"Building an ethical and sustainable form of globalization
is not exclusively a human rights matter,
but it must include the recognition of shared responsibility
for the universal protection of human rights.
That responsibility is shared by all of us, individuals,
the religions, corporations, states,
international financial institutions and the United Nations -
all of us.
Over 50 years ago,
the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
stressed the link between respect for human rights and freedom,
justice and peace in the world
and called for a just international and social order.
That Declaration also affirmed that the true meaning of human rights
is one that embraces duties and community as well.
What is emerging is the need for globalization
as an economic process
to be subject to moral and ethical considerations
and to respect international legal standards and principles."
"Supporters of a global government often quote arguments,
to justify or legitimise it.
They believe these are self-evidently true, but they are not.
The aims of their movement are similar to those of pan-nationalism,
and have the same defects.
(The 1999 Human Development Report
has detailed proposals on 'global governance':
such proposals use similar arguments to world-federalists)."
"Syncretism is a form of conservatism,
which values fusion of existing entities above innovation.
Transculturalism, transgenderism, trans-national culture,
and boundary transgression are typical syncretist concepts.
Syncretism is based on belief in the syncretic fallacy:
that a fusion of entities is always superior to an entity
which is not a fusion. ...
Pan-syncretism is the extreme form of syncretic belief:
a belief that all existing entities should fuse into one.
Transcultural globalism, ecumenism, world-consciousness
and "global brains" are examples of pan-syncretic influence
on beliefs and concepts."
Hmm, about that first sentence...
In the real world, we generally see conservatives espousing
nationalistic, anti-syncreticist ideologies,
while the Left-wingers are generally the more syncretist.
The Internationale and all that.
Secessionary Movements and their Ilk
Micronations ("ephemeral states, imaginary states, model nations,
counter-countries and unrecognized states")
"Madeleine Lim is a Singaporean
film maker now living in San Francisco ...
My mother was born in China and adopted by Singaporean parents
when she was six. My dad is from Malacca.
He is Baba -- half Chinese, and the other half a mixture of
Malay, Indian and Portuguese.
My parents separated when I was nine and my mother then re-married.
My step-father is half German and half Spanish.
I lived with them until I was 23 and then I left Singapore.
They now live in
Kazakhstan and run a very successful travel agency there."
"The federal government of these United States was meant to be decentralized. It was meant to be the glue between state governments, not the vice surrounding them. The common-sense idea of local solutions to local problems is completely subverted when the government shoehorns everyone into a one-size-fits-all solution."
Minority Report Review by John Derbyshire of
World on Fire by Amy Chua
"The beauty of globalization is that it can free people from the tyranny of geography. ...
John Stuart Mill was right: 'The economical benefits of commerce are surpassed in importance by those of its effects which are intellectual and moral. It is hardly possible to overrate the value, for the improvement of human beings, of things which bring them into contact with persons dissimilar to themselves, and with modes of thought and action unlike those with which they are familiar. ... It is indispensable to be perpetually comparing [one"s] own notions and customs with the experience and example of persons in different circumstances. ... There is no nation which does not need to borrow from others'. ...
In truth, cultural pessimists are typically not attached to diversity per se but to designated manifestations of diversity, determined by their preferences."
"The basic idea behind federalism can be very simply stated. It is that relations between states should be conducted under the rule of law. Conflict and disagreement should be resolved through peaceful means rather than through coercion or war."
