| JOAN M. VEON FREELANCE INTERNATIONAL JOURNALIST/BUSINESSWOMAN |
FRIDAY, JUNE 14, 1996 301/774-7856 OLNEY, MD 20832
The following are a number of quotes from various speakers to the Habitat II Conference. The writer has taken key segments from the opening speech given by Conference Secretary-General Wally N'Dow on June 3. The speech was loaded with many phrases and words which, now in retrospect, are daggers to the thinking and framework of the average American. Several of these phrases are highlighted below and used to accent comments and ideas from other speakers and press briefings. Together they form a picture which reveals a world government in operation, a world government that even the leaders of the American delegation support, a picture which if average working people in America knew, they just might be motivated to change the downward spiral in American politics and change the structure of the White House, Senate and House. A change which is vitally needed to protect and ensure the freedoms as guaranteed in our Constitution and Bill of Rights. If the UN is allowed to quietly come in and dictate policy, then we have had the greatest and most obliging coup d'etat in history, one which surpasses "the Trojan Horse."
Wally N'Dow:
...[the United Nations] our diverse political, social and economic systems and idealogies often make cooperation and dialogue difficult and at times even impossible. Yet there is one areas, in which we share a great deal--our human settlements--
UNDP - Mr. Biegman, Overall Coordinator of UNDP Secretariat to Habitat II"
What we try to advocate...is to look for development which is pro-poor, pro-jobs, pro-gender--women and pro-environment....Habitat deals specifically with the urban poor, environmental issues and with management issues. On all these accounts, we have very clear policies to offer: Firstly advice, guidance, upstream dialogue with governments and with local governments...very often governments and local governments lack competency and capacity to identify problems, formulate and implement strategies...Third level of intervention is promotion of human rights, not only political rights, but social and economic rights...."
Quote from the U.S. Report for Habitat II prepared by the U.S. Department of Housing, "Beyond Shelter: Building Communities of Opportunity," page 4: "Community Building Principles: . To achieve our vision of developing strong, sustainable urban communities, some things must grow--jobs, productivity, wages....; others--pollution, waste, and poverty--must not. . "The job of strengthening communities will not be advanced measurably by replacing Washington bureaucracies with 50 State bureaucracies that can be equally rigid and unresponsive. Decentralization and devolution that are meaningful to the American people will give them tools in their communities, in the places where they live and where they can do something about their jobs, children, schools and safety...." (JV Note: In order to have the UN at the local level, decentralization of power--devolution is needed.)
Wally N'Dow:
[There are] more people in dire poverty, escalating destruction of the human environment, a growing need for adequate shelter, food, infrastructure...gainful employment...issues familiar to those who attended Habitat I, issues now at the heart of Habitat II, issues that demand we radically change the way we approach our human settlements problems...
Joan M. Veon Delayed Press Release June 14, 1996 Page Two
Answers to Wally N'Dow's statement on poverty from previous page:
UNDP - Mr. Biegman, Overall Coordinator of UNDP Secretariat to Habitat II: "[The UNDP System] has 137 country offices all over the world. We have tried to assist governments, local authorities, NGO's and so on and so forth to prepare...[W]e have a mandate from the UN and from the governments to try and coordinate follow-up activities in particular at the local level. so whatever is going to happen after Habitat II in terms of follow-up, we must assume responsibility....
Interview with Wally N'Dow by Belgium journalist, Marguerite Peeters - Answer by Dr. N'Dow on the obligations created by a "new housing right:" "...[I]f the governments accept that there is a right to housing...who has the obligation to provide it....My own view is that it is not only governments, but local authorities that will be held accountable, if in their cities and towns they will have policies and program to deliver housing. Mayors came here in big numbers (400) from all over the world....The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights include housing in a broad package of human welfare: housing food and clothing..."
Wally N'Dow:
There is another no less serious implication, too. It is that the unresolved problems of our human settlements also threaten a new global division between rich and poor, within and between nations....
UNDP Official - Speaking in response to a question on "ways in which a transfer of wealth" is accomplished: (1) Aid [foreign] (2) Increasing private resource flows (mutual funds and other sources of private funds to developing/emerging and infrastructure mutual funds) (3) Trade (as in GATT/WTO).
Interview with Wally N'Dow by Belgium journalist, Marguerite Peeters - Answer by N'Dow on the new obligations on local authorities with regard to the rights of housing: "...Today the challenges are too great in our cities, in our towns, the problems are too big and the costs are too high for government alone to be able to bear this. Today, all the actors have to make concrete contributions to the solutions, not only intellectual contributions but also material solutions. ...You cannot discuss the problems of cities and towns of the 21st century which is only a few years away without asking the mayors to participate...This is what Habitat has done...It is time as we move into the 21st century to bring other visions....you have the private sector here. Again, this is the first conference where the private sector had their meetings. They have been working for two years: research centers, technology people, people who build materials, academics, investors, housing societies. All the partners are coming together to look for solutions....The private sector is important...If we just stay in the old rigidities of the past and we say no to the private sector because you are capitalist and you are going to exploit the people, then we are not realistic..." (emphasis added)
Wally N'Dow:
"....in cities and town where solutions will have to be found for new and old challenges...where we have to take on the challenge of social disintegration, and forge the bonds of human solidarity without which our future will be neither peaceful nor assured...we must localize the ideas of Agenda 21...A new global social contract for building sustainable human settlements must be forged..."
Joan M. Veon Delayed Press Release June 14, 1996 Page Three
Response to Wally N'Dow's comment on "new and old challenges, found on previous page:
Response to Question by JV to Mr. Biegman, UNDP:
"We launched most of our activities in relation to sustainable development and the environmental dimension short before or after Rio...I believe as has been the case, to really integrate environmental concerns into everyday life, it requires a lot of de-learning and rethinking...." (emphasis added)
World Bank - Interview with Ismail Seragelden, Vice President, World Bank:
"It is clear that a sense of community is preferred to no sense of community. It is clear that a strong sense of solidarity helps them overcome obstacles and resolve them. The questions is, 'Do we know enough about whether that counts and if so, how to promote it. We don't know enough about that yet....Where we are is at the beginning of a process. Human capital cannot be ignored. Today people are saying this idea of social solidarity, sense of community is important. Can we measure it? We don't know.." (emphasis added) (Note: The World Bank divides up the wealth of the world into 4 categories: produced assets, natural capital, human capital (you and I), and social capital which is shared values in a society... They currently are working to perfect this measurement of the value of "Mother Earth." Hitler also used social capital....)
Wally N'Dow's opening statement to the Human Solidarity Forum, Istanbul, 6/8/96:
To examine our Global Plan of Action and the very process that brought us here to Istanbul is to see how thoroughly the concept of solidarity permeates Habitat II and our strategies for the future. One of the key chapters of the Plan is specifically devoted to Solidarity. It asserts: 'Tolerance, sensitivity to the plight of the less fortunate, and cooperation among all groups starting with the family as the basic social unit is one of the foundations for social cohesion...And our entire emphasis on Partnership as a basic method of operation for all our endeavors is, of course, the essence of Solidarity in practice...." (emphasis added) (Note: Refer to social capital above)
International Society of Planners (City): Serge Domicelj:
"I think in globalization that there is a trend towards the disappearance of boundaries and that there is clear evidence that regional associations...regions which may be national, sub-national or international in which national boundary...plays importance....."
Answer by SK Das, International Society of Planners in response to question by journalist Linda Liotta on the structure of global government, i.e. UN on top, branching down to regional government and then to smaller governments:
"Yes...devolution of power. I think in principal is a devolution of power. I think in principal one central government...not everything can flow down from central government. The framework is the center, the center decides what is our position--regions have specificity to find positions...."
Wally N'Dow:
"We have only to look at the unprecedented growth of NGOs and other social organizations to see that any global project, or national undertaking must today have the support of the economic, political and social forces of all society to succeed....Today, local authorities and communities must be engaged not as passive bystanders, but as active participants and partners .....forging such a strategy is what the preparatory process for Habitat II has set in motion. Our other partners, the local authorities, the NGOs, the private sector, research and
academic institutions, the labour unions, foundations women's and youth groups, professionals....they will be co-creators of this process... The road to Istanbul has been marked by many innovations. One of seminal importance has been a pioneering change in the rules of procedure--a change....that was initiated during the preparatory process and
Joan M. Veon Delayed Press Release June 14, 1996 Page Four
subsequently endorsed by the General Assembly [Rule 61] in recognition of the important rule of local authorities and NGOs....As a result all the organizations and institutions of civil society will receive unparalleled recognition at a UN conference, nominating their representatives to participate in a formal session--in this case in the work of Committee II....They speak for countless millions of men and women in the cities and towns across the planet, the true constituents of Habitat II....
Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to the World Assembly of Cities and Local Authorities, 5/31/96:
...[The] General Assembly decision, have not only acknowledged the changing role of local authorities in governance, but for the first time, accorded them the opportunity to participate in the deliberations of Habitat II. This indeed is a seminal development and clearly indicates the importance that the UN attaches to the role of local governments in today's ever changing world...This rule change, I should emphasize, was not intended to be a brief alteration in UN procedures but to INSTITUTIONALIZE A RELATIONSHIP OF COOPERATION BETWEEN LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND UNITED NATIONS FOR THE FUTURE. This relationship is important...(1) of the increasing importance of local authorities in dealing with economic globalization; (2) because of the growing political significance of mayors and local governors in maintaining stability in urban centers...(3) because urban centers must be in the forefront of the effort to create communities of equality in all areas of our lives." (emphasis added)
Mayors
The Declaration of the Conference of Mayors' Round-table on Sunday, June 2 and sponsored by the UNIDO, UN Industrial Development Organization, states "Mayors and representatives of local authorities participating at the Special Round-Table on Urban Industrial Development took note of the range of services that UNIDO is providing to achieve urban industrial development. The mayors and local authority representatives welcomed the direct contact which UNIDO had established. They made several requests of UNIDO, two of which are listed: (b) To make sure that the recommendations of Habitat II paved the way for greater decentralized cooperation...to draw on the experience of more developed metropolises as well as international organizations such as the European Union and regional and national developments banks, and to encourage within its mandate, the development of a universal code to underpin the global morality enshrined in the concept of sustainable development.
Mayor Greg Lashutka from Columbus, OH- elected President of the National League of Cities and serving on the U.S. Advisory Commission for Intergovernmental Relations. "Grateful for the opportunity to join this delegation and meet with mayors over some extended period of time, there is clearly a need for local government to participate and commit itself to a recognition that much of the innovation occurring in our country can be replicated in other regions across the world..."
Mayor Curt Schmoke Baltimore:
"We have had representatives from both democratic and republican parties, mayors from cities throughout the country and we just wanted people to know how important this conference is. It is the beginning of a "new era" with local government officials being listened to in the development of UN documents and we see this as kind of the 'wave of the future.'" (emphasis added)
Joan M. Veon Delayed Press Release June 14, 1996 Page Five
Dr. Michael Stegman, Alternate head of the U.S. Delegation:
"Habitat II is truly making it possible for citizens in your organizations, local authorities, business leaders, have all come to talk about framework for developing solutions for the problems of our cities. We are here to talk about promoting community empowerment in the context of the Habitat agenda..."
Wally N'Dow:
Furthermore, as part of the national preparatory process, cities and countries have begun to collect indicators on housing and urban conditions so that their national plans of action and future policies and programmes are shaped by priorities that, in turn, are shaped by accurate data and information....
Note: Every nation-state turned in their report of how they were going to conform or had already conformed to Habitat. The US had one of their own.
US Delegation- Dr. Michael Stegman: "We held 12 meetings in preparation for Habitat..." (JMV: The NGO's they chose to hold these meetings would not necessarily draw, "Joe Average American")
Wally N'Dow:
....Habitat II brings to an end a remarkable continuum of United Conferences held in this final decade...a continuum that is rewriting the UN's economic and social agenda, providing us with a more holistic, more humane message about our global problems and the cooperative solutions they require in the new century...the UN needs to reposition itself in terms of its mandate. It must seek a new legitimacy based on new needs and new demands, some of them not even contemplated when the Charter was written: New York and children; Rio and sustainable development; Vienna and human rights; Cairo and population; Copenhagen and poverty; Beijing and women. All were milestones on the road to social progress....
Dr. Michael Stegman, Alternate Head, US Delegation:
"...We are trying to broaden our urban housing and community development programs that are operating regionally to connect people with jobs. We understand that if the metropolitan community is going to compete in the global economy, it needs a healthy core and we are very much involved in creating healthy cores. That's very much consistent with a global inter-connected marketplace."
Wally N'Dow:
It acknowledges that Governments have the primary responsibility for implementation through their own actions, through enablement of partnerships and participatory processes and through coordination at each relevant level...the implementing activities [which] will take place at the local level, and must involve a variety of partners. And here States must take seriously their role of facilitator, enabler and supporter of these partnerships. This is the fundamental challenge of the Habitat Agenda for our urbanizing world....
US Delegation, Dr. Michael Stegman:
We are here to celebrate partnerships at home and abroad through remarkable series of activities at this conference like: partnerships forum, dialogues and Best Practices, Trade Form and hundreds of workshops. Habitat II is truly making it possible for citizens in your organizations, local authorities, business leaders, all have come to talk about framework for developing solutions for the problems of our cities....
Joan M. Veon Delayed Press Release June 14, 1996 Page Six
Wally N'Dow:
The world is beginning to undergo today a structural shift as profound as the industrial revolution--the shift from a factory based economy to a computer based economy....the Micro- chip Revolution confronts us with the prospect of the Post-Modern City, with implications still unknown for the future of the nation state and national sovereignty....
Mayor Curt Schmoke from Baltimore:
[With regard to sustainable development in our cities], President Clinton had this grant program called the 'Empowerment Zones' and hundreds of cities competed for that. Six cities were selected and Baltimore was one of them..we had to present ideas for sustainable development..."
US Delegation to Habitat II - Dr. Michael Stegman: "Our approach to the issues of rapid urbanization must be global because the problems we all hare know no national borders. Habitat II will advance the cause of sustainable development...
UNDP: Mr. Biegman: "We don't think the role of the government should be reduced. We think that the role of the government should be changed and there is a great difference. We believe in privatization, but only under regulatory framework where the government or local government has set up some rules for behavior and what concerns that have to be addressed....
Commentary:
Unfortunately, because of all the complexities of the UN Programmes of Action, many of the delegates and many of those who work for the UN do not understand what is transpiring at these conferences. In their wildest dreams, they could not fathom the USSR, through the UN, is creating a world socialist government. In a comment to the US Delegation, Joan Veon stated that her research had taken her to the 1977 USSR Constitution for a definition of "sustainable development." Mayor Greg Laschutka, in a rebuttal, said: "I would not use the 1977 Constitution of the USSR, I would use our own country." What Mayor Lashutka said is very revealing because HE DOES NOT UNDERSTAND THAT I COULD NOT USE THE US CONSTITUTION BECAUSE ALL OF THE CONCEPTS AND PHILOSOPHIES OF THE UN ARE NOT FOUND IN OUR CONSTITUTION!!!
Also understand that the unprecedented rule change by the General Assembly, Rule 61, is an open door to the UN's influence and dominance on the local level, EFFECTIVELY BY-PASSING THE STATE AND NATIONAL LEVELS OF GOVERNMENT...THERE HAS BEEN NO ACKNOWLEDGEMENT BY CONGRESS OR THE STATE LEGISLATURES THAT THEY HAVE THE POWER TO DO THIS. THEY HAVE SEIZED IT!!! Lastly, more evidence of this is the fact that world leaders did not address the UN Plenary, but the Ministers of Housing, Finance, Rural Development, etc., cabinet positions below the country head....and they brought with them printed booklets on how their country is coming into conformance with the UN Habitat II agenda!!!!
Lastly, Key Concepts:
(1) Devolution of power/decentralization
This is needed in America to by-pass the Constitution and allow the UN to go directly
down to the local level through "Community Partnerships" in which the UN sponsored
NGO's will have the power to "help" the community attain "solidarity."
(2) Solidarity - Shades of Lenin
(3) Sustainable development - JV's research took her to the report, OUR COMMON NEIGHBORHOOD from the Brundtland Commission in 1987 and to the 1977 USSR constitution for a source as to where it originated, in addition to the UN Charter and the Rio Earth Summit....
GOD BLESS AMERICA!!!!!!