My new article on Linkedin “When Will Conspiracies about Jews End?”

The latest fabrication about Jews is that we are profiting from the spread of the coronavirus. Who exactly are those Jewish profiteers? Is it all of them or just those who are scheming this? To the haters, it makes no difference. The only thing that matters is that the word “Jew” is attached once more to the word “blame.”

This isn’t new. We have been accused of every woe that humanity has ever suffered. Everything that upsets, offends, hurts, or otherwise displeases people, they often attribute to the Jews. Jews have suffered from blood libels such as baking matzahs (the Passover bread) with the blood of Christian children. In the Middle-Ages, they were accused of poisoning wells. Later, they were said to dominate the slave trade from Africa to America, and they have always been accused of disloyalty to the countries where they live.

When it comes to plagues, you can be certain that the blame will go to the Jews. We have been accused of causing the Black Death in the 14th century, spreading AIDS in the 20th century, and in this century, we are accused of spreading Covid-19.

Jews have also been accused of manipulating the media to serve their needs, and modernity has also created a new kind of blood libel, accusing Jews of organ harvesting. Moreover, Jews are often accused of conflicting “crimes.” Communists accused them of creating capitalism; capitalists accused them of inventing communism. Christians accused Jews of killing Jesus, and the French philosopher François Voltaire accused them of inventing and spreading Christianity.

In short, any view that people disagree with, they blame its invention on the Jews. As if all this is not enough, Jews have also been labeled as warmongers and as cowards, racists and cosmopolitans, spineless and unbending, and so on and so forth ad infinitum.

Yet, the fact that antisemitism is irrational does not mean that it is without merit, without a root that causes it. In fact, thinking that there is no reason for antisemitism is just as irrational as antisemitism itself. Just as there is no smoke without a fire, nothing can happen without something that causes it. In the case of Jew-hatred, that something has been fueling the fire for millennia. Therefore, since there is clearly a cause, we should find it, treat it if we can, and cure it before the flames burst once again and land another blow on our people.

So how will Jew-hatred end? I think we can find the answer in the words of Dr. Kurt Fleischer, leader of the Liberals in the Berlin Jewish Community Assembly before the Nazis came to power. In 1929, he argued, “Anti-Semitism is the scourge that God has sent us in order to lead us together and weld us together.”

We established our nationhood when we pledged to unite “as one man with one heart”; we were dispersed and exiled for hating one another for no reason; and we will regain our nationhood when we restore our unity. We were chosen to set an example, to be “a light unto nations,” and no declarations that we are like everyone else will help. Our “chosenness” has never been about science, culture, or ingenuity.

We have given the world Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud, and Leonard Bernstein. A quarter of Nobel Prize laureates are Jewish, though we are only 0.2% of the world’s population, but is anyone thankful? I have yet to hear applause.

The world does not thank us for our contribution in these fields because this is not the contribution it expects from us. The world is not ungrateful; it is dissatisfied because it is not getting what it really needs from us: an example of unity.

Our sages have always told us that when we are united, we are so strong that no one can defeat us. It is true not because of our military might, but because our unity inverts the nations’ hatred toward us into respect and gratitude.

The more divided the world becomes, the more it grows antisemitic. It is not a conscious process, but a natural, instinctive reaction on the part of a world that awaits an example of unity, and no one can provide it but the group that has been designated to do so: the Jewish people.

We need not fight against antisemitism; it is a waste of time. We need to fight against our hatred for each other. This is the only cure for the growing Jew-hatred and the storm clouds amassing around the Jewish people once again.
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My new article on Linkedin “The False Greatness of the Great”

A cinematographer friend of mine told me that judging by today’s films, TV series, and social media posts, people are mostly busy with the most mundane “events” in people’s lives, such as eating, showering, and even defecating. When we look back in history, it seems as though these were not the things that interested us, but higher things, such as ideas and social movements. It seems as though there is nothing to write about our time.

I think that in truth, humanity was never sublime. We may like to muse about how civilized we were when classical music, theatre, painting, and sculpture were the popular forms of entertainment, but for the vast majority of people, life was just a struggle for survival; there was no room for entertainment.

Worse yet, precisely those whom we remember as great, were actually the worst of that generation. People who achieve greatness in the eyes of the public are always actually the most immoral and self-centered. Writers, composers, the lot, there was nothing good about them; check their biographies and you will see for yourselves.

I think we should redefine greatness. Instead of venerating people for their ability to write, compose, or paint, we should venerate those who do for others, not for themselves. Particularly, we should respect people who bring people together and make them feel united.

People are happy when they feel secure and loved, and they feel secure and loved when they are among people who care about them, like family or friends. Therefore, people who help create this feeling in the general public, who make communities, cities, and even nations come together, are the most valuable people in society.

People who show how diversity contributes to society—rather than using cultural and ethnic differences to promote their own careers by inciting racism and exclusion—are today’s real heroes. Today’s values take us in the opposite direction from this feeling of mutual responsibility and care. If we want to build back better, we should build it together, and then we will succeed.

The more we succumb to division and separation, the weaker our society grows. Instead of joy and confidence, fear, suspicion, and hatred have the upper hand. No one will reverse this trend except for those who are afraid, suspicious, and hateful, namely all of us. We are the ones who suffer from the separation in society, we are the ones who have nothing to gain from it, unlike our “leaders,” so we are the ones who should choose unity over division.
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My new article on Linkedin “Glasgow Climate Change Conference Changes Nothing”

As the world prepares for the 2021 Glasgow Climate Change Conference, more and more data indicate that human efforts, assuming there have been efforts, have been insufficient, at best. While world leaders spread declarations galore about curbing emissions of greenhouse gases, the reality is the opposite. The UN Production Gap Report tracks the discrepancy between governments’ planned fossil fuel production and actual global production levels. This year’s report reveals that “despite increased climate ambitions and net-zero commitments, governments still plan to produce more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than what would be consistent with limiting global warming to 1.5°C [2.7°F].”

However, even if governments did intend to meet their commitments, it would not reverse climate change. If we compare the amount of greenhouse gases that humanity produces to the amount emitted by volcanic eruptions, forest fires, and the accelerated thawing of the permafrost in Alaska, Greenland, Canada and Siberia, it will be clear that nature is headed for a rapid climate change with or without our “help.”

Climate change is not the only crisis that humanity is facing. There are crises in every area of human engagement: International tensions are rising; religious extremism is increasing; racial and cultural tensions are dividing countries from within; and the global economy is teetering on the brink of stagflation. If this is not enough, the tenacious coronavirus is still disrupting lives and economic recovery the world over, supply chains are breaking, leading to shortages in gas, food, and other staples, and natural disasters are intensifying in frequency and ferocity due to climate change. Clearly, we need to stop focusing on specific problems, and start thinking more systemically.

Our world is built like a pyramid. At the base of the pyramid is the mineral level, above it is the flora, above which is the fauna, and man stands at the top of the pyramid. We are not part of the animal kingdom because while our bodies are similar to that of other primates, our minds enable us to reflect on our past, our future, and make long-term plans for ourselves and for the planet.

However, despite our superior mind, we are not “above” the system; we are a part of it. As such, we affect all the levels below us. Therefore, any malfunction on the top, human level, “trickles down” to the entire pyramid and spoils the other levels, too.

Now it is easy to see that the problem lies squarely with humanity. Moreover, since the problems encompass every realm of human engagement, then clearly, curbing gas emissions will not solve anything. If we want to fix the world, we need to fix humanity.

When we examine humanity, each person has unique skills and traits. In themselves, these characteristics are not problems but advantages. The diversity of human thoughts, approaches, cultures, ideas, and beliefs creates a tapestry whose threads weave into a powerful entity that could, theoretically, achieve anything. Therefore, the problem is not in the people, but in how they connect with one another.

Currently, the threads in the tapestry of humanity are trying to tear each other up. Instead of strengthening, supporting, and emboldening each other, we are vying for supremacy and power. Instead of working to make the fabric as strong and as beautiful as possible, we are trying to be the strongest thread in the sheet. Is it any wonder that we are exhausted? Is it any wonder that we are sickened by the endless struggles and ill-will that surround us? Is it any wonder that depression is the most common illness of our time? And finally, is it any wonder that our world, our only home, is ruined? Now, I think we know what we really need to focus on when we come to save our planet.
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My new article on Linkedin “The Sad Truth of Our Existence, and What We Can Do about It”

Most of us are unaware of the motives for our actions. We go through life on autopilot, so to speak, and rarely think about what causes us to do what we do, say what we say, and think what we think. There is a good reason for it: No one wants to realize that the motivation for our actions is fear. We are in constant escape mode, and the thought of it is unbearable.

One of the next-door neighbors in the apartment building where I live is terrified of his bank. He is in terrible debt and the bank could block all his payments and standing orders any day. Another neighbor is terrified of the police. He was caught DUI and is afraid that the police will come search his apartment. But most of all, he is afraid that the police might walk into his office with search warrants and embarrass him in front of his coworkers.

We are all like that, afraid of something, of many somethings. We are afraid of what people will think of us and what they will say about us. We fear for our children on so many levels that we cannot even begin to describe it. We’re afraid of the virus, afraid of the climate, afraid of terrorists, afraid of being used by peers, coworkers and bosses, and we’re afraid for our future and the future of our children.

Concisely, we’re unwittingly meshed in a network of fears that fashions and determines our lives every single moment. Moreover, it is through this network that we feel that we are alive, that we exist. The pressures we get from everything around us—from minerals through plants and animals, to people—make us feel this world and ourselves within it.

However, it is a negative feeling. We’re afraid of everything. We’re trying to enjoy life but all we get are pressures from the government, the bank, the boss, the children, Social Security, you name it. We’re at a point where we consider ourselves happy if no one and nothing is bothering us. But this isn’t happiness; it is absence of suffering.

We cannot stop being afraid; it is the way the world is built, and the way we are built. However, we can change the things that frighten us, which will in turn change our feelings.

We are pleasure-seeking beings. We are afraid when we feel we might be hurt or not enjoy ourselves. Therefore, our fear is determined by what we want to enjoy. If we want to enjoy other things than the ones we want right now, we will be afraid of different things, and our whole worldview, and indeed our whole world, will change accordingly.

The trick to emerging from the depressing, sad state of our existence is to shift our focus from concentrating on ourselves to concentrating on others. Look at mothers concentrated on raising their children. Both human mothers and mothers in the animal kingdom set a great example of the courage and strength that they derive from caring for others, namely their young.

We should learn from this. A mother’s love comes naturally, but loving strangers takes training and practice, and broad social consensus to the process. Yet, this is what we need today, and desperately so. We need to learn to be afraid of not caring enough, not giving enough. Our pressure needs to be the pressure of loving mothers, the pressure that creates life, not the pressure of enemies wanting to destroy their adversaries. The latter is the pressure we feel now, and it is killing us and the world we live in.

We’re in a desperate state. Neither our planet nor humanity will be able to stand the negative pressure we put on each other and on the environment much longer. Unless we reverse our concerns and our fears from concern for ourselves to concern for others, our self-centered focus will bring upon us our own destruction.

For more on this topic, look up my book, Self-Interest vs. Altruism in the Global Era.
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My new article on Linkedin “U.S. Consulate for Palestinians in Jerusalem, What It Would Mean for Israel”

The intention of the U.S. Biden Administration to reopen a consulate for the Palestinians in Jerusalem should be a trigger warning for Israel.

The consulate was closed in 2018 by former President Trump when the U.S. embassy was moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. The closure shut down our enemies’ hope for the division of Israel’s capital, a hope that will be revived if it is reopened.

A unilateral decision by the Biden Administration in that regard without Israel’s consent would not only contradict international law, but would also send a message that day by day we are giving up increasing control over almost everything —over Jerusalem and the territories, over the nation’s fabric and identity, over the exorbitant transfer of money to Gaza which afterwards transforms into weapons against us. We would be giving up on ourselves, on our right to be in the Land of Israel.

If this trend were to continue, we could anticipate great danger for the state of Israel. This process will take place if we do not realize that under the current conditions, if we do not defend our sovereignty, if we are incapable of foreseeing the danger that lies ahead and defend our home, we are not suitable for the land, not compatible with the essence of the state that should exist on Israeli soil. This unfortunate situation has materialized quickly, and it hurts me from within. I no longer have the strength to talk about it, although I have no choice.

We think we Jews are strong people. Because we survived the Holocaust and established the State, defeated our enemies in wars over the land and all the empires who wanted to destroy us throughout history, so this time too we will not be harmed. It is a mistake. We are not a strong people by ourselves—not emotionally, not mentally, not physically. Our strength comes solely from the Supreme Force that protects us; it is Nature’s ruling that directs us to endure extraordinary circumstances.

Such special resilience is not given from above because of who we are—a divided people—but because of who we are meant to be—a people who should live according to the great rule in the Torah, “love your neighbor as yourself,” and instill that principle in the world.

In theory, the feeling of weakness in the face of the threatening scenario in the country should cause us to mobilize forces to protect ourselves. In real life, this is not coming true. Our weakness has swept us to a bad place, just to the point of deterioration where we find ourselves today. There is no time to entertain some vain fantasy in which we will suddenly realize that we are on the downslope, choose to stay indifferent, and thrive beautifully in the end anyway. This is an illusion.

I’m not saying there is no hope. We have not yet reached such a situation in which we have no choices left because all is lost. But we must wake up and internalize that, in fact, the true danger that threatens us comes from within, the result of our separation from one another. Thus, it is up to us to fix the problem.

We must understand once and for all just who we are and for what purpose we exist. We must recognize what actually is the backbone of the nation. Our nation is not just some random group of exiles, but a precisely representative group composed of people from all the nations of the world as a diverse replica of humanity, an amalgamation that should serve as an example of cohesion for all peoples. Fulfilling that role is our calling and the source of our strength, and our strength to carry it out lies in the Supreme Force we draw when we rise above our differences and unite as a solid indivisible unit.

As it is written, “If a person takes a bundle of reeds, he cannot break them all at once. But taken one at a time, even an infant will break them. Just so, Israel will not be redeemed until they are all one bundle.” (Midrash)
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My new article on Linkedin “Burning Books without Education Lights Up Hate”

In Ontario, Canada, schools recently burned nearly 5,000 books that were considered offensive to indigenous people. In New York City, the Thomas Jefferson Statue that was crafted in 1833, and has stood in the City Council chamber since 1915, is scheduled for removal. Last year, nearly 100 Confederate monuments were removed. Burning, breaking, or erasing the past is not the right way to mend wrongs. Without acknowledging the past and educating people on what is right and what is wrong, we will never learn. We will keep on being tyrannical toward each other, and while the tyrants will change, the people will still suffer.

Only education changes us; violence only oppresses. If we believe that people are equal, we should educate ourselves toward it. We should do it by example, by showing how everyone contributes to society, how diversity increases a nation’s resilience, and how union above cultural and ethnic differences solidifies our nationhood. Since when have acts of hatred brought any benefit to anyone? Since when have they increased love?

In order to build new social values, we must know how to move out of the old ones. Take slavery, for example. It was abolished in order to free the black Americans, who were either born into slavery or brought to America for that purpose. However, instead of freeing the slaves, it made most everyone slaves: blacks, whites, Asians, and Latin Americans. We may not call it slavery, and it may be embarrassing to admit it to ourselves, but the truth is that none of us is free. We have all been equally enslaved, and we call it the free market, or capitalism. Communism, by the way, is no better. I know; I came from there.

If we want people to be free and equal, we need to teach them only one thing: how to love one another. There is no slavery or inequality in a loving family. Likewise, if people cared for one another, we would not be speaking about inequality or disadvantaged groups.

Family is a great example of building back better, by the way. If there is a dispute between siblings, and the family wants to make peace between them, will it vilify or humiliate one in order to appease the other? Of course not! Increasing love to a point where it is greater than the anger is the only way to bring them back together.

Therefore, if a nation wants to unite its members and make them equal, the only way to achieve this is by increasing unity, love, and mutual responsibility among all the factions of the nation. If we focus on these three elements, we will not need to worry about inequality or bigotry.

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My new article on Linkedin “Whom Can We Trust If No One Is Trustworthy?”

One of my favorite quips from Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is when Tom is defined as “a glittering hero…the pet of the old, the envy of the young,” and there were “some that believed that he would be president, yet, if he escaped hanging.” With these few words, Twain captured the essence of leadership in our world. Those who get to the top are the fiercest, most determined, and most ruthless. Today, the latter quality has become so intense that we can no longer believe our leaders, and certainly not trust them to have our best interest in mind.

I am not accusing any leader in particular, or even leaders as a whole. It is simply that in an egoistic world, where people vie to topple one another on their way to the top, the one at the top is clearly the one who trampled over and knocked down more people than anyone else. Concisely, to get to the top in an egoistic world you have to be the biggest egoist.

So how do we know whom to trust? We don’t know and we cannot know. All we know is that we are in the dark.

In a culture of unhinged selfishness, any conspiracy theory seems reasonable, while truth is nowhere to be found. When every person who says or writes something is trying to promote some hidden agenda, you have no way of knowing who is right, what really happened, or if anything happened at all.

The only way to get some clarity in the news and goodwill from our leaders is to say “Enough!” to our current system and build something entirely independent. The guiding principle of such a system should be “information only,” no commentary. Commentary means that information has already been skewed. Information means saying only what happened, as much as possible, not why, and not who is to blame and who we should praise.

Concurrently, we must begin a comprehensive process of self-teaching. We have to know not only what is happening, but why we skew and distort everything. In other words, we have to know about human nature and how it inherently presents matters according to its own subjective view, which caters to one’s own interest. To “clear” ourselves from that deformity, we must learn how to rise above our personal interest and develop an equally favorable attitude toward others. This is our only guarantee that our interpretation of things will be even and correct.

Once we achieve such an attitude, we will discover that the bad things we see in our world reflect our own, internal wickedness.

Our ill-will toward others creates a world where ill-will governs, and so the world is filled with wickedness and cruelty. Therefore, all we need in order to create positive leadership—and to generally eliminate ill-will from the world—is to generate goodwill within us. When we nurture goodwill toward others, we will fill the world with goodwill. As a result, the world will fill with kindness and compassion. By changing ourselves, we will create a world that is opposite from the world we have created through our desires to govern, patronize, and often destroy other people.

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My new article on Linkedin “Why Israel’s PR War Is Hopeless”

Last Friday, Israel outlawed six Palestinian NGOs linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, and the world is up in arms. The Biden administration is asking for “more information regarding the basis for these designations,” which Israel insists are “cast in concrete,” the UN and the EU question Israel’s decision, and Left wing parties within Israel condemn the decision of the Israeli government, of which they are a part. Israel will never be able to justify itself since rational explanations and solid proof are useless in the face of ingrained hatred. As long as Israel does not unite its ranks, its PR war is hopeless.

Every country can criticize decisions of other countries. However, with Israel, it is not a matter of criticizing a decision of the Israeli government; it is an inherent objection to the very existence of the Jewish state. Therefore, whatever the Israeli government decides, even if it is complete acceptance of the demands of the Palestinians, without any reservations, the world will still criticize Israel for things it should have done but didn’t. The point we are missing here is that the world is not trying to show that it agrees or disagrees with the decisions of this or that Israeli government; it is demonstrating its resentment of the very fact that the State of Israel exists.

After World War II, the world was tolerant toward the Jewish state because of the Holocaust. However, there is only so long you can justify your existence through the death of millions of your people. Today, humanity does not feel that the atrocities committed against our people in the 1940s justify our sovereignty in the Middle East in the 2020s.

There is a good reason why even members of the Israeli government agree with the world’s criticism. We ourselves don’t warrant our existence here. Without understanding the reason for the existence of the State of Israel, and even more importantly, without carrying out the reason we are here, even Israelis condemn the State of Israel and would gladly live elsewhere if they could.

If we want to succeed in our PR efforts, we must abandon the focus on what the world thinks or feels about Israel, and concentrate instead on how Israelis think and feel about each other. Since we are always under scrutiny, we are always an example—for better or for worse. Therefore, our relationships project on the entire world. When we are connected among ourselves, we are an example of unity and the world appreciates us. When we are divided within, we set an example of disunion, and the world hates us and accuses us of warmongering.

We exist in a sovereign state in order to set an example of how a sovereign state should conduct its affairs. If we conduct ourselves in unity, in mutual responsibility, in the spirit of loving others as ourselves, we set a good example and merit our sovereignty. If we despise each other and treat each other with contempt and derision, as we do today, we set a bad example and the world spurns us.

In the days of the Second Temple, when there was unity within the people of Israel, kings and scholars from abroad would come to learn the wisdom of the Jews. They translated the Torah from Hebrew to Greek, and their scholars learned from the sages of Israel who lived during their time. Many people also came to watch the festivities in Jerusalem during the three annual pilgrimages and cherished the feeling of brotherhood that the Jews projected.

But when infighting erupted in the Jewish people, the nations became increasingly hostile toward us. After centuries of growing division within our people, we were eventually expelled from the land and the Roman Emperor Hadrian changed the name Judaea to Palestine, to erase the memory of the Jewish presence in the land.

Today’s circumstances are similar. We are still judged by the example we set. If we are united, the world will welcome us. If we are divided, the world will expel us.

For an in-depth discussion about this topic, read my latest publication on this topic: The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism.
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My new article on Linkedin “Shipping Crisis Calls for Wising Up on Shopping”

Informally, Halloween, which is a few days away, begins a shopping season that stretches through the beginning of the following year. But this year, ships are stuck at sea, ports are jam-packed, and merchandise is not reaching the stores or the customers who ordered online. It appears as though many children and lovebirds will be disappointed this holiday season. From computer chips to cars, the world seems to be downsizing volumes, and I think it is a great thing for all of us.

Because we are unwilling to feel connected, nature forces us to realize it. We have been interdependent and interconnected for decades, if not more, but our attitude toward each other has been to exploit and harm one another wherever and whenever possible. We derive pleasure from others’ pain, oblivious to the fact that their suffering will eventually hurt us, too.

Now, using precise blows to our emotional soft spots, nature is making us see what we refuse to see: We are all connected. The shipping crisis will be a blessing for all of us if we wise up and understand what it is telling us about shopping, and about our attitude to one another as a whole.

When you create ties on the basis of trying to pull your way as hard as possible, at some point the ties will snap. This is what is happening today. All the systems of connection we have built are breaking, which affects every aspect of our lives—from food prices to gadgets to transportation, and to every realm of human engagement. We have built our entire system on egoism; can we expect it not to collapse?

Now we have no choice but to start thinking more in terms of “we” and less in terms of “me.” When it is clear that disruptions anywhere lead to disruptions everywhere, we cannot maintain abusive and exploitative attitudes toward other places or other people. We have to shift from thinking nationally to thinking globally, from an exclusive thinking to an inclusive one.

Eventually, we will need mechanisms to coordinate global activities, functioning mechanisms, not like the UN or its affiliates. But this will come later, after we change our thinking and build what needs to be built without trying to use it for power or exploitation.

In a world where plagues spread like the wind, production stops the world over, and food and gas prices spike everywhere, collaborative thinking is not optional; it is imperative. Cooperation is the only reasonable attitude, the only one that will change things for the better. If we keep pulling our own separate ways, the strings that tie us all together will snap and we will all fall painfully hard.
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My new article on Linkedin “76 Years After Its Founding, the UN Has Yet to Achieve Anything”

“United Nations Day, on 24 October, marks the anniversary of the day in 1945 when the UN Charter entered into force,” writes the UN page dedicated to this date. The title of the page reads “Building Back Together for Peace and Prosperity,” and states that the anniversary “offers the opportunity to amplify our common agenda and reaffirm the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.” For 76 years, the UN has been trying to bring peace to the world. In 76 years, we have not moved one inch closer to it. If I had to summarize the operations of the UN during the entirety of its time, I would capture it in four short words: a waste of time.

I cannot say it hasn’t tried. During the earlier years of the previous decade, I myself had dealt with the UN extensively. I met several times with then director general of UNESCO, Irina Bokova and we sought ways to mitigate some of the world’s most pressing issues. I had a wonderful meeting with the former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Dr. Asha-Rose Migiro, after which an organization that I am heading, ARI Institute, collaborated with the UN, which declared that the topic for 2012 would be “education.” Together, we designed an international educational program for establishing unity and camaraderie in society and in schools.

If the UN is to be an effective institution, it must be above any particular interest of any single country. Its sole interest must be for all of humanity to unite, and it must be given the power and authority to carry out its task.
Sadly, the meetings and efforts did not result in changes on the ground. They failed not for lack of competence or good will, but because the UN is not intended to succeed. It is not intended to make the world a better place, but to serve as an arena for international political manipulations and power struggles under the guise of concern for human rights, food and water problems, and climate change.

Its intentions may have been good when it was first established, but once politicians took over and pushed their own agenda, they warped and distorted everything. By doing so, they had turned an institution that could have been very meaningful and positive in humanity into a stage for making empty speeches and sanctimonious declarations. This is why I said that its activity has been a waste of time.

If the UN is to be an effective institution, it must be above any particular interest of any single country. Its sole interest must be for all of humanity to unite, and it must be given the power and authority to carry out its task.

Currently, no one in the UN is accountable. If the intended agenda does not happen, no one pays for it; no one is held responsible. This is why no one takes it seriously.

For this reason, I think that the UN, as such, should be dismantled completely. Instead of it, there must be an international educational institute dealing with installing the realization that we are all dependent on each other. Before we realize that when we pollute one part of the world, we are polluting our own backyard, nothing good will happen.

Countries must learn that they have to support one another despite their mutual enmity. Unless we rise above vindictiveness and begin to build a common, global entity called “humanity,” humankind will suffer the consequences of its disunion.

We can learn that we are connected in one of two ways: a good way or a bad way. The bad way is the one we’re on today, and we can see where it is leading. The good way is our only option since this is the only way where we come out alive on the other end of it.

In conclusion, I hope that this birthday was one of reckoning for the UN, that heads of states are beginning to realize that if we want to celebrate more birthdays, and we want our children to celebrate them, we need to change course. Once we learn how to feel close to one another, it will be possible to build a United Nations that will warrant its name.

Happy Birthday!

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