From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Mon Dec 11 2006 - 12:59:58 EST
What I've Learned By Kofi A. Annan Monday, December 11, 2006; Washington Post, Page A19 (...) Now I want to pass on five lessons I have learned during 10 years as secretary general of the United Nations that I believe the community of nations needs to learn as it confronts the challenges of the 21st century. First, in today's world we are all responsible for each other's security. (...) Second, we are also responsible for each other's welfare. Without a measure of solidarity, no society can be truly stable. It is not realistic to think that some people can go on deriving great benefits from globalization while billions of others are left in, or thrown into, abject poverty. We have to give all our fellow human beings at least a chance to share in our prosperity. Third, both security and prosperity depend on respect for human rights and the rule of law. (...) My fourth lesson, therefore, is that governments must be accountable for their actions, in the international as well as the domestic arena. (...) How can states hold each other to account? Only through multilateral institutions. So my final lesson is that those institutions must be organized in a fair and democratic way, giving the poor and the weak some influence over the actions of the rich and the strong. Complete text: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/10/AR2006121000768.html It's rather modest, diplomatic and general stuff - let's hope he writes a fairly frank autobiography, so that we may learn more about what it is like to have one of the world's most difficult jobs... Possibly though, that's hoping for too much. How frank could he really be? J.
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