One good thing that came out of the economic meltdown and world recession is the reappraisal of what makes the world economy tick !
The self appointed G-8 group of nations - comprising Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the USA - was little more than an arrogant declaration that they were the only economies that mattered.
They wanted to call the tune. They exercised undue influence on the policies of the IMF and the world bank - and the rest of the world was reduced to mere observer status.
The G-8 is now history, replaced by the G-20 - which includes emerging giants China, India , Brazil - and Australia. This recession has shown that it takes a compendium of the world economies to work and act together to achieve results. But there are more lessons to be learned.
This same concentration of just a few powerful countries is what is wrong with the United Nations !
The UN is supposed to be a world body where every nation has an equal say, but the permanent seats on the security council are held by countries with the right of veto - the power to stop any discussion and prevent any action - and those nation's are the ones who are nuclear armed.
It is probably the incentive that caused India and Pakistan to secretly become nuclear powers. If you want to sit with the big boys, you need to have an atom bomb or two to rattle at the same table.
A similar thought is probably behind the tactics used by Iran and North Korea.
The G-20 is a step in the right direction, but it is also time the same thinking was applied to the structure of the United Nations.
It is time the vote of veto passed into history. With global warming and world famine threatening the existence of the human race the answers to the problems will only be found by consensus.
That quote from "Animal Farm " comes to mind.
" We are all equal - but some are more equal than others ! "
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