Bob Marley ...

So … here’s a link pointed out by my friend about a speech to the UN, by H.I.M. Haile Selassie I, that Bob Marley based his song “War” on. I’m just going to post some of the more important parts here:

Today, I stand before the world organization which has succeeded to the mantle discarded by its discredited predecessor … In 1936, I declared that it was not the Covenant of the League that was at stake, but international morality … The Charter of the United Nations expresses the noblest aspirations of man … But these, too, as were the phrases of the Covenant, are only words … The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms and rights require courage and eternal vigilance … But each one of us here knows that what has been accomplished is not enough … what the united Nations has achieved still falls regrettably short of our goal of an international community of nations … this is the ultimatum presented to us: secure the conditions whereby men will entrust their security to a larger entity, or risk annihilation … There is no single magic formula … Peace is a day-to-day problem … Peace is not an "is", it is a "becoming" … I would mention briefly today two particular issues, which are of deep concern to all men: disarmament and the establishment of true equality among men … Disarmament is vital today, quite simply, because of the immense destructive capacity of which men dispose … The goal of the equality of man which we seek is the antithesis of the exploitation of one people by another … this evil is to be shunned where it does not exist and crushed where it does … This very struggle is a struggle to establish peace, and until victory is assured … That until the philosophy which holds one race superior and another inferior is finally and permanently discredited and abandoned: That until there are no longer first-class and second class citizens of any nation; That until the color of a man's skin is of no more significance than the color of his eyes; That until the basic human rights are equally guaranteed to all without regard to race; That until that day, the dream of lasting peace and world citizenship and the rule of international morality will remain but a fleeting illusion, to be pursued but never attained … Until bigotry and prejudice and malicious and inhuman self-interest have been replaced by understanding and tolerance and good-wil … The basis of racial discrimination and colonialism has been economic, and it is with economic weapons that these evils have been and can be overcome … Here, then, is the opportunity presented to us. We must act while we can, while the occasion exists to exert those legitimate pressures available to us, lest time run out and resort be had to less happy means. Does this Organization today possess the authority and the will to act? … The possibilities which exist in the United Nations to provide the medium whereby the hungry may be fed, the naked clothed, the ignorant instructed, must be seized on and exploited for the flower of peace is not sustained by poverty and want …Unless the rights of the least of men are as assiduously protected as those of the greatest, the seeds of confidence will fall on barren soil … We all wish to live …

posted by Lazarus, 9:47 AM