Nora Rasenti - 3rd Address to the UNITED PLANETARY - 2020
It is certainly an honor to find myself addressing such
prestigious organization once again, even though I have no conviction that any
of the delegates that were present during my first address, two years ago, are present
today. Yet the problems that confront us
certainly are still with me, even though we now have undoubtedly a very
different insight and perspective; and some of us are beginning to believe we shall overcome. My greetings to the members of the United
Planetary!
During my first Address to your prestigious Forum, I
endeavored to establish some common ground.
And yes, right from the start of our history - we are all part of God’s
Creation, and we all have a role to play and a contribution to make.
I must apologize
for the lack of formality during the second Address to your Forum, a year
ago. I was trying to overcome a personal
situation – some family members that got hurt a couple of days before the
Address. That unpleasantness is now
almost behind me, as they are recovering.
Yet I am hopeful that even in that context, our exchange was still a
useful contribution.
Even though I was
confident that the information flow resulting from our exchanges would result
in measurable improvements to our present situation, I found myself overwhelmed
by the evidence of how much could be accomplished when working in cooperation
with others.
Among other
issues, it has been possible to establish common blockages across geographical
areas, and even species. And as we
highlighted in our last year’s Address, it has also been possible to verify
that the PURSUIT OF POVERTY is
used as a common denominator resulting in the disruption of economies and
financial structures. These conspiracies
affect the political, as well as the spiritual and religious structures of our
communities.
A spirit of cooperation certainly makes every difficulty
more surmountable. However we need to
accept that even though our people need to move outside the ‘harmful influence’,
the influence is still among us.
I was naive in my
hope that fixing the planet's financial problems would soon free us to
accomplish more effectively in other areas - when the local problems are
interrelated with the greater economic structures around us, it can be expected
this endeavor is not going to prove an easy undertaking.
We need to come
together behind a common purpose.
Overcome the cliché that suggests that we are too divided to succeed in
charting a way forward. The strategies
of division are slowing everyone down and those that are standing in the way of
progress should be identified and discouraged.
We need leadership that implements honest reporting, because just
telling people what they want to hear does not aid decision making, which is
critical at a time of crisis. We need to
be able to reclaim our future.
I would like now to quote from former U.S.
President Barrack Obama's Inaugural Speech - “That we are in the midst of
crisis is now well understood. Our
nation is at war against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence
of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective
failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost, jobs shed, businesses
shuttered. Our health care is too costly, our schools fail too many -- and each
day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our
adversaries and threaten our planet.”
We certainly should not find
ourselves in the situation of having to choose between the security of our
communities and the principles of our people. In the midst of it all, our people, un-noticed in their
efforts, have been endeavouring to bring us closer to goals of prosperity and
freedom. It should be the fairness
of our cause that ensures our commitment and empowers the examples we try to
set. We should not vacillate in
defending our way of life from those who seek to advance their goals by the use
of violence. Terrorism and the slaughter
of innocents should not rate in today’s society.
We want to meet these threats
that confront us today, threats that we did not provoke, threats that we cannot
ignore, and we cannot overcome without a greater degree of understanding and a
greater commitment towards teamwork between allies.
Our perception of a successful
economy hinges in our capacity to have the funds to be able to provide for
opportunities to everyone willing, which is something that has been perceived
as the surest way to communal good.
The economy is still a pivot element in precipitating and
measuring change, and an economy that works for our communities is crucial.
We should not settle for anything less than real change, which should be
measure in terms of its impacts in the day to day living of our communities.
The day will come when the
financial service providers entrusted with the public's money, will be held to
account, and will find themselves empowered to conduct the businesses of our
communities openly. We look forward to
our capacity to move in the direction of reforming "bad" habits, and we
are being encouraged to spend wisely.
We need an honest economy, an
economy that is open and accountable – discouraging fraudulent activities that
result in widespread poverty and deprivation.
In this regard, it is important that our people understand their
commitments. It is important that information is provided to the stakeholders
that make it possible for them to understand what it is that they’re signing
themselves up for:
·
rate changes to debt
that has already been incurred should be ban;
·
unilateral changes to
credit agreement should be unlawful; and
·
Interest on late fees
should not be considered.
These times of globalization and
mass communication that enables business activities ‘far and wide’, increases
the need to ensure that people get to pay what is fair, honestly calculated.
Another aspect where honesty is at a premium is that
of the food industry. It constitute one of those areas where our
efforts to better the quality have not been rewarded in kind, as our progress
has been small. But we remain hopeful,
and look forward to the day when we can see our people’s health improved. We also look forward to the day when we are
able to share this with others. The meat
processing aspect of our food industry is still standing on the way of our
capacity to communicate and relate more effectively with the rest of the
communities around us. I look forward to
a time when all in our planet embrace vegetarian eating – the whole
environmental community has endorsed this for many years. But we are trying to change systems
entrenched in our communities, which is a difficult but attainable
endeavour.
We acknowledge with gratitude our
brave military personnel and their contributions and we respect them, not only
as those safeguarding our way of life, but also because of their keenness to
find significance in something bigger than themselves. And we remain hopeful that the future
generations will acknowledge our commitment to safeguard and pass on to them
the gift of freedom.
We also acknowledge that our diverse heritage is not our
limitation, it is our wealth. Even
though we are shaped by different languages and cultures, there is no denying a
thread of common purposes that has revealed itself, especially under the
influence of the information that has become available in recent years. While our challenges may seem new - if not the
challenges themselves, certainly our awareness
of them – it is our values and principles that remain fundamental. There is no doubt that we could well find
ourselves guiding-in a new era of peace.
The pace
of progress throughout our history has hinged on the strong foundation provided
by our trust in the assurance that ‘God is counting on us to recover from an
uncertain future’ (B.Obama). We find ourselves
working harder at an ever decreasing pool of jobs available. We are earning less yet paying more for
fundamentals like health and education.
Many of us have reached the realization that one income isn’t enough to
support ourselves, let alone raise a family.
We are doing our part - our contributions to society are good, but the
lack of progress is a consistent reality.
It nurtures our hopes that we are
communicating more effectively. I have
been specifically asked to describe some of the structures we refer to. Our United Nations, for example, as a
structure acknowledges and upholds the sovereignty of its members, and promotes
local government structures in dealing with regional issues; yet it engages at
an international level in matters that concern the communities that constitute
it, while upholding human rights in a way that connects to the philosophical
development of our human communities. I
would like to assume the United Planetary has a similar outlook, with a wider
scope. We should allow ourselves to look
forward to a time when the small influences of our combined lobbying efforts
start to solidify in concrete progress.
In another order of things, I would like to participate
your members that during the last year, I have been involved in radio
broadcasting once a month. The program is
called “Nora’s Broadcasting Space” and I have taken advantage of this
opportunity to share some of my blogs in technology on air, as well as some
music. But the bulk of my efforts have
been towards reading a collection of books that I discovered in my teenage
years.
This is an INSERT from this collection written by acclaimed master story-teller,
Isaac Asimov. I have taken the liberty
of compiling and summarizing some of the INTRODUCTIONS to the books, that I
thought would be of relevance for the practicalities of today’s Address.
---------------------------------------------
At the beginning of the
thirteenth millennium, there were nearly twenty-five million inhabited planets
in the Galaxy and the center of the Imperial Government was located towards the
central regions of the Galaxy among the most densely populated and industrially
advanced worlds of the system.
There was a planet which was
the center of the Galactic Empire and the kernel of the human race. The jugular vein delicately connecting the
forty billion inhabitants of the administrative hub of the Empire with the rest
of the Galaxy - It could scarcely help being the densest and richest clot of
humanity the Race had ever seen.
The planet seeming to live
beneath metal made it difficult to ascertain whether the sun shone, or, for
that matter, whether it was day or night.
There were many planets which lived a standard timescale that took no
account of the perhaps inconvenient alternation of day and night. The rate of planetary turnings differs…
The ground was lost in the ever
increasing complexities of man-made structures. There was no green to be seen; no green, no
soil, no life other than man. There was
no horizon other than that of metal against sky, stretching out to almost
uniform grayness, over all the land-surface of the planet. The busy traffic of billions of men was
going on beneath the metal skin of the world.
Its urbanization, progressing
steadily, had finally reached the ultimate.
All the land surface of the planet’s 75,000,000 square miles was a
single city. The population, at its
height, was well in excess of forty billions. This enormous population was
devoted almost entirely to the administrative necessities of Empire, and found
themselves all too few for the complications of the task.
It is to be remembered that the impossibility of proper administration
of the Galactic Empire was a considerable factor in its Fall …
Its dependence upon other
worlds for food and, indeed, for all necessities of life, made the planet
increasingly vulnerable. Daily, fleets
of ships in the tens of thousands brought the produce of twenty agricultural
worlds to its dinner tables .... In the
last millennium of the Empire, the monotonously numerous revolts made Emperor
after Emperor conscious of this weakness…
The Empire to be found in the
mighty multi-spiral that is the Milky Way had been falling for centuries before
one man became really aware of this colossal fall. That man was Hari Seldon, the man who
represented the one spark of creative effort left among the gathering decay. He
developed and brought to its highest pitch the science of psychohistory.
Psychohistory dealt not with
man, but with man-masses. It was the
science of mobs; mobs in their billions.
It could forecast reactions to stimuli with confident accuracy.
The reaction of one man could
be forecast by no known mathematics; the reaction of a billion is something
else. Hari Seldon plotted the social and
economic trends of the time, sighted along the curves and foresaw the
continuing and accelerating fall of civilization and the gap of thirty thousand
years that must elapse before a struggling new Empire could emerge from the
ruins.
It was too late to stop that
fall, but not too late to narrow the gap of barbarism. Seldon established two
Foundations at "opposite ends of the Galaxy" and their location was
so designed that in one short millennium events would knit and mesh so as to
force out of them a stronger, more permanent, more benevolent Second Empire.
The story of one of those foundations
during the first two centuries of its life was originally published by Gnome
Press in the year 1951 with the title ‘Foundation’. On a planet at the extreme end of one of the
spiral arms of the Galaxy, separated from the turmoil of the Empire, began a
settlement of physical scientists that worked as compilers of a universal
compendium of knowledge - the Encyclopedia Galactica - unaware of the deeper
role planned for them by the already-dead Seldon.
As the Empire rotted, the outer
regions fell into the hands of independent "kings." The Foundation
was threatened by them. However, by playing one petty ruler against another,
under the leadership of their first mayor, Salvor Hardin, they maintained a
precarious independence. As sole possessors, of nuclear power among worlds
which were losing their sciences and falling back on coal and oil, they even
established ascendancy. The Foundation even went on to become the
"religious" center of the neighboring kingdoms.
Slowly, the Foundation
developed a trading economy as the Encyclopedia receded into the background.
Their Traders, dealing in nuclear gadgets which not even the Empire in its
heyday could have duplicated for compactness, penetrated hundreds of
light-years through the Periphery.
Under Hober Mallow, the first
of the Foundation's Merchant Princes, they developed the techniques of economic
warfare to the point of defeating powerful contenders, even when they were
receiving support from what was left of the Empire.
At the end of two hundred
years, the Foundation was the most powerful state in the Galaxy, except for the
remains of the Empire, which, concentrated in the inner third of the Milky Way,
still controlled three quarters of the population and wealth of the Universe.
It seemed inevitable that the
next danger the Foundation would have to face was the final lash of the dying
Empire.
I
have remained overwhelmed by the grandiose of this magnificent saga throughout
my life; especially when confronted with the honor of meeting a few of the
stakeholders of some of the events described.
I also wanted a number of our communities to embrace the realities of
our greater environment, and the fact that we do not exist in isolation. I became a committed fan of Hari Seldon in my
youth, and even tried to direct my studies towards gaining greater
understanding of his contributions, with difficulty as it was not really
encouraged at the time. Yet I must
humbly submit that in view of the information that has surfaced in recent
years, I have found myself re-assessing my opinion of some of the aspects of
his contribution. The new information
reinforce his findings regarding the collapse of the Empires and civilizations
in our areas; but this is, in my opinion, a consequence of the ‘harmful
influence’ among us, and not the result of a natural progression. This, while certainly not invalidating his
Plan, should invite its re-assessment; keeping in mind the fact that we are not
dealing with a political dispensation.
The overall environmental situation has
improved at the largest scale. The black holes - a tear in the
fabric of space, a consequence of the practice of destroying stars - were
pulling the galaxies in ways that were collapsing the Universes. I had
the good fortune to be able to conceptualize a way to overcome this problem,
incorporating both the physical and spiritual realms (“Nora Rasenti on
Blackholes and the Health of the Universe”). This development has
certainly re-defined our prospects. And
yet, it is not enough…
Even though the improvements in the
environment are comforting, they do not constitute a solution to the underlying
situation, and I hope that everyone takes the reprieve afforded by this
contribution as an opportunity to monitor any unexpected changes in their
environments.
I asked our friendly invaders about their
commitment to our destruction, they indicated the progression was outside their
scope of influence. They also indicated that once our sky collapses,
they could look forward to millions of years of empty inactivity, hoping for a
new cosmic egg, and creations more to their liking.
We would appreciate being kept appraised of
any developments that could affect our area and our communities.
To quote once again from a speech by former US President Obama,
the speech entitled ‘the American Dream’, delivered in the year 2007 - “There
has been a lot of talk in this campaign about the politics of hope. But the politics of hope doesn’t mean hoping
that things come easy. It’s a politics of believing in things unseen; of
believing in what this country might be; and of standing up for that belief and
fighting for it when it’s hard. “
And in closing, I would like to quote once again from our
founding fathers:
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
Rights, that among these are LIFE, LIBERTY and the PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS. That to secure these rights, Governments are
instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the
governed."
(Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776.)
Let it also be acknowledged that rights can be curtailed
LEGALLY - even when amid a culture upholding human rights - when individuals
and/or nations engage in unlawful, criminal or terrorist activities.
Finally, what could makes us one BIG family, is the
realization that our hopes to overcome the challenges that confront us lays in
our capacity to acknowledge our common destiny and hinges on the fact that we
share a common HOME, and our commitment to rise above our challenges depend in
our capacity to cooperate with each other, and in our ability to learn how to
stand up and fight for our futures, and for each other’s futures.
NORA
RASENTI
31/12/2020
REFERENCES
Former U.S. President Barrack
Obama's ‘Inaugural Speech’ - January 20, 2009.
Former U.S. President Barrack Obama’s
Speech on the ‘American Dream’ - 2007
(“Nora Rasenti on Blackholes and the Health of the
Universe” - Blogger in the WWW - 2019)
Isaac Asimov’s ‘Foundation’ &
‘Galactic Empire’ Collections, as made available by novels77.com in the
WWW.
