Wonder why of all the billions of people, Imaginch should be overly concerned? To keep his mind engaged he needed a concern, even if it did not concern him directly. He did not know why he did it, but anyways did it!
Imaginch
expected the UN and its member states to be ideologically, politically,
commercially and geographically neutral. In his opinion, this tall edifice
has progressively undergone repainting with brushes dipped in motivated
ideology, commercialism, political intolerance, bullying tactics and camps
separated by continents.
Like
a periodic comet, the annual ritual starts with head of states or high-ranking
dignitaries selling to the world, their current and future distorted visions. Speeches
laden with swipes at each other, to add punch lines to their dreary translated
contents echoing through head-sets. When these speeches end, the permanent
representatives move in to carry forward the foreign policy briefs left by
their respective dignitaries.
As
members of various committees and commissions, these representatives live behind
closed doors, in conference rooms, to conduct hectic lobbying ‘euphorically’
labelling it as intense parleys. How else a representative could project or
protect his or her nation’s teeth in the game? If that nation happens to be a bully, then it
is compulsory for the other members to wear soft, kid gloves. This reality was
his current concern.
He
rued that the UN has become the stage for exhibiting brinkmanship rather than
statesmanship. Over the time it has quietly settled in to the role of a
passenger with guaranteed free boarding and lodging. Still, the members
continue to respect and maintain one decorum - no fisticuffs. Instead, the
members freely engage with each other using oral versions of jiu-jitsu or kung fu!
The short clips of the UNGA proceedings, floating through like a flotsam, kept his worry filled mind on boil. He blamed himself for tracking this enacted annual ritual and analyses through various media outlets. He wondered why none of the UN Secretary Generals have not thought of installing heckle-o-meters and shame-o-meters to monitor the behaviour of the members and the countless committees, to assist as the third umpires? Instead of fostering peace, why they watched helplessly when one nation toppled regimes, started wars with missiles and tariffs?
Why the UN allows use of designations and sanctions as tools of deterrence? Sanctions help a bullying nation to hegemonise by applying brute force and keep that backdoors open for selfish aggrandizements. Attaching these labels to terror entities rarely does anything other than giving them global recognition and to become powerful magnets to attract publicity, funds and other such group. These dictates fall flat and ineffective when the nation, where these groups reside and operate from, walks away with windfall gains to eradicate the very same group from its soil!
These add value to. The leaders and prominent lieutenants of the terror groups become valuable as a hefty bounty! Rides on their heads. This does not affect their public appearances and it is business as usual. Why would they fear when elite military personnel accompany and stand guard inside or outside their residences, which again for operational conveniences are co-located with in a barrack?
Why nobody has thought about totally revamp this ineffective UN setup, living beyond expiry date?
Feeling frustrated
and tired, Imaginch had a cold shower. a hot meal he called it a day. The
moment his head hit the pillow, he hoped to go in to a much-needed sleep. But
the process of falling asleep had its own SOP.
“Drop the
body temperature. Lower the heart beat and slow down the breathing rates.
Relinquish hold over body’s awareness. Induce rapid eye moment. Increase brain
activity. Induct temporary muscle paralysis and clear the path for a deep sleep
or a slow-wave sleep. Now allow entry for the dream or dreams. Repeat this cycle from the beginning to end,
once in 1.5 to 2 hours.”
SOP be
damned! His subconscious mind
relentlessly kept processing every scrap of stored information to produce
random, symbolic, or reflective dreams. In effect, the subconscious mind has
converted his sleep time as a rent-free theatre with dreams as special shows! In
the midst of all these, he could not understand, why the subconscious mind should
try to solve bothersome issues he himself wanted to leave on back burners? Why
should it project and remind him of unfulfilled desires, which he himself had
stopped dreaming about? These
thoughts operated on a different SOP, preventing him from falling asleep. To have the last laugh, and acting like the UNGA he designating his
subconscious mind as the primary villain and the conscious mind as its side
kick!
This
cyclic and disturbing sleep and dream sequences left him clueless as he could neither
recollect nor make sense out of these nebulous dreams. But the stubborn
conscious mind simply refused to ignore them as random noises and ended up
chasing flocks of wild geese in an attempt to find meaningful connections or
interpretations. A strange voice kept reminding him, like a side track, that a balanced diet and balanced sleep is essential for a healthy life.
Few
days later, Imaginch had one of such a blue moon kind of vivid dream playing
out with such a clarity, he could not simply ignore. It made him to get up from
sleep to make sure that it was only a dream.
It had a particular recurring theme mirroring unconnected incidents, echoing unwanted arguments and dragging his weary legs to visit unknown places. This worried him. Even in this dreamy state, he remembered to have decided to find out the reason for that dream about the UN dream kept recurring.
He was disheartened to learn that “A circuit in the brain can push one’s behaviour into a compulsive and “repeat mode.” How does it do it? Further reading pointed out “the nexus between the brain, the nucleus accumbens and the hypothalamus to energise a region processing negative experiences in the lateral habenula”. This answer left the question whether the same wiring would force a person with nagging thoughts to gnaw at it, compulsively and repeatedly. He felt that the repetitive scary dreams are less threatening than the lengthy physiological terms and explanations.
Getting
fed up, he decided to take it upon himself to affect its overdue reformation. It
was anyways overdue for a major overhaul, since the founding principles of the
institution has been steadily going southwards. Here, a self-doubt arose - has
he the locus standi to be anywhere near New York, leave alone the UN? What
if? He decided to do it on a paper and at home!
To
set the ball rolling, he decided to cancel the ‘permanent member’ tag and the
vote mechanism. Instead, he will
constitute an enlarged Security Council comprising and not exceeding one third
of the UN membership. Each continent gets
to select 5 members agreeing to rotate the tenure to get equitable
representation.
Next,
he wanted to give the post of Secretary General the marching orders. He or she will be replaced with a secretary
from each of the continents, vested with equal administrative powers.
With
the General Assembly’s unanimous approval, the Secretaries will constitute the various
UN Committees and Commissions, ensuring proportional representation to each of
the continents in the appointments as members.
The
annual ritual is mandated to be dignified with the visiting heads of states or
high-ranking officials speaking to the world, about their current and future
visions for the world. Talks peppered with punch lines and exhibition of
martial skills in jiu-jitsu or kung fu is dealt with a heavy
penalty*. The offending Nation’s representatives in various committees will be
debarred for a period of time. Then, the leaders leave their foreign policy
briefs with the committee members to carry them forward with follow up actions.
Resolution
of any nature must be sponsored by a two thirds majority of the full strength
and not of those present and voting. Abstaining or walk outs as face saving
measure or friendly gesture will have consequences as mentioned previously*.
When
a resolution goes to the Enlarged Security Council (UNESC), the countries in
question must also be represented and after deliberations the reason for the vote,
two thirds voting for or against the resolution, must be spelled out. The
country that faces the probable nay-vote will have the right to defend and,
if not satisfied, can register its protest. In this situation, the General
Assembly has to discuss the issue afresh, pass another resolution and send it back
to the UNESC. This check and balance will do away with the practice of highhanded
arm twisting as a modus operandi.
Before
the reforms, a blind or short-sighted resolution proposed in the General
Assembly hung in the balance, awaiting the guillotine of a veto. Any nation
having teeth in the game to project or protect its standing, subjected the committee
or commission members to intense lobbying pressures and in turn to gain the
support of UNSC members for a guaranteed favourable veto. Murder and mayhem got
buried and the aggressor walked away with sympathy, finance and ammunitions. In
an act of solidarity, the perpetrator was gifted with a victim card. Not to
leave the victim in limbo, the committees or commissions blamed and showed
yellow and red cards before blowing the whistle.
This
sort of sovereign backing was clinched after burning some serous midnight oil
in fancy restaurants. For an economically struggling nation, the expenditure of
this midnight oil burning diplomacy would be enough to feed at least a thousand
hungry mouths for a day. Financially bankrupt or not, politically it was important
for the perpetrator or aggressor to keep up the prestige of the nation in the
UN and at home. A small price the hungry mouths have to sacrifice for the sake
of their mother or Father land.
After
his reforms this lobbying practice will get simply shown the door. The cost and
efforts to curry such a favourable vote, will now be of astronomical proportion
and no nation rich or poor or desperate can foot the bills of this magnitude.
At
this point, Imaginch felt immense relief and happiness for marshalling his guts
to say the unsayable and do the unthinkable. To cap his efforts, he had two
more things to add. (1). Stationing the peacekeeping force shall no longer be a
freebee. Forthwith, it will be a pay and use system. The aggressor gets punished and bears 75% of
the expenditure. The aggrieved gets a breathing space and pays 25%. (2). Henceforth,
UNESC shall not hang the fancy tags of “designated” and “sanctioned” on the
necks of error outfits and cartels etc. UN members are mandated to comply with and
freeze their finances. Forcefully isolate the nation that aids and abets terrorists
by closing the tap on financial aid and bailout packages to that nation.
As
usual, his inner voice had a few misgivings and raised some serious objections.
(1).
How in UN, the present permanent members would relinquish their holds on the
world body?
(2).
Will the countries in the continents nominate members to your EUNSC, without
quarrelling among themselves?
(3).
You are in the UN and not Utopia. When in the history of UN there was a
unanimous voting? How do you expect a resolution to be passed by two thirds
majority of UNGA members? You implied but not specified a two thirds majority
for EUNSC, am I correct?
(4).
Are you dreaming? Do you expect all the other member countries to comply with and
act against any nation or blacklisted outfits as per UNESC or UNGA resolutions?
(5).
The cost sharing formula for having peace keeping boots on the ground is
imaginatively touché and I like it!
(6)
You have managed to bring in a continental shift in geopolitics by revamping the
UN. Its functioning will not only the
pathetic than that of the current UN. Will not encourage the continents to open
branches and start functioning as local power centers.
Imaginch
started to have misgivings that his dream project might be heading for a point
beyond the South Pole (he deemed the cliché ‘going south’ as a lowly
description). Not to lose any more sleep over reforming he decided to address
his suggestion: “UN should have a new flag showing a whistle and yellow and
red cards. This would be befitting and reflect the changed character of the charter
of the UN. So, design and hoist this flag to keep in tune with the times.”
