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The leaders of the world’s near-200 countries met at the United Nations to kick off the annual General Assembly session that runs for its main work through December. Delegations will continue debating the issues introduced and will draw up model laws and agreements for further elaboration both at UN Headquarters and at home in their own legislatures.

The future of a rules-based international world is at stake. Russia has continued to violate international law despite sanctions imposed in an effort to compel compliance with the law. Countries around the world have side-stepped the sanctions for a variety of reasons. Those actions weaken the sanctions regime intended to avoid the escalation of tensions into armed conflict.Since the current state of global news is disjointed and largely skewed to regional interests, we followed events from a general interest perspective.

These notes do not take into account the many important meetings that take place between world leaders at sideline events. Those range from tete-a-tetes to bilateral meeting, multilaterals, luncheons, dinners and receptions. In popular culture, these events tend to be parodied as pretentious. In a global digital world where all countries are connected by both real information and dozens of fake versions of actuality, this personal representation of a country can make all the difference in literally all the world.

While the meeting continue, the tenor of the first four days are enough to convey the cumulative effect of so many leaders gathered together. The build-up is palpable.

HI-LEVEL KICK OFF to the UN Assembly Session

• Friday, 22 September, 2023
• Heads of near-200 world countries meeting at the UN have an opportunity to seize the day. Ukraine has emerged as the global underdog hero by consistently exceeding Westerm expectations.
• Oh, Ukraine can’t stand up against Russia” they said at first.
  I need ammo, not a ride,” Ukraine replied when offered safe harbor by the West to escape trounle at homr.
• A year and a half later, brave Ukraine has lost thousands of beautiful lives while brutal outlaw Russia plays global politics to procure the arms it needs to keep up its illrgal assault. This gives emerging countries an unprecedented chance to do what the West cannot. accomplish.
• The Cold War went on for 50 years because the five greats monopolizing seats on the UN Security Council could not contain each other or bring those powers to heel. Of those five, only the US is present at the meet this year, It is still in the lead for allied support to Ukraine but facing hurdles at homr that have plagued emerging countries f since time immemorial.
• Conservatives holding the purse and power strings oppose more funding for Ukraine. They want “more bang for their buck” before releasing more funds.They complain that Ukraine is not quick enough to produce the results they expect That is about as undemocratic as you can get and global democracies can now come into their own.
• France and the mighty UK are back home on a royal visit esoterically discussing the all important climate affecting all countries, particularly those with still fragile infrastructure limiting the ability to receive and process international aid. Russia is absent as an internayional pariah with an arrest warrant outstanding for crimes against humanity in Ukraine. China is back home nursing an ailing economy and taking its anger out on endomestic enemies like the Ouigurs and activists.
• In simple words, four of the Big Five are too busy to bother with the world. That means the cat’s away and the mice can play. The game to play is teamwork.
• While US conservatives were demanded that Ukraine quickly show dramatic results forsupport to its effort to continue, Ukraine back home quietly shelled the Russian naval station responsible for blocking food shipments to starving Africans and in the Middle East. Those dynamics serve as grundrules for the new global game of follow the leader.
• With four of the Big Five gone, the remaining near-200 can make a big push for reform of the UN Security Council. US President Joe Biden already called for that step in his address on updating international institutions in line with the modern global reality. Plenty of countries have been pushing for such a reform fwithout success for decades, Now could be the time to strike pay dirt with the new rules of flollow the leader set by the US Ukraine model.
• The US has the bucks and means to make significant global change. Ukraine has the guts to achieve the change because it also has a passion for democratic ideals.God bless.

T hursday 21 September 2023

Direct contrast as UN General Assembly continues its hi-level meet. US Biden and Ukraine Zelensky move to US capitol Washington DC to meet members of Congress and hold state visit in White House, As prelude last night, RussianPutin ordered the shelling of Ukraine citizens and power stations, including in Kyiv where civiliabs were injured and killed.

For world leaders continuing to meet in New York, fence-sitters unsure of supporting Ukraine because of historical resenments about “the West,” please note the contrasts between the widely different parts of “the West.” The US was the only one of the “big five” Security Council members to show for this year’s hi-level at the highest level. The US Congress has ultra-conservative members who oppose more aid to Ukraine fighting for the democratic values those conservative members cherish.

In a big crowd of “real” people, most will be rational, honest and well meaning. Some will be super-courageous like Ukraine. Others will be cruel, spiteful and punitive like Russia. Now is the time to state your stand.

Wednesday, 20 September 2023

Heads of near-200 countries of the world continue to meet in hi-level kick-off to annual General Assembly session running through December. Side events as important as the formal sessions, an important note for our social media age. Face-to-face matters. Formal documents and proceeding give weight to statements. On a global level they carry huge weight and betrayal of signed agreements call for serious repercussions incumbent on all honest states to confront.

All near-200 countries have signed covenants agreeing to democratic principles. Those global agreements take time to work into national legislations. Once there, unscrupulous rogue leaders can undermine the laws painstakingly worked into the national law. Correcting such weaknesses in institutions powered by humans will take time. Right now, leaders either boost or hinder the process in numerous ways. Integrity is the big reveal.

By invading Ukraine Russia has made itself a rogue state. Its leader could not attend hi-level due to arrest warrant issued by international court. Left out of the world community of nations, Russia stirs trouble in Eurasion countries and meddles in Mideast geopolitical shift trying to promote good will and stability. Meanwhile, good guys stay steady.

US Biden hounded at home by oppo through his all-too-human son, covers for AWOL French & Ukraine Allies. Ukraine Zelensky makes impassioned plea for rationality among peers with eye on promoting important interests for own countries. The measure of all can be gauged by matching words and actions Face to face is the most foolproof. Short of that, gauge yor leader in company of peer leaders.

Tuesday, 19 September 2023

UN annual General Assembly session kicks off with a surprise The heads of states are no shows for four of five permenent Security Council members. Russian Putin can’t come because of arrest warrant for war crimes in Ukraine. China’s Xi didn’t come and instead sent his Foreign Minister to visit Putin in Russia. UK’s Sunak preparing for his King Charles to visit France tomorrow, the reason France’s Macron passed on the UN General Assembly pow-wow.

US ]Responsible US Biden called for reform of the international institutions that have not kept up with a changing world. Among the chanes he called for was to increase Council membership and reform financial institutions like the World Bank to better serve low and middle income countries among the world’s near-200. Above all, he called for reaffirming and strengthening the UN democratic values by supporting Ukraine.

“Respect for the sovereignty, integrity and freedom of countries is paramount,” he said. If Russia is allowed to get away with grabbing parts of Ukraine, he added, “then who’s next?”

News commentary noted that the message was a direct contrast to the Putin message courting troubled countries in Africa, South America and southeast Asia.

Ukraine President Zelensky will address those countries, the Assembly at large, the gathered dignitaries and the world audience overall this afternoon. That’s a large target audience the intrepid world leader is expected to handle as effectively as he has throughout Ukraine’s courageous stand against a rogue invader who has betrayed the UN democratic values.

Monday, 18 September 2023

Heads up

Tomorrow, Tuesday is hi-level kick-off to this year’s United Nations General Assembly session. Heads of 146 countries out of world total near-200 will gather in august UN Assembly chamber for an impressive impact of global power force.

First country to speak is UN founding member Brazil. Next comes host country USA. Ukraine President speaks Thursday on behalf of his country international law against continued violations by Russia, whose President will not attend because of an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court for war crimes already committed in Ukraine.

Other priorities for world leaders to address over the week long hi-evel session are climate and the food crisis caused by Russia’s against Ukraine grain export hubs in the Black Sea.

Proceedings are televised by the United Nations channel available worldwide. Worth catching a glimpse from time to time. Some small countries have refreshing new angles on already hackneyed while still modern global challenges.

Join in. Be happy among global friends. Cheers.

The leaders of the fi counties (Brazil, Russia, India, China, S Africa) met for a Summit in Johannesberg from 22-25 August). Russia attended virtually because of an arrest warrant against its leader for atrocities in Ukraine by the Russian Wagner group responsible for a coup in Niger. So why was BRICS meeting in Africa to condone atrocities in Ukraine?

BRICS could at the very least censured Russia for the crime of stealing Ukrainian children while shelling their parents in an illegal war that continues to violate all the laws put in place by the international community after the brutalities of the Second World War. Instead, BRICS invited six new members into the group ((Saudi Arabia,Iran,Ethiopia,Egypt, Argentina, UAE).

New members will join BRICS as of 1 January. Already they have been dubbed “The Bad Boys Club” and they will introduce their own currency to sidestep sastern sanctions imposed to gain compliance with international law in lieu of armed conflict. The new currency is also a bid to undercut the US dollar as the gold standard of international trade. In short, BRICS has fired the shot heard round the world about global law and order, complete with the Wagner tie between Ukraine and Niger.

On the morning of the Summit opening, the head of the Wagner group came out of hiding to announce that Russia was in Africa to bring prosperity and happiness to the African people. There was no mention of how bombing Ukrainian ports bringing grain to Africa was was a way to promote happiness. Wagner chief Prigozhin has since died and he cannot be asked. But his demise may be a clue about what Africa can expect with BRICS,

BRICS was founded in 2009, the same year as the conservative Tea Party after the US elected the first non-white leader of a western industrialized country. South Africa joined the group a year later at China’s invitation. Including an African country seemed a logical choice since the aim was to balance out the north/south global divide. Since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the east/west divide has come into sharper relief with the entire foundation of civilization itself at the center.

The Second World War was the great global showdown between the use of force versus the laborious process of working out differences through dialogue and bargaining. With the nuclear bomb as the ultimate bargaining chip, the United Nations was established as a forum and rules for conflict were set out in the Geneva Conventions. Those provided for the protection of civilians, proper treatment of combatants and first and foremost, no invasion of any other of the world’s near-200 countries. Russia has violated those rules for more than a year and a half. BRICS has declared that was fine with them and it’s up to the rest of the world to decide where it stands on law and order, freedom and democracy.

After the Second World War, Russia was given free reign to conduct a Communist experiment on half of Europe and a chunk of Asia. An Iron Curtain kept atrocities in the dark from the outside world, including through the “economic extraction of resources” that Wagner is now carrying out for Russia on the continent of Africa. When Eastern Europe and the former Societ satellites got tired of being fleeced, they tore down the Berlin wall dividing East from West and a year later the Soviet Union collapsed.

Former Russian captives are still digging out from the massive corruption that Russian oligarchs have now spread throughout the world. Their method of operation is unabashedly transparent in the democracy-leaning spunky Ukraine and more gingerly in the more fragile democracy of Niger.

Like many of today’s near-200 independent countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America and island nations of the world, Niger bears the scars of a European expansionist period that ended with the Second World War. Niger, like many of its sibling emergents, bears additional layers of scars from clumsy Western attempts to make amends for the sins of the fathers. But Niger, like others, can look to Ukraine for which way the better future lies.

Imperfect Western democracy may be tone deaf to the needs of emerging nations. They may need activist intervention to be responsive. They may be busy with their own versions of history’s missteps and crimes. They may make mistakes and even look foolish. But they will also not condone somebody who mistreats you the way BRICS appears to be doing with Russia against both Ukraine and Niger.

The five BRICS countries (Brazil,Russia,India,China,South Africaheld a Summit Russia’s leader couldn’t attend. Instead of censuring Russia for atrocities in Ukraine, a, six new countries were invited to join (Saudi,Iran,Ethiopia,Egypt,Argentina,UAE).

These 11 countries make up about a third of the global economy. They intend to introduce their own currency so as to undercut the US dollar. Since much of that revenur comes from oil and energy products, there has never been a better reason for the world to go green and cure the migration problem in one fell swoop.

If BRICS countries will be using their own currency to sideline the sanctions intended to enforce the law, then they can use the proceeds to also absorb the waves of migrants flocking to western shores. The decision also puts an end to the tedious talk of reparations for sins of the fathers committed during the European expansion period. The decision to uphold lawlessness shows that these countries have learned nothing about the evils of indulging hostility. The West owes them nothing It would be throwing bad money after the last, as much a waste as the 70 years expended in strengthening the rule of law since WWII.

The world has nearly 200 countries. The United Nations democratic ideal is for all countries to be equal and cooperative. That organization is sorely in need of upgrade, as are many national infrastructures adapting to tech and climate changes. Regional organizations are hugely important in bringing about those changesEith its decision to condone Russia’s lawlessness while inviting others to do so as well, BRICS has proved a number of important points for an internationalist digitally connected global world.

Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has little or nothing to do with race It is pure malicious hatred of Ukraine and a fear of freedom. Eleutherophobia.

Likewise, migration and opposition to it has little or nothing to do with race. It has to do with ada[tability and an ability to fit in with established cultures based on the rule of law. BRICS proves that some cultures are better at that than others.

Serial Killer Russia Nabbed in Ukraine

More than 30 years have passed since Soviet captives tore down the Iron Curtain. Left on its own without satellites to bleed dry of natural reoources, the Soviet Union collapsed. Now Russia is rebuilding that failed experiment in brutality by building iron curtains around territory it already seized illrgally from Ukraine,

To the shame of its timidity or wors, the world let Russia get away with illegally annexing Crimea and two other regions of Ukraine in 2014. Recovering from a stunning near coup, firebrand US led an alliance to help Ukraine defend itself. That aid was contingent on Ukraine proving its worthiness of the massive investment. Ukraine outdid expectations and still the aid remains dangling.

As allies count pennies and weigh them on the scales of justice to see how much democratic values are worth, Ukraine suffers and Russia rebuilds the fortifications that Ukraine lost limbs and lives to tear dow. Thoso fortifications are three layers deep, just like they were in the Cold War Iron Curtain.

Ukraine must demonstrate sizeable progress in pushing Russia off its terrain in order for the Allied aid to continue. To make the dramatic breakthrough expected by armchair warriors in charge of funding after the long-awaited counteroffensive to push Russia off their land, Ukrainian frontline defenders fight through three layers of concertina palings across a field peppered with land mines. They duck through shelling and missiles until hand to hand combat with Russians fierce with knowing they’re cannon fodder in a war already lost.

That deadly date with fate is met each night by frontline soldiers at each of the Russian stockades guarding the land loot held like a dog snarling with a stolen bone The Ukrainians take the Russians head on, never complaing and always grateful for all the help and support they get. For them iy’s a matter of life or death. They’ve been under Russia’s thumb and they’re not going back.

All former Russian satellites need to feel that way before the world can go forward with any sense of decency or security. The Cold War proved out the point. Russia is a serial killer that must be stopped before it kills again.

During the Cold War, Russia killed three revolutions against its oppression without the world doing any more than exhorting Russia to “take down this wall.” In a global world, the fate of Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression is of relevance to each of the world’s near-200 countries.

In this prediccament, Ukraine has been a model global citizen. It has refused to be a doormat, nor has it succumbed to a valid excuse for being a hot head.

Of course it is admirable for the NATO allies to assist Ukraine in defending itself. The expediency of containg Russia tarnishes the altruistic halo a bit. But the willingness to put Ukraine on the line and watch it fight alone is a sign of an arrogance that last belonged in the Cold War when former Soviet satellites were still under the bus where they were thrown after WWII to appease Russia.

Before the Cold War the spectacle of a gladiator fighting a lion was the entertainment of emperors in the Roman Forum. In the 21st century, Ukraine has earned the right to have the world pull the plug on Putin’s entertainmrny.

Wars are fought by men too old to fight for those who die too young. The African proverb is only too apt for the first invasion of another country since the bomb in the Second Wolrld War put an end to that barbaric practice that is now a violation of international law.

Russia’s invasion is a slap in the face of international law and order. The great democracies of the NATO Alliance leapt to Ukraine’s aid. And yet Ukrainians die as the rest of the world watches the showdown to see which side of the conflict blinks first.

By a hair, America was on hand to pump prim Europeams into action for their own sake but not until Ukraine proved its ravid defiance of being violated. By them, foiled Russin the glove. The result has been a bloody stalemate ever sinc

.The illegal war was lost before it ever began when President Zelensky declared he needed ammo, not a ride when offered safe harbor out of danger when attacked. With that ad, Zelensky showed the world that he and his people had each other’s back, in part because they had learned from Russia’s dress rehearsal when it snatched up prime Ukrainian properties in Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk. In the seven years between attacks, Ukraine firmed its resolve about a next attack that without a doubt would come.

Regardless of international law. Russia had been allowed to get away with illegally annexing parts of Ukraine. The next time, Ukraine would not stand to be treated like a second class citizen of the global world, not when it was a better citizen to begin with.

For the last century at least, Russia has been a miserable place. The country’s literary history shows a melancholy, thoughtful streak that put Russia at the top of the world’s cultural treasures. But there was also the Pavlovian strain aimed at training dogs to beg for food.

Ukraine by contrast is a happy land of sunshine, sunflowers and fields of grain. It certainly wants to grow in the secure democratically profitable way. But it is content to accept life as it is, including by asserting its right to be respected for strengths that all the money in the world can’t buy. That’s where Ukraine has taken on all the goliaths of the modern world.

As Ukrainians die and are daily traumatized by missiles and shelling, Russia confabs with the Saudis destroying existing sports establishments with megabucks offers too big for players to resist. Russia does well with the trade deals that countries like India find irresistably low due to the sanctions on which they stay neutral for unspecified reasons no doubt linked to a historical past. Israel too stays neutral maybe to steer clear of Iran more than happy to supply Russia with weapons. And as all that goes down, pundits in the main supporting NATO alliance debate the question of how long the support can continue.

Most South American countries urge an instant cease fire and they recently urged the Europeans to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine. Only Chile’s new young president stated uncategorically that Ukraine must hold out against any seizure of its lands by Russia.

“If Russia gets away with this now,” Gabriel Boric told the BBC. “Then who’s next? You, me? It could be anybody.”

Both NATO and the US separately have affirmed that they are in this with Ukraine to the end. US President Biden has already gone on record to state that Russias has already lost the war. That certainly seems the case as Russia becomes a growing pariah in the global community of near-200 countries. He recently pulled out of a Summit in South Africa due to the arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court in the Hague. He pulled out of a UN brokered grain deal through Turkey that would have fed famine-stricken counties in Africa. That sure won’t win him any friends. But if he’s lost the war, then why does it continue?

Perhaps Vladimir Putin of Russia possesses the same reality gap skill set as Donald Trump of the US. If the don’t admit a failure, their enablers will believe it didn’t happen. It’s a practiced skill somewhat akin to the intimate relationship between the ventriloguist and the dummy. And while those two men hold tight to their base, the rest of the world is undergoing a version of the Russian aggression against Ukraine that the US barely missed.

Donald Trump lost te recent US presidential election but he continues to exert influence in his country by subvrting the law. He boasts about indictments as a badge of courage, fund-raises off that boast and stalls the legal process to keep justice at bay.

Under indictment himself, Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel just pushed through an anti-democratic reform highly unpopular with his people but dear to the conservatives of his country. In fact, many recent elections around the world have been tightly fought, a good many of them run-offs. Regarless of which side won, the contest seemed to be a battle between the old guard and the people chomping at the bit for a change to progress.

Written law from the 1600’s has held that possession is 9/10 of the law. It is telling. then, that these elections came so close in races where one candidate already held the reins of power. With just a bit bigger push, the election would have gone the other way.

What this means for Ukraine is that the world has an obligation to give it the push needed to get Russia out of Ukraine. That’s because the 1600’s law was based on natural law going back to Biblical times when the townsfolks rushed to David’s side and handed him the stones that finally killed the menacing Goliath.

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