Urgent: Extraordinary Meeting of the United Nations to Establish Immediate Courses of Action

For a long time I have been writing about this truly urgent world matter, and I will shortly be publishing additional aspects on this subject. But today I believe I must insist on the imperative need for an extraordinary meeting of the UN to address a series of challenges that otherwise will even further darken our immediate future.

I am going to limit this Blog to reproducing a few newspaper headlines (from the August 31 “El País”) that I believe should prompt a popular outcry in favor of the immediate elimination of groups of plutocrats (G8 and G20) and the revitalization (re-founding) of the United Nations. Otherwise, a global political, economic and ethical debacle will become inevitable. It’s impossible to suggest that we should wait until Obama’s reelection (it will certainly be horrible if he loses), or to see whether Ms. Merkel remains in power, or whether President Hollande stands firm in keeping his campaign promises.

Here are some of the headlines to which I am referring: “Egypt incites rebellion against Syria at the Tehran Summit”; “At the Tehran Summit Ban Ki Moon demands compliance with UN resolutions in order to avoid war”; “Security Council blocked”; “The UN warns of advances in the Iranian nuclear program”; “Attacks by infiltrators in the Afghan forces hit withdrawing NATO troops”; “South Africa prosecutes miners under apartheid laws”; “The Amazon flows with blood” (slaughter of tens of Yanomami natives in the Venezuelan jungle); “Big business under the oceans: exploitation of sea beds” (Europe is preparing a detailed access map for mining, pharmaceutical and energy companies); …

As you can see: without an extraordinary meeting and the urgent appointment of “representatives for all countries” capable of rapidly proposing appropriate solutions for each of these challenges, there may shortly be another enormous and absolutely immoral action such as the invasion of Iraq or allowing the continuous violation of the most elemental human rights in indigenous populations or in mines exploited by multinationals that don’t exactly care about workplace or environmental conditions… And the Syrian drama will remain unsolved. And Afghanistan will continue to produce 90% of the heroin consumed worldwide…

Replacing social justice with the laws of the “markets” to guide the economy has been a terrible failure. As was replacing the United Nations with groups of plutocrats. The moment has come to rapidly change this course that may prompt a global debacle unless it is addressed with determination and intelligence.

The last straw: rating agencies urge Spain to be rescued by the UE

Amidst the whirlwind involving sovereign debt, risk premiums and the conditions for obtaining the famous “line of credit”, Standard & Poor’s –well-known for its impartiality!- announced on August 22 that if Spain requests a rescue, in which speculators will earn millions, it will not lower our country’s rating as it had intended to do.

When will institutions, both public and private, stop playing these shameful games, which have devastating effects on economies that suffer from continuous budget cuts (including cuts in education, healthcare and science), as if they were inevitable, instead of being offered incentives for economic development and the creation of jobs?

When will there be a popular outcry against EU leadership in which 26 of the 27 Member States merely obey “reference guidelines” affected negatively by the rating agencies announcements?

Extradite Assange and Falciani?

Laws must be fair. Otherwise there is no "rule of law", because they could promote ethically reprehensible judgments.

If sexual offenses were committed that contravene the laws of Sweden, nothing should prevent justice from being done as warranted. But without enabling any other country, and especially the US, to take advantage of his extradition to try this well-known “digital anarchist” for divulging “state secrets”. State secrets… aren’t they precisely what the incredibly expensive intelligence services are supposed to uncover?

The Australian hacker demonstrated that states must now be much more careful when safeguarding their true secrets and must also prevent actual and sometimes quite hilarious gossips from being classified as “confidential”, while likewise casting a totally “flunking” grade on a large number of their diplomatic delegations.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange supposes, suspects, assumes…. that the United States will take action as soon as he leaves the Embassy of Ecuador in London. It would suffice for the United States to officially announce that it will not request his extradition or put him on trial. In fact, the spokesperson for US diplomacy indicated on August 16 that “The United States has no intention of intervening”. But the staunch Republican Chairman of the House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee has asked to White House to seek extradition. It would thus appear prudent to await the outcome of PFC Bradley Manning’s forthcoming court martial.

In view of the above, I deem unwarranted the suggestion in the August 21 edition of an important daily such as The Washington Post that the United States might adopt economic sanctions against Ecuador (the world’s largest producer of bananas and shrimp in which a large number of its major companies are US owned).

Commenting on the “Fraud against the Rule of Law” in the August 22 “El País”, Ana Palacio asks why the European Union has remained silent during this matter. Given that they remained silent after the “Azores Three” decided to invade Iraq, resulting in thousands of deaths, injuries and over five million displaced persons… and given that they failed to react when Libyan leader Gadaffi was done away with in a manner that was certainly unacceptable from any perspective… it wouldn’t seem appropriate to make a big fuss over a comparatively minor matter. But the fact is that the time has passed in which the most powerful countries can decide who is guilty and who isn’t, replacing democratic governments with military juntas with impunity. Now all states will achieve the same “right to rights”!... and will refuse to be dominated by a few multinational consortia. I never cease to repeat that what is urgently required is a fully authoritative United Nations, endowed with the necessary personal, financial and technical resources.

It is a serious error, based on anachronistic forms of analysis, to judge by their GDP nations that have been impoverished by the greed of more wealthy countries which, moreover, have sought to govern “globally” (G-7, G-8, G-20).

Baltasar Garzón has the prestige required to appropriately handle this matter. Given well-known precedents from times past (Cardenal Mindszety, for example), it would be best to address this matter as I’m sure President Obama would… if he weren’t subject to the implausible harassment of Republicans who are so full of themselves that they are incapable of accepting any solution originating from multilateralism or from the simple principle of equality before the law.

And speaking of “filtrations”, what will happen to Hervé Falciani, the French-Italian computer expert whose information concerning deposits in the Swiss bank HSBC where he worked has facilitated the disclosure (what a disgrace!) of thousands of tax evaders, citizens who feel no solidarity and who are contributing to our present systemic crisis with these tactics? In Spain alone 659 cases of capital flight have been revealed, amounting to over 6,000 million euros. Even more numerous are those disclosed in France, Italy, the US and the UK… Falciani gave the French authorities the data that he had been able to access. Upon his arrival in Barcelona on June 1^st he was detained on an arrest warrant that the Swiss government had requested from the EU. The National Court must now decide. Can someone who disclosed so many tax evaders without any personal gain be surrendered to the Swiss authorities? Spanish legislation does not define the revelation of bank secrets as a criminal offense. It is the numerous tax havens and the countries that provide them refuge that should immediately be brought to justice. Unfortunately Europe is well endowed with these tax havens that contribute to the hell existing in so many homes and places on this planet…

Yes: in these cases we need to review the real meanings of “crime” and “law”…