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WORLD CITIZEN LETTERS


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Number (date)Title
581 (Apr 2008)Criminals at large
More disquieting news from the U.S. this month. Demands on the military from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus threats to Iran, have deterred...

580 (Mar 2008)British citizenship
There is currently a big fuss in British politics, led by a prime minister many of whose constituents would prefer to concentrate on Scottish politics...

579 (Mar 2008)Words and truth in Palestine
It was revealing this week to hear two antagonists arguing about the most recent fighting over the Gaza strip. First an Israeli minister declared that...

578 (Feb 2008)English federalist roots of the EU
World citizens outside Europe may feel that English political rows have little relevance to them, but the European Union is the best, indeed the only...

577 (Jan 2008)The road to plutocracy
It has recently been announced that the discrepancy in incomes in Britain, which 30 years ago approximated to 30 times the average to the greatest...

576 (Jan 2008)Lessons we need to learn?
When, as a college student over 60 years ago, a history professor set me the title for an essay "Wars settle nothing", it was a nice challenge. I recall...

575 (Jan 2008)Non-violence for world citizens
A recent book Mark Kurlansky is a valuable reminder of some useful truths. It has an illuminating discussion of 19th century attempts at building...

574 (Nov 2007)How to get to a governed world
It will not be a tidy process, and it will not follow the lead of the 18th century British colonists who held formal and orderly meetings to decide upon...

573 (Nov 2007)Morality
One of the worst faults of the global political stranglehold held by nation-state governments and keeping the whole human race in thraldom is its...

572 (Nov 2007)Muslim suicides
The long tradition of muslim suicides extends at least to the time of the Syrian Assassins, who were primed with hashish before being despatched to...

571 (Oct 2007)Atonement
The novelist Ian McEwan watched the largest demonstration in English history wending its way through London to protest against the illegal attack...

570 (Oct 2007)Catch 'em young!
My family were politically-aware: reading included H.G. Wells and other radical writers, so when in 1939 someone brought in a copy of Union...

569 (Sep 2007)Speakers' Corner
Speakers' Corner is on the north-east corner of Hyde Park in London. Every Sunday crowds collect and listen to speakers talking about saving...

568 (Sep 2007)'I am an English nationalist ...'
I am an English nationalist partly because England is no longer a sovereign state and therefore is not in a position to threaten other states. Nor does...

567 (Sep 2007)Good intentions
Once upon a time a party was founded in Britain (something over a hundred years ago) which was a coalition of democratic socialists, trade unionists...

566 (Sep 2007)Freedom and democracy
The half-century since Israel was created and dispossessed Palestinian Arabs has seen various permanent, irreversible, changes. But nothing...

565 (Jul 2007)Wealth and democracy
There are said to be four million millionaires in the United States and they are represented in Congress by more or less 100% of the law-makers. Which...

564 (Jul 2007)Terrorism again
There is history in this. In August 1945 the U.S. air force wiped out well over 100.000 people before breakfast. Civilians in their homes and...

563 (Jun 2007)The next thirty years war
Recently their ambassador in Kabul has warmed the British people that their soldiers now in Afghanistan can expect to be in the country for 30 years...

562 (Jun 2007)Semi-federal
When the United States of America was born from its constitution making in the 18th century, joining together 13 newly sovereign states, it was rightly...

561 (Jun 2007)Ideal world citizen locomotion
One strong contender for the ideal form of transport for world citizens must be cycling. Bicycles do not pollute with harmful toxins nor even with noise...

560 (Jun 2007)An elected U.N. assembly
Little noticed, on 23 April (St. George's Day, that bastion of former English patriotism), was a headline in the Independent of London "Europeans...

559 (Jun 2007)Religious maniacs
Reading a lively and incisive book by Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion brings home the occasional arrogance of atheists, rejecting all talk of God...

558 (Jun 2007)The jihadists
To strap explosives to one's body with the deliberate intention of causing damage, destruction and death is an inhuman and grossly immoral act...

557 (May 2007)Counter-terrorism
From Iran, the Ayatollah Khomeini's pronouncements, often ferocious in their denunciation of enemies, sinners and westerners, were invariably...

556 (May 2007)Poets' corner
It was an Englishman who declared that poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world and it was another English poet who wrote...

554 (Apr 2007)'Everyone needs an identity'
Over ten years ago, a leading Swedish world federalist, Einar Hellbom of Stockholm, wrote a piece sent to me by another Swedish world citizen...

553 (Apr 2007)Imperial plutocracy
Democracy is not an absolute term. It is relative, describing a political state of a society. Examples range from the marginal, where a society may be...

552 (Apr 2007)Huffing and puffing: Iran and sailors
It has long been the custom of sovereign states to use pretexts of various sorts to make or pursue disputes with rivals. The numbers in history are...

551 (Mar 2007)Slavery and the arms trade
Sorry? Yes, I am indeed very sorry that an Englishman from Devon started the transatlantic slave trade. I am also most sorry that about 250 years...

550 (Mar 2007)An American puzzle
The Guardian newspaper prints today a self-questioning article by an American who asks, essentially why she and her fellow-citizens accepted...

549 (Mar 2007)Democratic deficits
"Democracy is a system of government in which those ruled are, in some proportionate measure, willing and able to participate in decisions that...

548 (Feb 2007)Rogue states(men)
The revelation that George W. Bush actually gave permission for a vice-presidential aide to betray an official secret is another piece of evidence...

547 (Feb 2007)The curse of nationalism
The Marseillaise, I find, still has power to raise the prickles on the back of my neck, long after the days when I regretted that Britain had no...

546 (Jan 2007)The "deterrent"
Why do international treaties and negotiations about nuclear weapons never use the term "nuclear deterrent"? The answer surely must be that the term...

545 (Jan 2007)Jihad
The word jihad originally meant ‘struggle' and had a particularly religious significance in Islam. Understandably, it soon took on other wider...

544 (Jan 2007)Pernicious nonsense
In the news summaries of the British prime minister’s latest excursion into foreign policy theory and futurology, the most striking fact for world...

543 (Dec 2006)Islamophobia?
The ghastly spectacle of muslims killing muslims in Iraq appears to be worsening. It is grossly at odds with the message of a religion that enjoins...

542 (Nov 2006)The Man from UNCLE
Some thirty years ago television offered a programme of this name that featured 'good guys' in a series of episodes worsting 'baddies'. That fairly...

541 (Nov 2006)Survival of civilization and the paradox of war
The human future now appears to be what HG Wells envisaged in his Things to Come, with enormous catastrophe followed by the escape of a small...

540 (Nov 2006)A (world) citizens’ complaint
Below is a piece of useful information and model letter for any British world citizens who wish to protest at the war-making habits of their present...

539 (Oct 2006)Hypocrites united
The recent spectacle of a near-unanimous chorus of disapproval of North Korea gave one of the best examples of hypocrisy on a grand scale ever...

538 (Oct 2006)A guide to some World Citizen topics
Over 50 World Citizen Letters can be found on www.jrmundialist.org Each forms part of a collection of over 500 written during the past eight years...

537 (Oct 2006)Hidden delusions?
Human beings are, basically, primates; and it is observed that our nearest relatives, the chimpanzees, are alert to the changes in facial expression...

536 (Oct 2006)A 16th century world citizen
United World (Campaign for Democratic World Government News & Views) a lively periodical which is ably edited by Gary Shepherd in...

535 (Sep 2006)Questions of law and justice for British courts
The recently reported denunciation by the British Lord Chancellor of the US prison at Guantanamo Bay is welcome, but it leaves the minister and his...

534 (Sep 2006)The state they are in!
Chronic confusion exists in the minds of most people about the words 'state and nation'. The confusion predates the use of the mis-named term 'United...

533 (Sep 2006)Where your treasure is will your heart be also!
If you really, REALLY want to shift our world to a peaceful one, try changing spending patterns. First, move ALL spending on lethal weapons...

532 (Sep 2006)Peacekeeping units
What are British troops doing in Afghanistan? Or in Iraq, come to that. It is notorious that they were sent to Iraq in an illegal attack, after misleading...

531 (Sep 2006)Scholars and world citizenship
Just a few months over 60 years ago a prophet died in London. He was also a great writer and he enlisted the aid of historians to construct his 'Outline...

530 (Sep 2006)Taboo topics and democratic deficits
Several topics that are rarely heard in political discussion or are treated superficially relate to failings in democracy. They include the Indian caste...

529 (Aug 2006)'Only little people pay taxes'
This was the confident statement of a wealthy American woman who clearly knows the ropes (of pearls, no doubt) and is determined to hang on to...

528 (Aug 2006)World citizen viewpoints
Why is it feasible that an analysis of current events from the standpoint of a world citizen can have distinctive value and is in some important ways...

527 (Aug 2006)Can you write 'war criminal' in Hebrew?
Can you write 'war criminal' in Hebrew? Despite having one guilty prime minister in a coma and another who directed their latest outrages, the...

526 (Aug 2006)Who is to pay?
The estimate for the summer 2006 madness in Lebanon has been put at $7 billion and in Israel at a mere $1.4 billion. These are not precise figures...

525 (Aug 2006)A letter to Labour about torture
British world citizens can take a particular interest in the current antics of the government led by Ramsay McBlair, as he has been termed. Since he led...

524 (Aug 2006)Terrorists official and unofficial
The current military operations in Lebanon give the opportunity to compare and contrast the behaviour of two groups that are not only in armed...

523 (Jul 2006)Will our grandchildren die in war?
Watching dispossessed Lebanese families fleeing their homes in ruined villages and towns should remind us of how fragile is the line between...

522 (Jul 2006)The shredding of Lebanon
Watching yet another calculated bout of obscene violence in the Levant, one of the questions that ought to recur is: what persuades an ordinary young...

521 (Jul 2006)Other sovereign state flaws
Old-fashioned nation-state wars may be much less prevalent, but our world since the UN was set up to abolish war has had some three wars annually...

519 (Jul 2006)The immorality of the terrorist state
It is consoling for subjects of nation-states to look to the benefits that they respect, such as health-care and social services of many other kinds. But...

518 (Jul 2006)What Britain needs now
With the so-called 'war on terror' being peddled from Washington to Wyoming and Downing Street to Domingo, there are orgies of newsprint...

517 (Jul 2006)Sheepdogs or wolves
The current pressure on Iran by the Security Council has been directed by the United States in order to prevent the Iranian regime from developing...

516 (Jun 2006)"Talk white, man"
In the bad old days of empire, it was famously declared that if natives addressed one of the ruling elite in a language other than English, the retort...

515 (May 2006)God help them!
Since August 1945, when the destruction of two cities in the space of a few minutes proclaimed the peril in which the human race stood, the clamour...

514 (Apr 2006)Searchlight on Britain
The anti-Nazi group Searchlight is currently engaged on a full-scale campaign to protect British voters from the whiles of racists in the British...

513 (Apr 2006)How to become a world citizen
In one sense, the choice is made for us. Almost everyone born in the 20th and even more the 21st century is launched, willy-nilly into into the world...

512 (Mar 2006)Sex among the world citizens
The complex "super-problems" facing peoples of the world include over-population. So now few things could be more advantageous to the race...

511 (Mar 2006)Islam and the world community
To a world citizen, the Islamic idea of the “umma” or community of believers is impressive and attractive. If all the faithful can see themselves as equal in...

510 (Feb 2006)"When you can fake sincerity, you’ve got it..."
This American saying, attributed to Ronald Reagan, sums up the way many outsiders see the US political scene. Aware that the legislators almost...

509 (Feb 2006)The route to world peace
If we are seriously concerned to make our world safe from international violence and to abolish war we cannot continue to stock the globe...

508 (Jan 2006)The bottom line?
When it comes to language and the pros and cons of different choices personal and official, world citizens have a great deal at stake. Only if...

507 (Sep 2005)A new voting system for the House of Peers
It might be thought that the election to a former parliamentary chamber representing one country's aristocrats is hardly a subject for the attention...

506 (Dec 2005)Weasel words
Perhaps the most notable of all weasel words are those that have helped to sustain 50 years of the Cold War and its successors: "the nuclear...

503 (Nov 2005)Generosity and calculation
A Canadian friend has reproved me for appearing less than generous in my comments on Making Poverty History. That is not too surprising, for...

502 (Nov 2005)Disobeying international laws
Few things are more important for world citizens than to have international laws that forbid war and war crimes and protect peace and peace-making...

501 (Dec 2005)Make Poverty History!
This enlightened slogan has been current for some months, part of the campaign to forgive debts owed to the industrialized world by African...

500 (Jun 2005)"The Left was Never Right?"
Before war broke out in 1939, there was much controversy in Britain about the policy of appeasing Hitler and a confusion because pacifists could...

493 (Jan 2005)A reform for Eurospeak
As far as I recall, yesterday was my first time of buying the Wall Street Journal but a heading on the front page caught my eye. The column below...

492 (Dec 2004)Who wants democracy?
The idea that democracy would be a solution to the chief problems of the Middle East may be tempting to George Dubya, but it is a mirage...

485 (Oct 2004)Conflicts of law
While feudal lords dominated Europe, law was administered in a variety of ways. In England, for example, although the kings gained control of...

484 (Oct 2004)World community
In World Citizenship and Mundialism, which was published in 1991 at an exorbitant price, I discussed the concept of a world community - does...

480 (Sep 2004)Financial nightmare
An old friend takes me to task for my advocacy of a neutral language for use in the European Union. However, I can't see the point of having an...

478 (Sep 2004)Babel in Brussels
News last spring that Spain had requested the EU translation service to provide for three co-official Spanish languages needed to be taken...

292 (Dec 2002)Terror v Terror
The atrocities perpetrated by men prepared to blow themselves up are a form of martyrdom peculiarly difficult to counter. The outrage of those...

261 (Jul 2001)World citizens all
Of the thousands who gathered at Genoa to greet the G8 summiteers, all but a handful of thugs and anarchists were world citizens protesting at the...

251 (Jun 2001)World citizenship - rationale
To explain the basis of thinking why world citizenship is so important for the Trust, it is necessary to turn to the basic aims of political action. That, for...

233 (April 2001)The greatest democratic deficit
Recently after the death of a friend's daughter I attended the funeral which was held in the Quaker manner, in silence broken only by the words of...

182 (Oct 2000)Letter to an English world citizen
Dear Georgie. You said you were undoubtedly a world citizen and also English. That's no contradiction. Very few world citizens are brought up...

175 (Sep 2000)Unwitting world citizens
A recent book, No Logo, bids fair to become a bible of the protestors against globalization. Its author, Naomi Klein, a 30-year old Canadian...

73 (Aug 1999)Littlehampton - world centre
In one sense many of us think of ourselves as the centre of the world, but it had not previously occurred to me that the small town we live in might...

47 (Jun 1999)The wrong world government
Those opponents of world government who dismiss the idea as something impractical and unwanted even if it were possible, need to examine more...

22 (Jan 1999)"This blessed plot"
In an important and absorbing book with this title, the journalist Hugo Young has written a history of the British attitudes to Europe and relations with...

21 (Jan 1999)Terrorism
Terrorism: a way of achieving political ends by means of widespread fear and coercion. Not a new device, but the age-old method employed by...

20 (Jan 1999)No world army!
It is not common for world federalists to find much to disagree about in discussing the greater issues of war and peace. They are usually too...

18 (Dec 1998)English world citizens
From the centuries, the English have many sins to expiate, from their conquest and expulsion of the native Britons to the establishment of the...

6 (Oct 1998)Reform of the international monetary system
That was the theme of a London financial column in the Guardian newspaper at the end of September. The editor thought it offered two ...

5 (Oct 1998)The snake-oil salesmen
In London near the end of September, Will Hutton, editor of the OBSERVER, commented upon the latest financial calamity to hit...

4 (Oct 1998)Amnesty or permanent peace?
A friend recently wrote to me, explaining how his experience of viewing news-reels of the liberation of Belsen concentration camp in 1945 had...

3 (Sep 1998)There's many a slip...
When the NGO activists were gathered in Rome this July, brought together by the world federalists into a coalition that had been preparing the ground...

2 (Sep 1998)The young coalition
In Italy during July this year a large group of young and keen men and women from dozens of countries we are together working to assist in...

1 (Sep 1998)Trident and the protestors
September 1998 could prove to be a crucial year for the defenders of nuclear weapons in this country. They are already under serious political...