If all of humanity were one being, the United Nations would be the good angel on its shoulder. Each of the member countries would be the parts of this body, and very often little demons on the other shoulder aiming only to satisfy particular needs without taking into consideration the general well-being.
If we continue this analogy, the eight billion brains of the population of the Earth would be, for their part, the neurons making this being think. It may seem like a lot, but it’s actually very little, and even insufficient. The proof is that we are still failing to act collectively to enable us to limit global warming to 1.5°C despite the indisputable evidence of present and future disasters. This shows how weak is our capacity for collective reasoning and strong the temptation to act only in our personal interest.
In a body, when a cell decides to no longer act for the common good, it can become cancerous. The more the number of these increases, the less the chances of collective survival are good.
This is where the United Nations (UN) comes into play, trying at all times to create the widest possible consensus on the best things to do for the common good of all the inhabitants of the Earth. Of course, it is far from perfect, and too often its positions are set aside. But, like the democracy from which it is molded, it is the least bad of the means of management in common that we have. The proof of this is that all the leaders of the countries that make it up demand for them respect for the great values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) adopted in 1948 by the General Assembly of this body, even when they deny some of these rights to their people.
In 2023, it would be nice to wish a little more happiness for everyone and to think a little less about our little personal problems. These often seem very important to us, because we have our noses glued to them. But when you take a step back, you realize that these are mountains of confetti compared to the problems of people having to make daily life and death decisions for their children who are starving, who are driven from their lands by drought, fires or floods.
Do we collectively wish a happy new year 2023, a stronger UN, listened to, peace, prosperity, and above all, a way of managing ourselves that allows full development for all those who inhabit our planet?