Posted on 05/10/2002 12:19:45 AM PDT by kattracks
Edited on 07/12/2004 3:53:24 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
NEW YORK
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
At least reported vile behavior. I wonder how much of it never got revealed in the more staid past, not that this excuses it in the present.
I wish that I lived in the same world that you do, one in which that booklet is so unbelievable that it is easier to think that a respectable newspaper like the Washington Times would perpetrate an easily detectable hoax that to think than UN bureaucrats would push such material. I used to live in a world like that, but it ceased to exist over 20 years ago.
20 years ago I would have dismissed that booklet out of hand. Now we live in a world where millions of people are once again being told that Jews use the blood of Christians and Muslims to make matzos - and believe it.
People have always been capable of unbelievable behavior. I think we were lucky enough to live in a time and country where we weren't exposed to it.
As for the idea that a respected newspaper would publish easily detectable mis-information - I am shocked, shocked! :)
I guess you have me there, but since the Times is conservative, surely they would know that if they faked it they would be exposed. Besides, I am an acquaintance of Archibald, and I do not think he is a flake. But I am a straightforward type, and find stories like the one about a certain former blonde freeper stupefyingly ununderstandable, so what do I know?
In Latin 3, many years back, the teacher, while dealing with Cicero's speeches against Catiline, came to the line 'O tempora, o mores'. She remarked that this just showed that older people were always seeing the collapse of socities values, hah-hah. I remember thinking: 'Hey, Cicero was speaking in Senate in the final generation of the Republic he loved so much. His life was ended when soldiers, sent by Mark Anthony, with the agreement of Octavian, came up to him and cut his head off without trial! Perhaps his thinking that HIS society was coming to an end is not quite so funny.' Some of my further reflections on this are on my homepage.
After all, that story is big news (we don't yet live in a world where it's not). Why hasn't it appeared in other, respected newspapers? Obviously, someone has not done their homework. Unfortunately, it could be that the Times is right and the others wrong.
Our current situation makes me feel as I did when I read Orwell and Kafka, or viewed the paintings of Bosch. So maybe times like these are more common than we've thought. Maybe it's just that we - Americans - have had little experience with them. What do you think?
Not in my house - but I'll check around.
BTW - Shame on the U.N.
10 May,20002
Talks are intensifying on a final document which delegates hope to adopt when the General Assembly's special session on children wraps up late today, according to a spokesman for the Assembly President.
"Apparently, negotiations continued until 4.00 am and I have heard both optimistic and not so optimistic evaluations, so let me just say that even if there is agreement on the text, it looks as if it will be a long day," Jan Fischer, spokesman for Assembly President Han Seung-soo of the Republic of Korea, told reporters at UN Headquarters. The document, entitled "A World Fit for Children," reviews efforts over the past decade and contains an action plan for the future.
Addressing the plenary today, Peter Piot, Executive Director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), underscored the devastating impact of the disease on children, noting that every day, 6,000 people under 24 are infected with HIV. He said taboo hampered effective prevention for young people. "We know the proven tools include a combination of life skills and peer education for responsible and safe sexual behaviour, condom distribution, and youth-friendly services, but too few of these tools are being applied to mobilize young people," he said. "Where young people are given the chance to organize themselves, they have shown they can tackle AIDS."
Anna Tibaijuka, the Executive Director of the UN Human Settlements Programme (HABITAT), stressed the need to provide the world's children with a proper home. The Habitat Agenda, a global action plan adopted in 1996 called for special attention to be given to the shelter needs of vulnerable children. In response, the HABITAT agency was working "to improve the living environment for children around the world, particularly in the slums of our cities," she said.
In his address yesterday, the Director-General of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Juan Somavia, called attention to the plight of the world's 180 million children trapped in exploitive jobs, where they risked serious injury and even death. He called for "family-centred strategies that provide escape routes out of poverty; and safety nets to deal with crises." Parents must get jobs and children must get schooling, he stressed, urging the establishment of child-labour-free zones. "We must never forget that child labour is about adults using and exploiting children," he said. "Stopping it is the responsibility of adults."
Also speaking on Thursday, Mary Robinson, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, called on States to make every effort to eliminate discrimination against children, pointing out that Afghanistan served as a recent example of the need to address gender inequality. "None of us will ever forget the joy in the faces of the girls who had finally returned to school after years of denial of this most fundamental right." Battling AIDS also required a rights-based approach, including providing young people with the tools to survive, she said. "The empowerment of adolescent girls, and their knowledge of reproductive rights, is an essential element in responding effectively to HIV/AIDS."
The participation of young people in the General Assembly's special session on children marked an historic departure from past conferences and enlivened the event with fresh perspectives, the Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) said today as the three-day meeting entered its final stretch.
In contrast to the 1990 World Summit for Children, "the extraordinary difference and vitality that was felt in the meeting rooms and the hallways and the discussions by the inclusion of young people as participants, along with adults as official delegates, able to comment and offer their views and opinions, [created] a freshness," Ms. Bellamy told a news conference in New York, where the meeting has been under way since Wednesday.
Prior to the special session, some 400 kids attended a children's forum, while some 250 youths were included in their countries' official delegations. "They reminded us that children should not be seen as an expense but rather an investment," the UNICEF chief noted. "They made it very clear that they thought that there have been plenty of words in the past and plenty of promises but it is now time for action."
In another step forward since 1990, Ms. Bellamy noted, the draft text set for adoption at the conclusion of the meeting dealt with the concerns of all States. "This outcome document clearly has very strong commitment and language on child rights and as such, with its agenda - that ranges from health to education to protection to AIDS - really is a global document," she said, referring to the draft - A World Fit for Children. "This document applies to all countries, no matter what economic status."
Agreement on the document had not yet been reached, she said, "but there was some significant movement over the last 24 hours, particularly in agreement on strong language dealing with child rights."
"The work goes on to try and deal with the remaining paragraphs," she added, noting that language on reproductive health was still under discussion.
Stressing the need for action in the future, Ms. Bellamy said, "This meeting is not a success or failure based on whether it has an outcome document - it is a success or a failure based on what happens after the meeting."
The action plan focuses on four primary areas: promoting healthy lives, access to and completion of quality education, protection of children against abuse, violence and exploitation, and fighting HIV/AIDS.
According to Ms. Bellamy, over 60 summit-level participants attended the event. In parallel to the special session, there was also a religious leaders' forum on the role of those individuals with respect to children, as well as a forum for parliamentarians, which attracted some 250 lawmakers from 79 countries. Leaders from the private sector were on hand, as were members of civic society, with some 700 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from 119 countries attending.
Statistics released by the spokesman for the President of the General Assembly showed that the special session was attended by over 2,600 delegates, 1,720 NGO representatives and 800 media correspondents.
Several legal actions have also been taken during the meeting, including Somalia's signature of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which has now been endorsed by every country on earth, and ratified by all but the United States. A dozen countries signed or ratified the treaty's Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict, and 10 its Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography.
The longer answer is on my homepage. The short answer is that all past societies have ceased to exist. None of them had any experience with civilizational death until they died. Since this is the first time that either American or Western civilization has died (also the last, obviously), it is only natural that no one living has experience with it.
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