Garry’s Two Gurus: Viewing the World Holistically

By David Gallup

As we enter the new year, let’s reflect on how we can strive for personal and world peace. In his own quest for personal and world peace, Garry Davis, founder of the World Citizen Government, sought advice from two gurus who helped him to navigate his role as a private individual and as a world citizen. Viewing the world holistically was what helped Garry maintain a balance between his personal life and his public activism.

In 1948, Garry became world famous after giving up his US citizenship, camping on the steps of the United Nations in Paris, and protesting the war system with thought-leaders like Albert Camus. Garry spoke to vast crowds of war-weary Europeans about creating a better world with “we, the people” in charge.

The public’s desire for peace weighed heavy on Garry’s conscience. It was not always clear to him what path he should take as a world citizen. Having realized that the world was already one when he gave up his national citizenship, he turned to Eastern and Hindu philosophy to learn the philosophical underpinnings of viewing the world in a holistic way.

A few years later, in the 1950s, Garry would meet two gurus (wisdom givers or spiritual guides), one who would help him to handle the difficulty of fame and the other who would encourage him to continue his peace activism.

Both of Garry’s gurus were experts in the philosophy of Advaita Vedanta or non-dualism, which is the primary and oldest among the schools of Indian philosophy. This holistic philosophy involves a journey to understand the source of everything and the self, as well as the relationship between the two. It posits that the core of our own being is the self in all beings. Objects, plants, animals, people, etc. may appear separate, but we are actually connected through an awareness of the oneness of everything.

Garry’s gurus taught him to look at a problem, an issue, or concern, as a consequence of the entire system in which the problem arises. By viewing the world holistically, he could see all of the intricacies of a problem -- the give and take, the polar opposites. He would then, his gurus explained, be able to transcend the problem and resolve it.

Garry’s first Guru was Harry Jakobsen in whose machine shop in New Jersey Garry worked for several months in 1952.

Garry and Harry would have long talks about holistic thinking and the state of the world. Garry was frustrated about the Korean War – frustrated that all his work to bring people together was no match for the national war machine. Garry asked Harry what he should do. Harry said, “Garry, you must continue to take action. If you see a problem in the world, you must take action to change it. If you change yourself, the world will follow. In other words, be the change you want to see in the world.”

Garry’s second Guru was Dr. Natarajan, also known as Nataraja Guru.

Garry voyaged to India to expand his learning of holistic thinking. Garry needed a break from constantly being in the spotlight, but he felt guilty for taking a break from his actions toward world peace. Garry asked Nataraja Guru about the guilt that he felt. Nataraja said to Garry, “Don’t worry, Garry. Let go. Put your mind at ease. Relax. Do nothing. The world and the universe will go on even if you are doing nothing.” This was a big solace to Garry who needed a break from the constant barrage of the press and years in the public eye.

So, Garry had two Gurus – one who told him to take action and one who told him to do nothing. They told him what they knew he needed to hear at that moment in his life. In the end, his concern for the world and humanity pulled Garry back into a life of action, continuing his role as World Citizen #1. His memoir My Country is the World and the documentary The World Is My Country recount further his experiences with the gurus.

Like his gurus before him, Garry would spend the rest of his life sharing his world citizenship wisdom. In countless speeches, conferences, seminars, newspaper and magazine articles, radio and television shows, podcasts, and his ten books, Garry advocated an ethical framework for governing our world. This holistic framework, he explained, could help us build a peaceful, just and sustainable world.

In the new year, let us seek to find repose within our minds along with the courage to build the world that Garry envisioned – a world in which humanity is united under the banner of world citizenship and world law.

The Right to Peace: 73rd Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

By David Gallup

December 10, 2021 marks the 73^rd anniversary of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This year also marks the 5th anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Right to Peace (DRP). As we celebrate the anniversaries of these two Declarations, let’s consider their interconnectedness and how world government, world law, and world citizenship are key to their implementation. 

Linking Human Rights and Peace in the Declarations

The UDHR and the DRP share the same ultimate goal: achieving world peace based on universal respect for human rights.

The interconnectedness between the Declarations becomes noticeable in the shared terms “peace” and “human rights,” which repeat multiple times in each document. Peace affirms human rights, and human rights affirm peace.

The UDHR refers to “peace” three times. The most significant occurrence appears in the Preamble: “Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world.”

The DRP further affirms the indivisible link between rights and peace. Article 1 states, “Everyone has the right to enjoy peace such that all human rights are promoted and protected and development is fully realized.”

Education of our rights and of a culture of peace, according to both Declarations, is the principal way to raise awareness of these goals. To move beyond awareness into implementation, peace and human rights must be engaged by government at all levels from local to global.

Implementing Human Rights and Peace: Primary Function of Government

Achieving peace and human rights must be the primary function of government. We must implement the UDHR and the DRP at the world level as well as lower levels because local and national governments alone do not have the capacity and oftentimes the willingness to fulfill this role.

The limitations of local and national governments hamper the achievement of peace. For example, within the nation-state system of exclusive sovereignty, our rights and duties begin and end at the border, allowing lawlessness and violence to reign beyond borders. In a global governmental system, our rights and duties apply to everyone, everywhere, placing accountability on each individual in society for upholding the rule of law.

We can learn from the effective aspects of national governmental institutions, such as parliaments and courts, which provide legislative processes and adjudication of disputes that allow for peaceful decision-making at the national level. By globalizing these legal processes, we can achieve peaceful decision-making beyond the nation-state – at the more impactful world level.

A world federal government, in its focus on the global rule of law, offers a system to transition from a society guided by war, to a society guided by peaceful realization of our rights and duties.

Implementing Human Rights and Peace: Law and Citizenship

If we define and implement peace by what it is – the presence of law – rather than by what it is not – the absence of war – then world peace becomes achievable. World peace is achievable through world law and world citizenship.

The UDHR provides a set of guiding principles to form the basis of an evolving world law. The UDHR provides a springboard for creating the participatory institutions and regenerative processes at the global level to help us to live together peacefully with each other and sustainably with the Earth.

To fulfill our right to peace as the DRP intends, we must move beyond the confines of our local identities that divide us. By seeing ourselves as world citizens, with universal rights and duties to each other and to the planet, we begin to govern our world with a unified voice -- a world governed by us, the people of the world. With a world citizen mindset, we better understand that peace depends upon respect for rights and respect for rights depends upon peaceful interactions at all levels of human society.

As we celebrate the anniversaries of the UDHR and the DRP, let’s consider how we may implement the Declarations’ principles and framework for human rights and peace in our own lives, in our communities, and in the world.

 

David Gallup is a human rights attorney, President of the World Service Authority, and a member of the Board of Directors of the Citizens for Global Solutions Education Fund.

The Thief and the Guru: A 2021 New Year’s Tale

 

By David Gallup

Garry Davis, the founder of the World Citizenship Movement, had two gurus who helped him understand what it means to be a world citizen. I was in my mid-20s when I started working with Garry at the World Service Authority. Garry, who was in his 70s, became my guru and shared his lifetime of worldly wisdom.

Garry once said to me, “One guru is worth a hundred thieves.”

I said, “What do you mean? Why would you compare a guru to a thief?”

He repeated, “One guru is worth a hundred thieves.” Garry continued, “One person of heart is worth a hundred people of head. One thief is worth a hundred people of heart. And, one guru is worth a hundred thieves.”

My eyes were wide, and I had a confused look on my face. Garry told the following tale:

“One person of heart – that is a person of action, someone who acts from emotion – is worth a hundred people of head because a person of head is stuck in their thoughts. The person of head may have great thoughts, but unless they are willing to act on those thoughts, nothing will change.

Now the problem with the person of heart is that they may not have thought through their actions, so their actions will have little impact. This is what brings us to the thief.

One thief is worth a hundred people of heart because the thief, if they are a successful thief, will have taken painstaking efforts to plan their theft. Because they are a thief, they are willing to go through with it even though they might get caught.  So the thief has put the head and the heart together.

But the thief is in the perceptual world, bound by space and time. The thief is in the here and now – the material, relative world. The thief is selfish.

Now, this brings us to the guru. Why is one guru worth a hundred thieves? Because the guru puts the head and the heart together in an ethical framework for understanding the world around them.

The guru is in the conceptual world, the world of values. The guru is a teacher. The guru gives to others and is for others. The guru is selfless. The guru is free and has no Karma to deal with. The guru has found the truth and is one with truth. The guru sees the world as one and views everything holistically.

One guru is worth a hundred thieves because the guru not only thinks about the morality and helpfulness of their actions before they take them, but they also act selflessly to help those around them.”

Why is “The Thief and the Guru” an important New Year’s tale? Given the extraordinarily challenging year that humanity endured in 2020, it is a reminder for us to think and act like a guru as we begin a new year. It is a reminder to let our thoughts and emotions work together to create purposeful action.

Acting like a guru in this way is challenging because of the values that the nation-state system has instilled in us. We have been taught to think exclusively about and encouraged to love our individual nations as if national citizenship is the pinnacle of our identity. The guru teaches us the ethical power of world citizenship, guiding our hearts and minds toward world unity.

Voice, one of humanity’s most powerful tools, literally and metaphorically connects our hearts and heads. Through our voice, we can share our thoughts and feelings about what kind of world we want. Through our voice we can advance world citizenship to help us to achieve world peace. May we each be inspired to think, feel and speak like the guru in 2021.

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Read my upcoming blog in February to learn about Garry’s experience with two gurus.

Building Global Unity through Tolerance and Universal Rights

December 10, 2020

By David Gallup

Today marks the 72^nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Two related documents also celebrate significant anniversaries this year: the 25^th anniversary of the Declaration of the Principles on Tolerance and the 75^th anniversary of the United Nations Charter. Both Declarations and the Charter provide a framework for building unity in a diverse world.

The impetus for creating the Declaration on Tolerance was, as the Declaration’s Preamble states, “the current rise in acts of intolerance, violence, terrorism, xenophobia, aggressive nationalism, racism, anti-Semitism, exclusion, marginalization and discrimination.” These acts dramatically impact the rights of vulnerable groups and threaten the development of peace and democracy in the world.

The Preamble to the United Nations Charter implores us “to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours.” 

On the anniversary of both Declarations and the Charter, we celebrate the strides we have made to practice tolerance; at the same time, we recognize that much work remains to be done to advance tolerance and respect for universal rights.

What does it mean to engage tolerance in society?

Tolerance involves active learning about and respecting the ways that our fellow humans live their lives. Tolerance means learning other languages, cultures, beliefs, identities, and practices as well as ecological principles. Article 1 of the Declaration on Tolerance provides a comprehensive definition of tolerance: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000151830

Tolerance doesn’t mean complete acceptance of others’ words, behaviors, or actions. As the Declaration on Tolerance states, tolerance doesn’t require “concession, condescension or indulgence . . . social injustice or the abandonment or weakening of one's convictions.” We need not sit idly by and tolerate others’ intolerance.

Tolerance involves ethical engagement in the world that we all share, affirming our responsibilities to everyone as fellow citizens and to the Earth as our home. Tolerance means having a holistic awareness of the mutual benefit to implementing our universal rights.

How do we achieve tolerance in society?

Education is vital to achieving tolerance. Article 26(2) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms the connection between education, tolerance, and human rights: “Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups.”

Additionally, equal access to information, sustainable development, ethical governance, and just laws can advance both tolerance and universal rights.

What is the connection between tolerance and universal rights?

Universal rights and tolerance are interdependent: one cannot exist without the other.

To create awareness of the connection between tolerance and universal rights, we must speak up, speak out, and take action. We must pay attention to the needs of our fellow humans and to the needs of our planet. Working together, we can save the Earth from climate destruction and save humanity from inequality, injustice, and violence – which occur when tolerance and human rights are ignored.

If we want a just world, we must ensure that tolerance and universal rights prevail.

How does tolerance relate to a peaceful and governed world?

Like the Declaration on Tolerance, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is not binding treaty law that requires governments to respect the Declarations’ mandates. This lack of legal engagement internationally is why we must consider developing enforceable world law as the basis for a world community that respects and protects diversity. The creation of global, participatory institutions of law, such as a World Parliament and a World Court of Human and Environmental Rights, will help us to achieve tolerance and respect for universal rights.

As we deal with inequality and injustice, world health, structural violence, and climate destruction, tolerance is a mode of participation that all citizens of the world can embrace. Living a world-citizen way of life means not only respecting universal rights, but also considering how we will interact peacefully, ethically, and sustainably with our fellow humans, with all other life on Earth, and with the Earth itself.

For our continued existence on our home planet and for a potential interstellar existence, we must realize what it means to be world citizens who exercise tolerance in all aspects of our lives.

Pandemic of Racism

By David Gallup

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” ― Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail

How many lives have been extinguished by the pandemic of racism?

Like a biological virus, racism is spread from person to person by what people teach and say to their family members and friends. It is spread by ignorance and nurtured by hatred and indifference.

Unlike a biological virus, racism immediately affects everyone who is targeted and leaves indelible lifelong wounds.

Racism does not only become lethal in the hands of those who inhabit the halls of power and privilege; racism resides throughout society. The world has been built on inequality, xenophobia, and oppression. Racism has been institutionalized and systematized. The system of exclusive nation-states has further exacerbated structural violence and cycles of discrimination. The foundations that humans have used to construct our world are unequal and unstable. The world that is our home is failing much of its inhabitants. The entire house will fall if we do not return to the drawing board to design and build an inclusive and just foundation.

What is the antidote to racism?

                                                             

If we want to have a world that works for everyone, we need to teach children from infancy not only the principles but also the practices of inclusion, empathy, listening, sharing, respect, equality, and justice. These lessons must not end when youth ends; adults must continually educate themselves and be cognizant of how their words and actions impact those around them.

Stopping racism requires a holistic approach. Racism must be recognized and eliminated from every aspect of society. Stopping racism requires us to question how we are running our world. Is our competitive economic and political system that pits human against human, group against group, ethical? How we govern ourselves, or neglect to govern our world, inordinately affects people due to their race and ethnicity.

The hyper-nationalistic and corporate control of human and natural resources embeds racism in the wheels of production, consumption, and day-to-day existence. We are taught to see our fellow humans as “others” against whom we must compete, and oftentimes fight, for supremacy. Rarely are we taught, let alone encouraged to practice, how to be allies of one another, rather than competitors.

A holistic approach to stopping racism takes into account the health of humanity and the earth. It will ensure that our rights and duties are universally respected. And it will seek equality and justice in all aspects of human-to-human interaction, as well as human-to-earth interaction.

• Education must be just.
• Societal opportunities and outcomes must be just.
• Economics must be just.
• Politics must be just.
• Governmental representation must be just.
• Laws, their enforcement, and their adjudication must be just.

The laws that we create help determine how we will interact with one another. Racism and discrimination are outlawed in many national and international codes of conduct. For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Persons (UNDRIP) affirm the principles of equality and justice.

The Preamble and Articles 1, 2 and 26 of the UDHR affirm everyone’s equality and right to be free from racism. Article 2 specifically states, “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.”

The Preamble and Articles 8 and 46 of the UNDRIP reiterate the antidiscrimination principles of the UDHR. The Preamble states “that all doctrines, policies and practices based on or advocating superiority of peoples or individuals on the basis of national origin or racial, religious, ethnic or cultural differences are racist, scientifically false, legally invalid, morally condemnable and socially unjust.” Article 8(2)(e) specifically states, “States shall provide effective mechanisms for prevention of, and redress for: Any form of propaganda designed to promote or incite racial or ethnic discrimination.”

The problem is not the lack of laws against racism, it is how and whether those laws are implemented. When the institutions of society and government do not fairly represent everyone in the community, then the laws will not be implemented fairly, or at all. Laws, in the end, will never be enough to stop racism. We need to protest for change, listen and be allies for change, learn and educate for change, vote for change, and run for office for change.

We need to run on a platform of building an ethical and inclusive social and governmental system for the whole world. This means creating a just system and an equitable justice system, one that does not treat some people as lesser, and others as better, or above the law.

To have a peaceful, free and sustainable world, it must be a just world. As citizens of the world, we are all directly responsible for rooting out injustice anywhere and for seeking justice for everyone, everywhere.

Black lives matter.

Scarcity or Abundance?

Scarcity or Abundance?

By David Gallup

The COVID-19 virus is not the first pandemic to seriously impact humanity, nor will it be the last. This global crisis and existential threat provides an opportunity for humans as a species to determine how we will interact with one another and the earth from now on. We can choose a coordinated, interdependent, and holistic approach, or we can continue haltingly and in vain to deal with global issues selfishly in an ungoverned world.

Beyond a Nationalistic Strategy

A virus that impacts everyone necessitates a world citizen-focused response.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is the UN agency attempting to coordinate efforts of national governments in their response to the pandemic. While structures like the WHO encourage local governments to heed their policy recommendations, they have no power to enforce their suggested courses of action. National governments may arbitrarily refuse to follow those guidelines within their self-imposed borders. National governments do what is in their self-interest or that of their leaders’ economic and political priorities. Human-made borders, we have realized, do very little to contain a virus in a free world.

In its proposed 2020-2021 budget, the WHO will receive almost five billion dollars from UN Member-States. This is a miniscule amount of money compared to the two trillion dollars that national governments spend preparing for and waging wars every year.  Not only is the WHO underfunded, but also national health institutions like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health are severely underfunded in comparison to the life-saving work that they are doing.

It’s not a question of whether the world has the resources and funds to support the health and well-being of all humans and the earth; it is a question of priorities.

National leaders frequently appeal to the security concerns of citizens in expanding military budgets, while ignoring the impact that poor health and environmental degradation has on these same citizens. They argue about scarcity -- limited funds and resources should be directed at national military defense, rather than health care, sustainable development, and ecological conservation.

To the detriment of all, national self-defense supersedes defense of people and planet.

Scare City

In times of crisis, individuals begin to act in panic mode. They become self-absorbed, thinking only about self-preservation. This is understandable because fear and protection of oneself and one’s family are strong motivators of behavior.

Perceived scarcities have created real Scare Cities – people living in states of fear. The individual behaves like a mini nation-state setting up borders, raising their self-interest above all other concerns, and fending off those they perceive as a threat. This selfish mentality has presented itself in the hoarding of toilet paper, sanitizers, and, most importantly medical supplies that first responders, health care workers, and hospitals desperately need.

To help everyone through this crisis, local governments should establish a voucher system to assist those who have no salary or income. And there should be total loan forgiveness on necessities like groceries, medical supplies, housing, and education. Governments could easily provide digital or physical vouchers to everyone each month to pay for necessities. It just means that we need to change priorities from using money to wage wars and build walls, to using money to pay for livingry – tools that support and enhance all life.

Abundance

Resources are abundant in the world. We can feed, clothe, house, educate, and provide for every human being on the planet, but only if we choose to use and share resources sustainably to help people and protect the earth.

Instead of building weapons like war planes and nuclear bombs, funds and resources must be redirected to advancing both earth and human health as well as environmental and human rights. Currently, less than half of the world’s population has universal health coverage. Global institutions devoted to the rule of law, such as a World Court of Human and Environmental Rights and a World Peace Force, should replace the wastefulness of vast national armies. Think how much humanity could do to ensure healthcare and safe infrastructures for everyone on the planet with the two trillion dollars that national governments spend annually on waging wars.

Our failure to implement global approaches to global crises will inevitably lead to higher death tolls from wars, pandemics, and climate change. How many deaths will occur if we fail to implement a coordinated global system?

Moreover, the human response to this crisis must not be about saving any one economy; it must be about saving individual lives, humanity and the earth as a whole. Human and earth survival are interconnected. We must develop a human and earth consciousness, as well as a governing system that matches this holistic awareness, in order to prevent humanity’s extinction.

What we do now will determine our fate. How seriously will we take our responsibility as world citizens toward each other and the earth? This is a test of our humanity.

Davis and Goliath

    (Photo courtesy of theworldismycountry.com)

By David Gallup

A New Year’s Parable

The massive Palace stood as a fortress alongside the River Seine. The edifice of power was built, stone upon stone, carrying an aura of ceaselessness as it rose high into the sky. Bronze statues of the gods held guard.

Now the national leaders gathered in the Palace, squabbling over the interests of their subjects, would-be citizens. In the grand meeting hall, the leaders gave selfish speech after selfish speech, sheathed in eloquence, about what they demanded for their own. Outside the chamber, the voice of the world’s people, themselves, was mute. Though not for long.

With typewriter, bible and sleeping bag in tow, Garry Davis arrived at the Palace, which had been declared “international territory” by the powers that be. For seven days, undocumented and undaunted, he camped on the steps of the Palace to the delight of the press and the world public. One calm and peaceful individual outside, in stark contrast to the hundreds of bombastic and belligerent national leaders inside.

The presence of “Le petit homme” (the little man) was a thorn in the leaders’ side. How could they continue their pretense of “maintaining peace” between nations when one stateless individual could reveal their impotence? How could they help all of the world’s citizens, when they did not even know how to assist one individual world citizen? One of the highest officials representing the nations declared, “Davis is a world baby. Our Charter does not foresee being a nursemaid. States may join our organization. Diapered citizens may not!” The embarrassed nations forcefully and illegally removed Davis from the grounds of the Palace and attempted to put him back into the nation-state box.

This was Davis’s second stand against the stalwart nation-state system, the first being his renunciation of exclusive citizenship to one nation, in favor of an inclusive embrace of all of humanity.

Time and again throughout his life, Davis spoke truth to power. Just a few months after camping out at the nations’ Palace, Davis and 20 compatriots interrupted another session of squabbling national leaders. This was Davis’s third stand against the “divide and conquer” power elite. From the balcony, this time inside the Palace, Davis implored, “I interrupt you in the name of the people of the world not represented here. Though my words may be unheeded, our common need for world law and order can no longer be disregarded. We, the people, want the peace which only a world government can give.”

He continued, “The sovereign states you represent divide us and lead us to the abyss of Total War. I call upon you no longer to deceive us by this illusion of political authority. I call upon you to convene forthwith a World Constituent Assembly to raise the standard around which all can gather, the standard of true peace, of One Government for One World.”

“And if you fail us in this, stand aside, for a People’s World Assembly will arise from our own ranks to create such a government. We can be served by nothing less.”

Attempting to free himself and humanity from the shackles of the divisive nation-state, Davis continued to stand up to Goliath.

Commentary

Whether it was from his “Cabane du Bonheur” (Cabin of Happiness) built on the divide between France and Germany or from his seated position in the middle of the Allenby Bridge between Israel and Jordan, Davis exposed the injustice and violence of human-made borders.

Like the Bible’s Goliath, the nation-state is armed to the hilt. These weapons and national governments’ hubris, Davis knew, would be their undoing. Through his words and actions, he exposed the artifice of a system built upon the false belief that independent nations could protect individuals within their frontiers. Davis revealed that the nation-state system was crumbling under the weight of the world’s problems.

Unlike the Bible’s David, Davis was armed only with his quick thinking and sense of humor. His claim of world citizenship and his World Passport were his tools of revolutionary change.

Garry Davis wasn’t a hero because he was a bomber pilot and fought for the nation; he was a hero because he renounced war and killing. He gave up the comforts that the state would have provided him. He went to jail to expose the injustice of the national war system. And he spent his entire adult life teaching us to unite as world citizens -- to achieve a peaceful world.

Davis once wrote, “If spending time in the jails of the world would further the understanding of one world and one humankind, then I would gladly forfeit my freedom again this very day. For it is my considered opinion that this understanding alone is the sine qua non of world peace.”

Davis had to be brave to challenge a system that called him “kooky,” “misfit,” “crazy,” and “utopian”—to stand up to injustice against our fellow humans and the earth.

Do we want the nation-state Goliath to run our lives? Do we want to bow down to a system that separates us, human from human, and makes us believe that we must fight one another?

Garry Davis taught us that as world citizens we have the power to create an ethical system to govern our world. We have the right and responsibility to build a sustainable, just and peaceful world. This isn’t just a message for the New Year; this is a message for all time.