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 chair of the council, they can spread their version of events and then veto any change to a resolution!

The article goes on to state that some members no longer attend because the system is broken. Instead the G7 and G20 groupings of nations are becoming the forums to get things done. This not good as power just passes to the most powerful nations and those less well-endowed nations are left outside!!

We must find a way to mend the UN system, a global club working together is the only way to provide the economic and social stability we need in an ever more fragile world.

On another front a forecast by the Economist for 2024 is revealing.

Their view is that one event is likely to dominate the political landscape in 2024 and that is the elections in the USA. Nowhere else in the world has one country so much global influence as their effect on the current wars in Europe and the Middle East demonstrate.

Let’s hope the American people see their influence beyond the domestic “America first” perspective and use their vote wisely to retain a rule of global law and order that we all want.

A happy New Year to all and hoping for a less turbulent 2024.

Johnd and his blog:  https://jdship.blogspot.com/