“The UN, founded to be the guardian of a global social contract, must reclaim its role as a sovereign government, where member states surrender a portion of sovereignty for the promise of universal peace and harmony.” Kahunga Matsiko
Overview
This article reflects on the symbolic significance of Isaiah 2:4, adopted as the motto by the United Nations (UN), emphasizing its connection to the organization’s mission of promoting world peace. The author #KahungaMatsiko highlight the disparity between the UN’s intended role as a global sovereign government and its current state, where regional alliances and appeals to an ambiguous ‘international community’ have taken precedence.
The author roots for a revisit of the UN charter, envisioning a world order where member states relinquish a portion of sovereignty to the UN government for global peace and harmony. He calls for practical steps, such as reproducing Isaiah 2:4 plaques and statues at UN offices worldwide, as well as adopting a new logo symbolizing the transformation of swords into ploughshares.
The UN’s Mission
Flashback. It was his comrade and contemporary who first tested our mastery of scripture. Prof Anthony Gingyera Pinycwa (RIP) of Makerere University, once had his entire class of International Relations on tenterhooks, as we couldn’t pinpoint the link between Isaiah 2:4 and the United Nations. Successor to the League of Nations, the United Nations Organisation (later popularly called UN), had the promotion and enforcement of world peace as its primary raison d’être. It is summarised in its motto: they shall beat their swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks… Tools of war turned into tools of production.
This opening chapter of Prophet Isaiah heralds an era of civilisation, when all creation will be at peace with itself. The chapter opens the Advent period of that precedes Christmas, the Nativity wherein God takes our humanity, thus perfecting it with His divinity. The divinity in man tames the animal in man. He will no longer seek to control, dominate and subjugate fellow man; thus rendering the tools of war redundant. They must be reshaped into tools of production…dominating and taming nature to man’s wellbeing.
Is there a deviation from the original mission?
That the UN adopted this verse as its motto is not accidental. It reflects the desired world as seen by visionary founding fathers of this global body. Yet the motto and its symbolic statue have not moved beyond the UN headquarters in New York. The verse is etched in the wall at the entrance to the UN towers. The statue welcomes you to the entrance. It depicts a giant man with a hammer aloft in one hand, while the other hand holds a sword on an anvil, being be beaten into a ploughshare.
It is instructive that the statue was donated to the UN by the Soviet Union. At the time, the world was already divided into the capitalist and socialist blocs, with a cold war between the two blocs and their satellites and vassals globally. And the then Secretary General who received the statue, Dag Hammarskjold would die in a plane crash in DR Congo, on a peace mission to the country.
DR Congo, where peace remains elusive, despite the UN having the largest ever peacekeeping force in the country. Largest and most expensive ever. What is the missing link here? Mzee says we must answer Prof Pinycwa’s question: the UN must go back to its prima faciae raison d’être: creator and enforcer of world peace. This calls for sovereign power and ‘political’ authority.
The starting point, he argues, must be revisiting the present charter and principles to reposition the UN as a global sovereign government. What this means is that by subscribing to the UN, each member state surrenders a portion of its sovereignty into the UN Government, irrevocable, binding and enforceable. An empire by consent and consensus, not by coercion and conquest as of old.
Repositioning the UN as a Global Sovereign Government
“The last 75 years have seen the UN stray from its original path, yielding to regional alliances and leaving global citizens to appeal to a vague ‘international community.’ It’s a call to return to our roots.” Kahunga Matsiko
The UN becomes the incarnation of the global social contract between the leaders and the citizens: we surrender our sovereignty to you and expect peace and harmony with you in return. The global government reigns over regional alliances wakina NATO, which becomes redundant in the new dispensation. The Security Council loses its present structure of permanent members and rotating members. The Big Five sublimate into the larger UN Government, with agencies restructured and refocused accordingly.
Primary on the Ploughshares Programme of the UN will be the dismantling of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction, so that no nation shall raise sword against nation, nor learn the art of war anymore. Aggression by any member state on a member state becomes aggression against the UN Empire and calls for appropriate retaliation from above.
Practical Steps for a Renewed UN
“In a world where the UN becomes a global sovereign government, an empire by consent, we surrender our sovereignty for the assurance of peace. The Big Five sublimate into a larger UN Government, heralding a new era.” Kahunga Matsiko
The last 75 years have witnessed the UN divert from her original mission, surrendering it to regional alliances, with global citizens left to appeal to an amorphous and phantom ‘international community’. We must return to the roots. For starters, even in the current dispensation, let us start with low-hanging fruits: signage and rebranding: the Isaiah 2: 4 text plaque in New York should be reproduced and fixed on all UN offices in each country and each area of UN presence. The statue in New York should be reproduced and planted in the compound of all UN offices in each country and all UN operational bases across the world. Let us have a new UN logo, the statue and the shortened slogan ‘Swords into Ploughshares’.
This should be the new UN master logo. And the statue should be erected in all UN offices and base compounds across the world. It should be branded on all UN vehicles, UN aeroplanes, the blue berets of UN peacekeepers, the white military vehicles of UN peacekeepers, the flags, relief items and other paraphernalia.
Creating a Lasting Peace World Order
We must create a lasting peace world order, if we are to lay claim to civilisation.
(Shorter version in Daily Monitor of Kampala https://www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/oped/commentary/theun-75-repositioning-is-long-overdue-4487114)
#UNPeace #GlobalHarmony #Isaiah24 #WorldPeace #UNReform #GlobalSovereignty #Peacebuilding #CivilizationQuest #UNTransformation #NAMSummit
