2024- a troublesome year?
As I wrote my Xmas message for my friends, I found myself troubled by world affairs. It is not just the wars in Gaza and Ukraine but the global battle between democracy and autocracy and how ineffective the UN system has become. I worked for many years both in and with the UN and firmly believed that world order and global support for the less privileged was best done by that global club of nations. Now I am not so sure. Around us there are many examples of power hungry would be and existing presidents who want nothing more than to control their countries. From Hungary to Turkey, USA to Israel, Russia, and many other countries working together to improve global peace and prosperity is not on their highest priority. A recent article in the Economist bemoans the ineffectiveness of the Security Council of the UN with its archaic veto system that allows any of the five most powerful members to veto proposals for peace and worse even when one of those five members holds the chai...