As we enter a week that began with a terrorist attack on peaceful Bali, the international community, through the UN Security Council is poised to debate the issue of Iraq. With heightened emotions and political pundits predicting the US will attack Iraq with or without a UN mandate, it will be tempting to forego due process. Cooler heads should intervene. On the contrary, this is the time to pause and reflect on what the UN, the world body of 190 nations, is about. How it began and why it continues to this day, will help us evaluate the role it must play in this new international crisis.
I find solace in what an American banker, Beardsley Ruml said at its founding more than 50 years ago. "At the end of five years you will consider the United Nations is the greatest vision ever realized by man. At the end of ten years you will find doubts within yourself and throughout the world. At the end of fifty years you will believe the United Nations cannot succeed. It will only be when the UN is 100 years old that we will know that the United Nations is the only alternative to the demolition of the world." The UN was 50 years old in 1995. In the coming days we must be reminded that we are between the years of doubt and the years of certitude about the UN’s necessity. Therefore member nations looking for guidance will not be wrong to be patient, perhaps wait out the next fifty years before concluding that the UN is useless. Instead we must persist in the long and difficult task to make this world body and the due process it engenders, work. All right thinking peoples should support its collective voice and provide a sense of order in our troubled world.
For this task, America’s support, as the sole superpower in the world is crucial. America must be persuaded that its threats to go it alone using brute superiority against Iraq will destroy both the world order and recourse to the rule of law making it no different from the terrorism it condemns. But more poignantly it will destroy the American dream. The writer, Michael Ignatieff, once referred to the power of American scripture that lies in the constant process of democratic reinvention…. to renew the faith of the only country on earth that believes in itself in this way, the only country whose citizenship is an act of faith, the only country whose promises to itself continues to command the faith of people who are not its citizens.
A new phase in the European Union.. In a few days, I will be attending a special meeting in Warsaw arranged by the Asia Europe Foundation and the Republic of Poland. Seven journalists from Asia have been invited, two from the Philippines, two from Thailand, two from Indonesia and one from Malaysia are attending. Invited from the Philippines are Inquirer’s Armando Doronila and myself. As a former Communist country, Poland’s entry into the European Union starts a new phase in the regional grouping. The Polish government in cooperation with Asia-Europe Foundation has invited the group of Asian journalists to meet with their European counterparts, well-known policy makers of the EU and VIPs from Europe in order to acquaint them with the Polish accession to the European Union as well as to discuss and exchange views on a wide range of topics of Asia-Europe current relations.
STAR’s world news pages. And speaking of the world, I don’t know if our readers have noticed but
STAR’s world news pages have expanded and are jazzily laid out making it the most advanced and sophisticated looking newspaper in town. This is a big step forward in a town overcrowded with newspapers that wallow in its backwardness and insularity. I understand from Executive Editor Amy Pamintuan that although this has been proposed for years in board meetings by our publisher Max Soliven, it was finally decided on recently when
STAR’s president and CEO, Miguel Belmonte said additional pages for world news could be economically justified. I suppose that means that you readers not only need it, you want it. All media, more so print media in this country, are essentially a public service. Newspapers do not serve the public by being niggardly with ‘world news’ . I am proud to belong to a newspaper that has taken a bold step to bring the country in step with modern times.
Letters: Dr. Roberto Jimenez <rbj@pacific.net.>wrote:
Among US immigrants, Pinoys and the Jewish (many do not like the term "Jews" as it has a derogatory connotation, please tell your colleagues in media) people cannot be more dissimilar. In any big US city, there are several Ilocano, Visayan, Bicol, Lion’s, Medical, etc. associations. On June 12, there are no less than 3 different (and thus, very short) Independence Day parades in the Tri-State area, resulting in pathetic displays of political non-clout. This is usually brought about by the non-acceptance of the election results of each society and the subsequent organization of another. Yes, accusations of "dagdag-bawas" also exists over there. It must be genetic. There are many Jewish groups. But they are one on issues important to Israel. But more importantly, the Jewish people have a "very strong presence" (again, a sensitive issue) in the economy, media, entertainment, etc. disproportionate numbers wise to any other ethnic group in the US (not so in Europe) – read – all the elements of real political clout in a democratic system. Several years ago, both houses of the US Congress gave Cory Aquino a standing ovation. A short time later they cancelled foreign aid to the Philippines in favor of Israel. Of significant fact – one of those who spearheaded that decision was no less than the Jewish congressman from Brooklyn – Mr. Stephen Solarz, friend of Cory and of course the Filipinos. Washington M. Agustin of TESDA wrote Ambassador Saleh al-Ghamdi:
I have always been interested in KSA for two reasons: my wife was successfully operated on in 1996 with breast cancer for free when she was an overseas worker as dressmaker in Abha and I happened to be a member of the delegation of Secretary Patricia A. Sto. Tomas when she officially visited the Kingdom in May this year. Indeed as you had stated in your short after dinner speech our two countries have many good things to share and this sharing will strengthen our friendship, understanding and respect for each other. My e-mail address:
cpedrosa@edsamail.com or
c.pedrosa@qinet.net.