1960s and 70s taken on the Isle of Berneray in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland during the session “Fàgail Bheàrnaraigh | Leaving Berneray”.

Along with this, plenary sessions were organized at regional level and dedicated to discussions with industry leaders about how their islands are implementing the Sustainable Development Goals to meet the needs of future generations. The most common priority noted was the need for urgent action from governments and all segments of the global community to reverse the global climate crisis. Demonstrated unity was evident regarding the reality that vulnerable small island states face storms and other extreme weather events with limited capacity. “It is not a matter of money, but a matter of the continuity of our existence,” noted Ambassador Walton Aubrey Webson from Antigua & Barbuda. In a similar vein, Philip J. Pierce, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia reminded participants that “small nations like Saint-Lucia contribute little to problems like pandemics and the climate crisis but pay the highest price.”

This Summit as a whole provided an incredibly opportunity to gain insight into tackling sustainability issues faced by island communities and how we all can help build a better future for island residents. Islands offer opportunities to locally contextualize strategies for recovery and renewal, and it was uplifting to hear how much is already being done. Small Island States are on the frontline of the climate crisis through no fault of their own. They contribute just 1% of global emissions but they face rising sea levels, more extreme weather events, and devastation to local industries and livelihoods. We need to act now in solidarity with small islands states to secure our common future.

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Two Truths: A 9/11 Reflection, Dr. Robert Zuber

12 Sep
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The hole that swallowed so much of ourselves.

Those who do not weep, do not see.  Victor Hugo

Chase away sorrow by living. Melissa Marr

Twenty years ago we were credulous and blundering. Now we’re sour, suspicious and lacking in discernible ideals. Michelle Goldberg

Half the night I waste in sighs. Alfred Tennyson

Every angel is terrifying.  Rainer Maria Rilke

Are we to spend the rest of our lives in this state of high alert with guns pointed at each other’s heads and fingers trembling on the trigger?  Arundhati Roy

Terror had them all for a moment, and it ravaged them, and when it was finished, shock had its way with them, and left them cold and helpless.  Dean Wilson

As these years of weekly posts begin to wind down towards a culmination of sorts later this year in Advent, the question of what is left to say looms large for me.  Our global community is literally drowning now in opinion and commentary of all stripes and conclusions, opinions more or less attentive to circumstances around their owners, more or less grounded in reality, more or less helpful in moving the needle towards healthier, more peaceful futures.

Commentary for us has never been a competition.  We don’t make money from it.  We don’t brand it.  We also don’t believe that ours is the only way for the policy community to proceed.  Instead, we’ve looked for fertile entry points for ideas that are surely not always our own but that deserve to be considered as policy is crafted and implemented.   Amidst a cacophony of “interested” opinions, we have never had an interest beyond creating cultures of policy more conducive to honoring promises to those who have felt the blunt end of armed conflict and other ills for far too long.

As this interest unfolds, it is sometimes valuable to find a platform a bit outside the fray.   We have ideas to promote, but we are not salespeople engaged in zero sum activities – my product or yours in the basket on its way to checkout.  The point of sharing ideas in policy settings is to make better ideas, more responsive ideas, more accountable ideas.  The exercise is – or should be – complementary not predatory.  We don’t “win” in this business.  The only question of relevance in this work is whether or not our constituencies win.

Apologies for the digression, but it is important as background to what will be attempted here – a modest contribution to a seemingly endless stream of commentary on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.  I’ve been reading quite a bit of other people’s ideas this week – mostly emanating from a grief in some ways larger than the twin towers, a grief motivated by the reality that, 20 years on, the bombs are still falling, the ethnic violence persists, the famines rage, the vaccines are yet to be distributed, the conspiracies and stiff-necked perspectives continue to multiply, the children still search for comfort in a world which, in some key ways, is simply not fit for them.

My own grief is only one grief among millions and perhaps among the more self-indulgent of them.  Like many of you, I have my own 9/11 stories, but these pale among the stories of that “first truth,” those whose loved ones went to work that day and never returned; the firefighters and police ascending stairs in the towers that were about to collapse around them; their colleagues sifting through rubble that would jeopardize their mental and physical well-being for the rest of their earthly lives; the passengers struggling with kidnappers to divert a deadly flight over Pennsylvania knowing that their own fates were largely sealed; the people from a distance who watched helplessly as the last vestiges of their “national security” came unraveled, a security which, whatever its merits, would never feel quite the same as the towers fell and victims jumped to their deaths.

This is the always the first truth of armed conflict, whether conducted by gunships or commercial aircraft, whether taking place in Lower Manhattan or in central Kabul.  The human toll of conflict is as ubiquitous as it is persistent.  We pause to remember, even to shed tears, because a generation later there are still many holes to fill, holes as large as those at the center of the 9/11 Memorial; places at the family table still being held for those who will never again occupy them, but also the struggles of responders and others whose lungs have still not expelled the toxins in the rubble, have still not fully come to terms with what they saw and heard as they sifted through a gnarly aftermath that produced numerous corpses and poisonous exposures.

This is the first and most important truth of 9/11 but it is not the only one.  For the misery we experience is tied inextricably, in this instance and others, to the misery we inflict in turn.  9/11 was not the alpha moment of global conflict, but was one point in a long chain of violence, retribution, righteous indignation, nationalistic fervor and self-justifying aggression that, in the case of the US and other major powers, had long taken a consequential toll greater than the conflicts to which it was pegged, violence  which was often alleged to be “preventive” in nature but which we have come to realize has bred more of the threat our sophisticated weaponry was allegedly intended to mitigate.

This second truth is the truth about us, about what we did in response to 9/11, what we have justified in the name of those collapsed buildings, and what that justification has uncovered and unleashed in ourselves.  We remain grateful to those who have helped ensure that, over 20 years, it has been safe to fly in airplanes and take long elevator rides to the top of our ever-larger office towers. We should also be grateful for those at the UN who pursue elements of counter-terror policy – promoting border controls and aviation safety, ensuring accountability for terror crimes and addressing the uneasy status of Foreign Terror Fighters – all with the understanding that basic human rights must always be protected, that we cannot remove a blight on the global commons by adding to the volume of abuse ourselves.

At the same time, we have become a people, certainly often in the US, who more and more seem intent on “eating its young,” a people suspicious to the core of everything but our own motives, a people whose movements are constantly scrutinized in the name of “security” but whose freedom “red line” is not the powers that manipulate our tastes and violate our privacy but those who insist on basic hygiene to ward off a deadly pandemic; a people who routinely tolerate deadly violence undertaken in their name so long as it doesn’t screw up Sunday church or karaoke night; a people at war with ourselves in a manner that can be every bit as vicious and self-serving as the force we inflict –and mis-inflict on those of other nations.

This second truth of 9/11 is wrapped around a reminder that we have not gotten over this, have not gotten over the need to lash out in retributive and even ethno-centric violence, have not yet shed the tears that actually promise some relief and closure, that allow us to move forward and release the better of our “terrifying” angels rather than those mostly ready to lash out in anger and revenge in response to the “shock” of circumstances we share in common with others more than we allow ourselves to realize.

The justifiable tears we have collectively shed during this 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks have not, it would appear, made us see more clearly, feel better about ourselves, or risk more closeness with others. They have not cleared our hearts of malice, our lungs of toxins, or our brains of conspiracy.  They have not made us rethink our role in the world as a superpower fading in too many aspects save for our technology and military hardware. They have not made us less sour in our affluence and entitlements, less suspicious of everything and everyone but ourselves, less confused about our role and responsibilities in the world, less able to own up to our mistakes as a nation as a way of rebuilding trust and becoming what we still have it within ourselves – somewhere, somehow – to become.

The legacy of 9/11 is in large part about the losses we’ve suffered, but perhaps more about the impacts of those losses we’ve ingested and then tolerated for too long, losses that much too often, we have then chosen to inflict on others.  It is about what we have allowed an attack to do to ourselves, the spread of our self-justifying and reality-challenged views about our own people let alone about those in the world around us, views which continue to stunt our emotional growth, impair the pursuit of our ideals, widen our divides, keep us sighing and fretting at night rather than sleeping, and too often leave us feeling “cold and helpless.”

Much as we ask of individual clients in counselling, how long do we want the events of the past to maintain control of our current lives, to impede our zest for living and our capacity for closeness and care? This is a question for us all, one that holds the key to lives who can never forget, who will always need spaces for mourning and tears, but who can also refuse to renounce their responsibility to families and communities across this country and around this troubled world, including duties of solidarity towards those many millions who barely know a single day free from hunger, disease and “fingers trembling on the trigger” of guns that may well have originated in our own factories.  

The two realms of 9/11 truth are not mutually-exclusive; we can honor them both if only we would.

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Why Care? A Reflection by Brady Sanders

10 Sep

Editor’s Note: This second and last (for now) post from Brady Sanders seeks to answer a question that we pose to all interns. What should people in your professional or academic circle know about the world? And why should they care? Answers to questions like this are fundamental for us as we try in our own small way to grow the minds, hearts, hands and skills available to contribute to peace in multiple contexts. In such work, knowing and caring are obvious prerequisites.

At the conclusion of my summer internship with GAPW, Dr. Zuber asked me to construct a blog post answering these – seemingly – simple questions, “what should people in my professional circle know about the wider world and the people who inhabit it?  Why should they care about things beyond what their families and professions require them to know?”   On the surface, these seem like straightforward questions, with the answer being, without knowledge of what is going on in the world, one cannot attempt to make it a better place. However, upon delving deeper into this topic, its layers are revealed: specifically, why do individuals not know about global events? In this post, I plan to address not only what I think my peers and colleagues should know, but the overarching issues as to why they don’t know about these topics.

In my life, I have witnessed many people not knowing what is going on in the news, especially globally. Why is this the case? Many argue that people do not care – especially Americans – due to our stereotyped nationalism. However, I must disagree. I think people do care about what is happening, but they feel helpless. Many think that since they cannot do anything about the issue, they are better off just glossing over crises and not using their energy to understand those problems. The second, and the more alarming, reason is that there is so much sorrow in the news today that people have become desensitized to atrocities. The number of times I have heard people say, “I don’t listen to the news, it’s too sad,” is disheartening. This is a complex issue to tackle because the news has to get reported, particularly the sad news, so people can help stop these atrocities. But then when these difficult situations are covered, people say that it is too just too hard to process and stop watching. In my opinion, this is one of the most difficult bits of feedback to fix, and I will be honest, I genuinely have no idea how to break this cycle without a societal change that currently lies beyond my scope.  

Another question that people ask all the time is, “why should I care about something that is happening halfway around the world?” This is a completely valid question. Why should I, someone who lives in the middle of a privileged country, need to worry about what is happening in the middle of a more exploited country, as it has no direct effect on me? For one, if human rights are violated anywhere, it is something everyone should care about. Secondly, while these global events may not seem impactful to you now, they one day will be. For example, people living in Europe should care about the United States and our environmental laws, or honestly, our lack of environmental laws. Why is this? The impact of our emissions is not localized to where we live. Our CO2 levels will impact the global CO2 levels and increase the rate and severity of global warming’s consequences for everyone.

Another may ask, “why should I worry about conflicts if they don’t affect me?” Well, they do. The money spent by governments to pursue and address these conflicts is almost unimaginable; if such conflicts could be rooted out, this money could go towards more human security priorities and lead to a better world for us all. This money could feed the 820 million people around the world who are food insecure. This money could help provide drinking water to the 2.2 billion people who need access to safe, potable water. This money could help the 82.4 million forcibly displaced persons during 2020 alone start a new life. It seems evident that the money spent on conducting these conflicts could be used in much better ways, but the only way to solve conflicts peacefully is through diplomacy, and for this to work, we need to make sure the whole world knows what is going on.

This starts with you. And with me. Watch the news. Find and read a newspaper focused on global affairs because the news we consume in the US is often missing a wider, global picture. But more importantly, find ways to get involved. While your efforts may seem fruitless at times, don’t get discouraged; any help, any start, any means is better than inaction and indifference.

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Where the UN & Business Should Intersect, by Madelyne Hamblett.

8 Sep

Editor’s Note: Madelyne is the latest intern from the Scheller College of Business at the Georgia Institute of Technology to lend us her skills and insights during the summer months. As many readers of this space know, we value the opportunity to familiarize people beyond our “peace and security” bubble with the important issues and processes which are likely to greatly impact future prospects, livelihoods and much more. We need more “champions” of multilateral cooperation and we need them in all those still-underserved spaces, not only where people are denied a place at the policy table, but where people don’t see the value of having such a place. Madelyn sees the value and we are grateful for it.

As a business student from Georgia Tech, I really had no clue about the world I was coming into when signing up to do a summer internship with Global Action to Prevent War. Sometimes I felt out of my depth, and I knew I was lacking context to truly understand much of what I was seeing. But that is exactly why my boss, Dr. Zuber, hired me. He didn’t want me here to provide the same perspective as everyone else. He wanted to me to view things through a business lens, so that is exactly what I did. And when I did, I noticed something. I noticed that the world of business, and the world of the UN do not seem to intersect much. I learned a bit about the UN Global Compact and, of course, NGO’s and the role they should play are discussed a good bit. But during these summer months I heard few discussions of what role for-profit businesses should be playing to help the UN realize the Sustainable Development Goals. This is truly disappointing because, from my view, both have a lot to offer the other.

In the world of business, it has become trendy to “care”. To show they care, corporations will create value statements or claim support for a certain social movement, but too often these are just words, not actionable commitments. As I learned in my Servant Leadership course taught by Dr. Robert Thomas at Georgia Tech, this can actually hurt a business. “Empty values statements create cynical and dispirited employees, alienate customers, and undermine managerial credibility,” (“Make Your Values Mean Something” by Patrick M. Lencioni). Rather than making empty statements that can actually hurt your business, businesses need to start creating shared value. Shared Value, as I learned in my Business Decisions and Creating Shared Value course taught by Dr. Ravi Subramanian at Georgia Tech, is “policies and operating practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates. Shared value creation focuses on identifying and expanding the connections between societal and economic progress” (“Creating Shared Value” by Michael E. Porter & Mark R. Kramer). So, shared value is about creating a win-win for your business and the world. Just as “caring” is meant to create goodwill among your customers, shared value takes it a step further by giving a business incentive to “care,” taking action that creates a more sustainable business model and creates goodwill among your customers. But how does a business create shared value? That is where the UN could come in.

The UN has a global public network, an understanding of the most pressing issues of the world, and opportunities to get involved, all of which businesses lack. So, the UN could use their global network to help businesses expand their connections beyond the private sector and to the public sector which would be a great first step towards creating shared value. Then, the UN could help businesses identify the issues going on in the world that are most detrimental to their supply chain and provide them with ideas on how to get involved to tackle those issues. This would be the next step toward helping businesses create shared value because it provides a direct way for companies to get involved and improve their communities while also giving them an incentive to stay involved because it is improving their supply chain and business operations. For example, COVID-19 has been a major disruptor to businesses’ supply chains, and it has also been a very important matter at the UN. For-profit businesses could have done more to help the UN to raise funds for and distribute vaccines across the world which would help the global community while also limiting variability and stabilizing demand for these businesses around the world.

Just as many businesses utilize too many words and not enough action, this same issue can be seen at the UN. A lot is discussed, but not enough is done. From my time here at the UN, I have come to believe this is because many people holding positions inside the UN are figureheads with insufficient authority given to them by their country. I am not saying they do not want to do more. They may even hold the same ideals as I do when it comes to what the UN could truly be if the countries of the world just bought in, but, unfortunately, some member countries have not bought in sufficiently. So, the UN remains a symbol more than a tool because it does not always have the power needed to take action. This is where businesses could come in.

Corporations have large private networks, deep pockets of funds, and relatively unrestrained authority over their actions. The UN currently relies on sometimes finicky governments for resources which then may choose to withhold these resources at any time. Businesses could become a new supplier of these resources to the UN, and they would be willing to be that supplier for the aforementioned reasons regarding how the UN would also benefit them. In addition to being a new resource for the UN, their work with businesses could also instigate governments to work closer with and provide more authority to the UN due to public criticism. If for-profit businesses did begin to provide these resources to the UN, the UN would have considerably more power and ability to implement their assistance around the world. For example, COVID-19 has been a major crisis that the UN has been trying to address for over a year now, and, as previously mentioned, it has been a major problem for businesses’ as well. Had the UN approached for-profit businesses and incentivized them to fund and distribute vaccines around the world, then the UN could have possibly finished responding to this pandemic by now and even made headway on creating preventative procedures for future global pandemics.

I believe the UN and the business world have much to offer each other. Businesses could enable the UN to take more initiative and bring about legitimate change in the world while the UN could enable businesses to create shared value and thus a more sustainable business model. “Capitalism is an unparalleled vehicle for meeting human needs, improving efficiency, creating jobs, and building wealth. But a narrow conception of capitalism has prevented business from harnessing its full potential to meet society’s broader challenges,” (“Creating Shared Value” by Michael E. Porter & Mark R. Kramer). Avoiding this narrow conception is why businesses and the UN should intersect in even greater measure to help spur the change we all want to see in the world.

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Weekend Escape: A Labor Day Reflection, Dr. Robert Zuber

5 Sep
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They are closing the mine in two weeks, they say. Six days a week bumping down in the gondola, pecking out the rocks and hauling them back up, doing it again the next day for twenty-seven years, one cave-in, three thin raises, and a failed strike. Where am I going to go every day, what am I going to do with all that sunshine?  Lou Beach

Ramona felt sad and somehow lonely, as if she were left out of something important, because her family was in trouble and there was nothing she could do. Beverly Cleary

There is tons of work to be done, and lots of people who would like to do the work. It’s just that the economic system is such a grotesque catastrophe that it can’t even put together idle hands and needed work, which would be satisfying to the people and which would be beneficial to all of us. Noam Chomsky

As long as there are ways we can serve, then we have a job to do.  Marianne Williamson

That paper–it sits there, open at the employment section. It sits there like a war, and each small advertisement is another trench for a person to dive into. Markus Zusak

Once we attain self-awareness, we stop becoming the victims of worthless comparisons, identity clashes and, of course, idle mindsets that make further progress impossible.  Dr Prem Jagyasi

The soul is made for action, and cannot rest till it be employed. Idleness is its rust. Unless it will up and think and taste and see, all is in vain.  Thomas Traherne

As most of you who read these posts recognize, this is Labor Day weekend in the US, a last gasp of the northern summer, but also a time to reflect on those who labor in a society increasingly without a culture that values labor, without a culture that grants and sustains the dignity of those many persons who we largely ignore but without whom are lives would be immeasurably impoverished.

In a time of pandemic, when so many children are forced into horrific working conditions or, in places like Afghanistan where women are losing the little income they managed to secure, it may seem a bit tone deaf to focus on US labor issues.  But we have plenty of them, some due to restrictive immigration policies, some due to the lack of a sustaining culture of respect for labor itself, and some due to a culture shift, in part motivated by pandemic isolation, regarding what we want in return from the investment of our skills and energies, how we seize current opportunities to create better synergies between what we do for money and what we do with life.

I won’t dwell on the immigration issue, except to say that we remain in the midst of vast migrations of peoples due in large measure to armed conflict and climate change.  As now with Afghanistan, these are not only people on the move; these are people with skills seeking a new home, a new outlet, a new chance, but they are met with growing skepticism and even hostility within destination states.  Some of this hostility is overt as in “we don’t want you here.”  But some is more subtle, a message of tentative welcome so long as they consent to do the work that we don’t want to do, indeed won’t do ourselves.  On this weekend, I am reminded of all the soul-sucking, dangerous jobs that exist in this world, from the slaughterhouses to the coal mines and –in the media this week – from picking fruit in 100 degree weather under an unrelenting sun to delivering food on a bicycle in New York City while the winds of Ida howled and over 7 inches of rain came thundering to the ground – and this for the $5 which that delivery worker earned for his trouble.

Many of us have done these sorts of jobs at an earlier stage of life.  I have my stories also.  But I also was given a pass to “escape” the mind-numbing danger, the back-breaking labor that never gets workers and families off the treadmill of “barely making it” of having to deal with endless health, education and housing issues without anything like a safety net, without anything like the perks of employment for people with degrees and the privileges to match.  I remember some of what that felt like.  I can’t forget it.  None of us should.

And yet we do forget, we do push the labor conditions of others to the very back of our minds, as though fruit and pork magically appear in our pantries, as though our houses heat themselves and forest fires simply end of their own volition, as though century-old transportation infrastructure somehow fixes itself and babies actually bring themselves into the world.  We do forget because we are privileged members of societies which have jettisoned their cultures of respect for labor, for the people who often do the dirty jobs that keep the rest of us afloat, for the people who struggle to provide basic necessities for families living on the edge of a society that has long ceased to honor their contributions.  We don’t “pull for each other” so much now, do we? Rather, we tend to be consumers first and foremost, little interested in how things are made (and by who), what it takes to make them or, for that matter, dispose of them when the items in question have outlived their usefulness.  Our posture is primarily competitive, suspicious of unions or anything else that might cause us to pay more so that our workers can have more.  Moreover, we have allowed ourselves to indulge in (as Philip Rieff once noted), “colonies of the violent.” devoid of any stable sense of communal purpose, left to “vacillate between deadly purposes and deadly devices,” all in an attempt to escape what has become our modern mindset’s signature pandemic – that of boredom.

But as some of the quotations at the beginning of this post maintain, there is plenty of work to be done in this world, plenty to care for and support, plenty of skills to blend and respect, plenty of ways to add value and meaning to our own and others’ lives.  In a world such as ours, boredom is surely a sign of desperation, if not a complete failure of imagination, a sign that our “strategy” of competition and autonomy, of using each other rather than working with each other, is not having its intended effect.  As a society, we are still chasing “wealth” that cannot be sustained rather than, as Vandana Shiva would put it, pursuing wealth based on “rejuvenating the bounty of the earth through care.”

Fortunately, culture and its impacts are not static; its permissions and controls are being modified as we speak, in some welcome instances to help people break through the discriminations and injustices that culture has too often served to hold in place. On this Labor Day we would do well to ask if there a pathway to restore intrinsic value and respect for the labor and contributions of others? Is there the means to counter our current, high levels of comfort with exploitative practices, our equally high levels of indulgence with the forms and tools of violence designed to distract ourselves from becoming the people we could be? Can we somehow identify and preserve the life that allows everyone time to serve our children and communities as well as our employers?

There are hopeful signs.  The “great resignation” chronicled in the press over these past few months suggests a growing discontent with how labor is organized and how employees are recognized.  Workers worldwide are demanding that the jobs for which they are compensated provide more than just a paycheck, provide more than just the material means to sustain what is too often a demanding and deadening life cycle.  Teachers are leaving voids in school systems as threats from parents and from a virus we are still not taking seriously enough push more and more educators out of the classroom.  Health care workers are also quitting in droves, many of whom have spent the last 18 months trying to keep people alive who dogmatically refuse to help themselves (or their communities) stay healthy.  Restaurant and other hospitality workers are leaving their positions as well, tired of the long hours, short customer tempers and small tips which constitute the bulk of their pay.

These are all essential workers, people we simply cannot do without. These are also not easy choices, the choice to walk away, the choice to say “enough.” But we would do well to support this transition.  Several articles this week suggested that the pandemic gave some of us at least the chance to readjust our hearts and minds, to recalibrate how our gifts of time and talent are shared, how the “human” aspects of our “being” might find a fuller expression.  We must find ways, in policy and practice, to make such a chance accessible to all. Our GDP and stock prices might take a hit, but the peace that could emanate from a rejuvenated world where children are in school, women are fully engaged, laborers have rest and respect, nature is cared for and boredom is vanquished would be, at least to my mind, well worth every effort.

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