Open Letter to Kofi Annan of the UN

Nov. 5, 2004
Kofi Annan
Secretary General
UNITED NATIONS
New York
OPEN LETTER TO KOFI ANNAN

Dear Mr. Kofi Annan,

I am most proud of you serving as the Secretary General of the United Nations that just celebrated its 59th year of existence. Congratulations. I sincerely thank you for your leadership and moral integrity through what continues to be a critical era of world history.

Indeed, the United Nations was founded as an instrument of peace, human rights and development. I would like to suggest that in order for the UN to attain its goals: - a world without poverty, without industry for hostility, without crimes against humanity - it should be able to reach out over and above governments and be rightfully supported by ordinary men and women from all over the world. I am suggesting that we all become citizens of the United Nations. The much needed resources for the U.N. can be willingly provided by the citizens of the U.N. I believe the General Assembly can empower you as Secretary General to appoint a small committee to explore this possibility.

In HAS MAN A FUTURE, Bertrand Russell wrote: “Law is a farce unless there is power to enforce it, and power to enforce international law against great states is impossible while each possess vast armaments. Great states have, at present, the privilege of killing members of other States whenever they feel so disposed, though this liberty is disguised as the heroic privilege of dying in defense of what is right and just. Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.”

Imagine 2 billion people supporting the UN with $10.00 each as annual citizenship dues of the UN. This would amount to $20 billion dollars a year. Enough I think for the UN to maintain not only its own Peace-Keeping Force, but to gradually expand to the point where the United Nations is in total control of all major weapons of war. It is hard to see any other way by which the human race can survive the weapons of mass extermination owned by an ever increasing number of countries. In the near future add another 2 billion people to make it 4 billion UN citizens, - $40 billions dollars a year. The UN would become the respected and effective enforcer of international law and an irresistible global force for peace and goodwill to all men and women and children. The protection of our natural world from unsustainable population growth could also be addressed. It is dramatic but true - The future of humankind is at stake.

We are in a new era of global community. We need a United Nations which has both the involvement and support of people throughout the world. We can make it come true if we, the ordinary people in our respective countries, can be made a legal part of the UN’s ultimate goals. We have sufficient resources to provide our fellow citizens with adequate food, education and health care. We have the will to treat our brothers and sisters with dignity and self-respect. But this cannot be accomplished by, or entrusted to, a small group of nations representing the interests and prejudices of a small percentage of the peoples of the world; it can only be achieved by the super citizens of the United Nations functioning as a world government.


Yours faithfully

POCH SUZARA
BERTRAND RUSSELL SOCIETY, PHIL.
8 Zipper Street, SLV,
Makati City, Philippines