Posted on 08/09/2004 12:36:53 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
As if our nation's free-market ideal isn't damaged enough -- witness, if you will, the generally lengthy permitting process for businesses and the prevalence of zoning laws, environmental mandates, eminent domain abuses and hefty tax burdens that plague our would-be entrepreneurs and developers in nearly every county, city and state across America.
Now comes the United Nations, with its Global Compact Center and its Responsible Investment Initiative. Announced in July at the four-month-long "Universal Forum of Cultures in Barcelona 2004," both these programs are thinly veiled attacks against capitalism that, left unchecked, will result in a ceding of private and sovereign national oversight and regulatory powers to the global government.
The Global Compact Center is the physical manifestation of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's five-year brainchild, the Global Compact, that he touted as a voluntary commitment on the part of businesses to honor 10 principles "in the areas of human rights, labor and the environment." The principles are derived from such notable U.N. documents as the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and include business practice suggestions that range from the "surely, you jest" category -- as with Number Four, thou shalt not practice slavery, and with the recently added Number 10, thou shalt not be corrupt -- to the seemingly more agenda-driven, evidenced in numbers seven, eight and nine that demand strict regard for the environment.
The utter nonsensical notion of American businesses pledging to the corruptible United Nations to abstain from corruption aside, these environmental provisions reek of hidden agenda. They mirror the basic tenets captured within the Kyoto Protocol, a controversial document that has failed to achieve U.S. ratification because prevailing congressional and White House wisdom have so far agreed with some in the science field that these environmental restrictions will not markedly improve air or water quality but rather result in a damaged economy.
This mirroring reveals a begrudging genius that permeates the Global Compact: It takes the idea behind Kyoto Protocol out of the hands of America's duly elected, who have so far resisted ratification, and brings it instead to the doors of the individual corporations. And even though the compact is presented as only a harmless, voluntary commitment, the present culture is such that extreme environmentalism and well-funded Greens lobbyists will eventually drive the consumer market to demand corporate capitulation to these global principles.
Spearheading this drive for corporate acceptance is now the Global Compact Center, the creation of which allows the plan -- the compact -- a home, an organized headquarters staffed by those committed to use "the power of collective action" to "advance responsible corporate citizenship so that business can be part of the solution to the challenges of globalization," the United Nations reports.
Do we really want to push our free-market economy, or at least, what's left of it, down this path toward U.N. oversight? The center promises to develop into a clearinghouse agency of sorts, ultimately taking charge of dictating which businesses can produce and in what amounts and basing those assessments on environmental factors that have not even been fully recognized by the U.S. government as needful of strict regulation.
The situation seems lose-lose for American corporations and for Americans, as the business world conforms to global environmental guidelines that hold the good of the world above the good of our nation, and the American people, in the process, suffer less production, lost jobs and higher prices.
But wait -- this center represents only one prong of the on-going attack against capitalism. The other facet affects investors.
"In an effort to safeguard the ecological futures of the planet, the United Nations environmental agency today launched a new Responsible Investment Initiative aimed at collaborating with major institutional investors to develop a set of globally recognized principles by September 2005," says a July 15 U.N. news release. This initiative, the release continues, is "framed in support of the Global Compact."
Here's the ominous part, though, and the one statement that should squash all doubts as to the level of risk the United Nations is willing to accept in pursuit of global compliance to its environmental agenda.
The Responsible Investment Initiative "also builds on a (U.N. Environmental Program) study that warned of a threat to stock markets if environmental, social and governance issues are ignored by financial analysts and the broader investment community."
It really doesn't get any clearer than that.
I truly believe that the UN needs to be added to the list of the war on terrorism right under Iran and North Korea. Let's treat it as a hostile communist nation that threatens our very freedom and sovereignty...which is basically what it has become.
Communist nations have been the absolute offenders in terms of pollution. Chernobyl is an example. Shanghai may have the world's worst air.
For a great book exposing the looney-bin called the UN read "Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe are worse than you think" by Jed Babbin.
The U.N blue helmets couldn't defeat a third world army.
Somehow I doubt we will see corporations lining up at Kofi's door to volunteer.
You start talking like that & this government is gonna come down upon ya. What's left for them after they monitor the elections. It's getting tiresome of throwing those evildoers in jail for marijuana possession. It's even harder to boost protection around the White House & then have get away bank robberies across the street. Then mention the UN to the elites in the "Two-Party Cartel". You're history.
Recently they asked for suggestions at http://www.gopconvention.com/index.shtml
I told them I'd like to see a movement, similar to the Peace Corps, devoted to the endorsement and advance of economic freedom around the world. Mere democracy isn't enough. Many democratic nations have arisen in the past century, but the scourge of socialism has held them back. The US should encourage capitalism no less than it encourages democracy.
Yeah...me and everyone else here at FR...
Better still, read: The Creature From Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin for an overview that takes in the whole story. All are available from amazon.com.
This is intended to keep investment out of the Third World. This kind of swill originates in Europe for the most part.
This isn't exactly news. Perhaps the title should be that the war is intensifying.
"Somehow I doubt we will see corporations lining up at Kofi's door to volunteer."
a ?UN of Corporations? is being put in place. Under the aegis of the ?UN Global Compact? which has 1500 corporate members, about one third or 480 CEO?s met and discussed how they will proceed to incorporate the goals of the Compact in everyday activities. They were joined by key non-governmental organizations and financial organizations such as stock exchanges and mutual fund companies.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan first introduced the concept of the Global Compact in 1999 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The concept then found its way into one of the Millennium Summit development goals in 2000 that called for the strengthening of the UN through governments working with businesses, NGO?s, and international UN agencies. The GC was then officially launched in 2001 at a high level meeting with these same actors which, interestingly enough, are the same actors as those diagrammed in the Gaia Peace Atlas.
The GC has its own philosophy that reflects the UN Charter and the Millennium Summit goals. It was referred to as having ?universal principles? and drawing its ?moral authority and global convening power from the UN Secretary General.? The GC also incorporates sustainable development and human rights. The goal basically is to restructure and reorganize society, government, and business.
The partnership everyone is referring to is public-private partnership which is a merger between government and business. I remember asking John Ruggie, special adviser to Kofi Annan at the World Economic Forum in 2001 if the partnership between government and business was fascism. His facial expression changed as he told me everyone has a role to play and that the Global Compact was a microorganism of a new approach to global governance, i.e. world government.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Veon/joan18.htm
"They're doin' it AGAIN!" ...er...still?
(ping)
Non-stop... attacking from all fronts. It's frightening.
It's past time for capitalism to wage war on the UN. This useless collection of parasites and terrorists needs to be disbanded. We need to get our congress critters involved in getting us out of the UN or we can vote our congress critters out of their cushy jobs. We can no longer afford to sit back and let the enemy slowly erode our sovereignty.
I am not a member at CBS.MarketWatch.com, so I did not read the whole article but, based upon what I DID read, I was wondering about your comment.... Is this the article your were referring to...???
The U.S. is broke
Future of economy bleak unless we get real, book posits
By Thomas Kostigen, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 8:37 PM ET Aug 9, 2004
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (CBS.MW) -- The economy is rebuffing both political parties. At least that's what Pete Peterson charges in his latest book on the subject of the U.S. future account deficits.
"Running on Empty: How the Democratic and Republican Parties Are Bankrupting Our Future and What Americans Can Do About it," forcefully lays out the case for rectifying our sorely out-of-whack federal balance sheets and taking a sober look at the path on which the U.S. is headed: one of financial destruction. ...More
Thank you , Sir (or Madam, as the case might be) May I have another?
(...ie: How about *BOTH* of the above?)
One could certainly make the case that while Kofi and his lackeys *WANT* to steal us blind, the 'critters' are *ALREADY* doing so.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.