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by Carla Stea
August 28,
2018
from
GlobalResearch Website
Funds Squandered
on Military-Industrial Complex
are
Indispensable for Success.
Criminal UN Security Council (UNSC)
authorized
Military Actions and Sanctions
are Gross
Violation of
Sustainable
Development Goals
and Obliterate
all Hope for Attainment of SDGs...
On October 21, 2015
the United Nations General Assembly
adopted Resolution 70/1,
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,
declaring that,
"We are determined to
end poverty and hunger, in all their forms and dimensions, and
to ensure that all human beings can fulfil their potential in
dignity and equality and in a healthy environment."
Transforming
Our World - The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
These 17 Goals, if
achieved, and, indeed they can and should be achieved, would create
an ideal world, essentially a paradise on earth.
However, in the past
three years, 20% of the time allotted for achievement of these
goals, not only are prospects for the achievement of these goals
grim, as acknowledged by both,
the UN Secretary-General
Antonio
Guterres and UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed,
...but no one willingly admits that the dismal prospect for reaching
these goals is the result of a failure of courage by the United
Nations Establishment, which, in kowtowing to the "interests"
and dictates of its most powerful Western capitalist states, the
USA, the UK and their allies, is betraying its mandate, betraying
the majority of its member states, and betraying the majority of the
peoples of the world.
In view of the fact that within this same United Nations the
Security Council (UNSC) has authorized the military actions that have
obliterated Iraq,
Libya, and between 1950-1953
totally annihilated the
DPRK (North Korea), it is
reasonable to assert that for the United Nations to even speak of
"Sustainable Development Goals" while the United Nations Security
Council is notorious for,
"destroying the
infrastructure necessary to 'support' human life",
...in the countries
devastated by the military actions and sanctions the UN has
authorized, is the worst form of hypocrisy and duplicity.
At best, this is a form
of schizoid policy making.
One can only consider
that the United Nations' aggressive public promotion of the "17
Sustainable Development Goals" is a fig-leaf, covering up the
horrific damage inflicted by the UN Security Council, potentially
one of the most dangerous organizations on the planet.
The Security Council sanctions on Iraq were responsible for the
deaths by starvation of 500,000 children in Iraq.
The resignation of
Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday, who characterized
the sanction program as "genocide" exposes the deadly agenda masked
by the very public promotion of the SDG's (Sustainable Development
Goals) as a fabrication of concern for human rights.
The Security Council sanctions inflicted on the DPRK since 2006 are
an increasingly genocidal attempt to force regime change and
collapse the socialistic system that has, since the birth of the
DPRK, been delivering those benefits promised by the SDG's, and
which the Security Council sanctions are eviscerating, in one of the
most criminal actions in United Nations history.
One demonstration of the fact that the UN is not serious about
reaching the "Sustainable Development Goals" by 2030 is the fact
that, though there have been innumerable searches for ways to fund
these SDG's, at no point was there any serious consideration - or
any consideration at all, given to transferring the
exorbitant sums of money spent on the military,
the trillions of dollars spent - or more accurately put,
squandered - on development of nuclear weapons, and
investing this money, instead, on human development, and fulfillment
of the Sustainable Development Goals
Between July 16-18 the United Nations held the High-Level
Political Forum on Sustainable Development, and in her opening
speech on July 16, Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed
acknowledged that:
"For the first time
in a decade, the number of people who are undernourished has
increased - from 777 million people in 2015 to 815 million in
2016 - fundamentally undermining our commitment to leaving no
one behind…
Poverty is becoming
increasingly urban, with most of the world's extreme poor
projected to live in urban settings by 2035; 250 million more
people in Africa have no access to clean fuels for cooking
compared to 2015!!
We are seeing
alarming decline in biodiversity, rising sea levels, coastal
erosion, extreme weather conditions and increasing
concentrations of greenhouse gases…
At the same time we
have not yet managed to unlock and direct the scale of the
resources needed, towards the financing of the sustainable
development agenda."
On July 18
Secretary-General Guterres' concluding remarks declared:
"Your discussions
have made clear that we are lagging or even backtracking in
other areas that are fundamental to our shared pledge to leave
no one behind…
Investment in
critical sustainable infrastructure remains entirely inadequate…
At the same time, we
face mounting challenges. Runaway climate change. A growing
number of conflicts and inequality. An erosion of human rights.
An unprecedented
global humanitarian crisis and persistent pockets of poverty and
hunger."
On cannot be surprised by
the downward trajectory for attainment of the SDG's by 2030, since
the United Nations has not been willing to risk those actions that
would have unlocked the funds necessary for attainment of the 17
SDG's, and at the same time, the barbaric Security Council sanctions
on the DPRK are criminally obstructing that nation's attainment of
the Sustainable Development Goals.
Although, if the truth be
told, that heroic nation has already attained many of the 17 SDG
goals, despite the heinous sanctions inflicted to weaken their
people and degrade their socialist infrastructure which has
delivered so many humanitarian benefits to their people.
The cowardice of the UN in failing to require that the resources
squandered in bloated military budgets be instead redirected and
productively devoted to humanitarian achievements is the more
perplexing, now that even within the US government itself, Senator
Ed Markey has introduced
the SANE Act to drastically cut
nuclear weapons programs and curtail nuclear modernization.
"It is time we
inserted some desperately-needed sanity into America's budget
priorities," stated Senator Markey. "We should fund education,
not annihilation."
If the United Nations is
serious about attaining the Sustainable Development Goals,
they have a powerful source of support and alliance within the U.S.
Senate itself.
Markey further stated:
"If the United States
wants other countries to reduce their nuclear arsenals and
restrain their nuclear war plans, we must take the lead.
Instead of wasting
billions of dollars on this dangerous new nuclear weapon that
will do nothing to keep our nation safe, we should preserve
America's resources and pursue a global ban on nuclear cruise
missiles."
One of the most truthful
and moving addresses at the High-Level SDG Debate was delivered the
afternoon of July 16, by Professor
Jose Antonio Ocampo,
Chairperson of the Committee for Development Policy (CDP).
The Report of the
Committee states:
"Extreme inequality
persists within countries and cities as well as among countries…
A generalized shift
towards development that leaves no one behind requires the
transformation of deeply rooted systems - economic and political
systems, governance structures and business models - that are
often based on unequal distributions of wealth and of
decision-making power...
It is also necessary
to address the concentration of wealth, income and
decision-making power at the top and break the link between
economic and social exclusion and decision-making power."
Professor Ocampo stated:
"Too often, economic
and political systems, governance structures and business models
are based on
extremely unequal distributions of
wealth and decision-making power and this stands in
the way of transformation to sustainable and resilient
societies.
On the one hand
segments of society that are excluded from the benefits of
development are often also excluded from meaningful
participation in decision-making, and are thus unlikely to see
their interests safeguarded in policy and investment decisions.
On the other, the
most influential groups can resist changes when they represent a
threat or perceived threat to their interests.
Leaving no one behind
requires breaking the link between economic and social exclusion
and decision-making power.
This involves, among
other measures, ensuring the respect, protection and fulfillment
of human rights and reorienting institutions so that policy is
driven from the bottom up by the needs of those who are deprived
and disadvantaged.
At the international
level, the deep inequalities that persist among countries are
not sustainable...
With the important
goal of fighting poverty, development cooperation policies
should also contribute to guaranteeing minimum social standards
for all people, reducing international inequality and providing
international public goods."
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