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The first two weeks of high-level
speeches at the UN General Assembly is coming to a close. Yet, the
question still remains, whether humanity has the moral fitness to
survive. The UNGA meeting, according to China’s Global Times, was an
intense collision between nations on the matters relating to the
unspeakable genocide taking place in Gaza, NATO’s continuing war of
aggression in Ukraine against Russia, and the need for a global
architecture which ensures all nations’ path to security and
development.
Yesterday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang
gave an important reality check on the status of international law in
world affairs, given Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip and the lack
of supposed law-abiding nations in the West to deter Israel. He warned
that, “should the era of the law of the jungle return and the weak be
left as a prey to the strong, human society would face even more
bloodshed and brutality…. Humanity has once again come to a
crossroads.”
Likewise, Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov told a meeting of G20 foreign ministers that the refusal
among the Collective West “to adhere to the principles of the [UN]
Charter reveals neocolonial ambitions, fueling global instability and
multiplying regional conflicts.”
While the Global South is taking
responsibility for restoring lawfulness and principles to
international affairs through prioritizing mutually beneficial
relations with other nations, while committing to economic development
through investments in energy, infrastructure, science, and culture,
the trans-Atlantic sector of “civilized” countries is being isolated
more and more and on the brink of financial disintegration, which
would be through the collapse of $2 quadrillion of derivatives assets
and financial speculation.
What can stop such a sudden
collapse? The Hobbesian-like struggle between nations, and the
reduction of international law to the “law of the jungle,” was
explicitly rejected in the U.S. Declaration of Independence. This was
relevantly pointed out by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in his
remarks to the UNGA on Tuesday. Like one of his predecessors, Sukarno,
who had explicitly referenced the American Revolution as an
anti-colonial revolution which gave hope to nations striving for their
independence, Subianto recalled the better traditions of the West, as
if showing a mirror. He said, “It is indeed a great honor to stand in
this august General Assembly Hall, among leaders who represent almost
all of humanity. We differ in race, religion, and nationality, yet we
gather together as one human family. We are here first and foremost as
fellow human beings—each created equal, endowed with unalienable
rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The words of
the U.S. Declaration of Independence have inspired democratic
movements across continents—including the French Revolution, the
Russian Revolution, the Chinese Revolution, and Indonesia’s own
journey to freedom. It also gave birth to the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights adopted by the UN in 1948. ‘All men are created equal’
was the creed that opened the way to unprecedented global prosperity
and dignity.”
Will the people of the United
States appeal to the Global Majority through the Declaration of
Independence? How many people in the U.S. presently have even read
that document thoroughly, or even agree with its basic principles,
that all men and women, regardless of race, creed, nationality, or
religion, are entitled to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of
Happiness?” The revolutionary movement of Benjamin Franklin, which led
to a successful international conspiracy to create the first republic
across the Atlantic, is what we can draw from to redeem the United
States, as we approach the 250th birth of our nation.
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