Thursday, November 19, 2015

Young people speak out in favour of the world's poorest

Four hundred young people from post primary schools around the country attended a day-long seminar at the RDS today on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Concern CEO Dominic MacSorley, addressing the seminar, said that the Sustainable Development Goals were not really 'goals' but rather 'rights'. Rights to food, jobs, human rights.

Kevin Kelly from the Department of Foreign Affairs spoke about Ireland's history as members of the United Nations.

Ireland is a member of the 70-year-old UN 60 years.  The State joined on December 14, 1955. At the time there were 16 nations in the UN.

Among the photos that Kevin Kelly showed was one of a young Liam Cosgrave.

In 60 years Ireland has had 66,000 peace keepers working with the UN.

MEP Brian Hayes spoke about the important role Ireland plays in the world. He said that we should all be damanding the rights we have for people all over the world.


The seminar was hosted by The National Youth Council and Concern Worldwide.

3 comments:

Andreas said...

Mahatma Gandhi said once:
"Be the change you want to see in the world. If you want to see an end to corruption, start by being scrupulously honest yourself. If you want to see peace in the world, start within your own family. If you care about the environment, start looking at your own patterns of consumption and waste."

How can anyone take the UN serious anymore with Saudi Arabian leading the Human Rights Council at the UN?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/united-nations-farce-saudi-arabia-to-head-un-human-rights-council/5477833

Michael Commane said...

Would the world not be in a worse state without it?

Andreas said...

I don't think so! The blelow describes a bit why:

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals: Global Schizophrenia

...The U.N. website summarizes the SDGs, each of which has a set of sub-goals: 1. No poverty, 2. Zero hunger, 3. Good health and well-being, 4. Quality education, 5 gender equity, 6. Clean water and sanitation, 7. Affordable and clean energy, 8. Decent work and economic growth, 9. Industry, innovation, and infrastructure, 10. Reduced inequalities, 11. Sustainable cities and communities, 12. Responsible consumption and production, 13. Climate action, 14. Life below water, 15. Life on land, 16. Peace, justice, and strong institutions, 17. Partnerships for the goals.

What is most striking in all of this is the total bracketing of reality; its nearly complete disjuncture from the world in which we actually live. Schizophrenia is commonly defined as a psychological disorder characterized by failure to recognize what is real. Common symptoms include confused thinking and clinging to false beliefs in the face of clearly contradictory evidence. Rather than accuse those who developed these SDGs of conscious deceit and falsification, it seems more reasonable to diagnose them with schizophrenia.

The overwhelming reality of our planetary situation, obvious to anyone who is half awake, is that of progressively developing global military empire in the service of a tiny capitalist ruling class. This global empire is neo-colonial. It operates through proxies. It supports dictatorships (like Saudi Arabia), friendly lap-dogs and lackeys (like Great Britain), and tiny capitalist ruling classes in nations throughout the world that ally themselves with the global imperial center. As Michael Parenti describes our world system in The Face of Imperialism, any country in the world that shows signs of electing a genuinely left-oriented government becomes a possible target for regime-change...


The US has worked to colonize the U.N. and bend its programs to its imperial propaganda and intentions. Global peace thinker Johan Galtung calls this: “Crippling the United Nations: controlling the Security Council through veto; controlling the UNGA against uniting for peace resolutions; controlling by spying on delegations and arm-twisting; controlling the budget through 25% clause, non-payment, and GAO, the General Accounting Office, an arm of the US Congress; controlling the U.N. civil servants through short-term contracts; showing who is in charge through material breach, illegality; and getting away with it all, because of all of the above”. No one dares mention the elephant in the room...

http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-uns-sustainable-development-goals-global-schizophrenia/5480114

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