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[GMW #2494] Simplicity And
Frugality Of Governments
Wednesday 4 July 2012, Editor: Easy| RobertMuller.org | Contact | Subscribe | Unsubscribe | Biography | World Core Curriculum | Store | NEW Facebook | Twitter | GMW Blogs: English | Portuguese | Spanish | Tagalog | Dutch |
~ Idea 1099 ~
14 July 1997 I attended today the reception by the Embassy of France for the celebration of the French Revolution on 14 July 1789. I went there only because the Ambassador was new and I left him a documentation and an invitation to visit the University for Peace where we will try to convince him to get France to ratify that University. I was shocked by the lavish party for the local diplomats and Costa Rican high officials. A party like that costs money which would have fed several hundreds of poor children. And I was reminded of one of my favorite subjects: the need for the publication of a world budget showing the expenditures of all nations. Just the cost of 185 countries giving parties to each other on their national holidays and other occasions would create a shock in world public opinion. I was thinking also that if the young French revolutionaries who were celebrated were alive today they would blast the bottles of champagne against the walls because it is exactly against such practices of the powerful aristocracy of their time that they made the revolution. What about simplicity and frugality of governments? The UN and its 32 specialized world agencies should give the good example and suppress all receptions. It will be the last reception I attend in my life. Robert's The Miracle, Joy and Art of Living, Volume II Chapter 13 - Of Speaking Sometimes during a speech I suddenly feel like crying. The tears come to my eyes. I cannot stop them. And some people in the audience cry too. I apologize and finish my speech by playing Beethoven's Ode to Joy on my ten-holes harmonica. This and the tears they never forget.
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UN News Sources - UN
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References: Earth Charter, Universal Declaration of Human Rights Rights of: Children, Women, Indigenous People To Be Written: Rights of Nature, Birds, Animals, Fish, etc.
WORD FOR THE
DAY
When we come upon beautiful things . . . they act like small tears in the surface of the world that pull us through to some vaster space. -- Elaine Scarry, On Beauty and Being Just Books recommended by Robert are here. Other newsletters by GMW's editor can be viewed and subscribed to here. Subscribe to or unsubscribe from GoodMorningWorld.org |
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