Extraordinary omens of a new world order
AS IF the driving forces of global capitalism were not enough to throw emerging Third World economies into a tailspin and seriously shake up most of the certainties of some industrialised states, the moral of Kosovo is one that will no doubt give many world leaders pause. It is the assertion that sovereignty and territorial integrity are no longer sacrosanct and that the perceived abuse of the human rights of a people would be enough cause for state intervention by a military power. And in the thinking of those who supported the bombardment of Yugoslavia by NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) over the last three months, such intervention is not only morally justifiable, but is the bedrock upon which the new world order for the coming millennium will be built. The idea that a military power could proceed, uninvited, into a sovereign country and put perceived wrongs to right, and even deem a leader a war criminal, as have happened in Serbia, is a rather terrifying notion. The ongoing legal battle in England over the misdeeds of former Chilean leader General Augusto Pinochet sends the sobering message that assumptions of immunity from criminal or civil actions by former statesmen are no longer viable, and that certain world leaders with dubious records will be very careful in their wanderings henceforth. However, it is the notion of a new world order that we wish to discuss here today. Since the late 1980s when the Berlin Wall was broken down, thereby ending the Cold War which had seen the capitalist west and the communist east engaged in a lockstep arms race, and which had more or less divided the world into two polar camps, there has been a yawning vacuum for a universal guiding philosophy. After the Gulf War in 1991, American President George Bush announced the commencement of a new world order. Unfortunately, before the tenets of that new world order could be fully understood or appreciated, a series of negative events unfolded. They included eruptions of ancient hatreds in the Balkans, the genocide of the Tutsis and moderate Hutus in Rwanda, the conflict in Chechnya in the former Soviet Union, and a number of other tribal strifes. The year 1994 witnessed some positive developments such as the dismantling of apartheid and the accession to the presidency of South Africa by Nelson Mandela; the Arab-Israeli peace deal; the triumphal return of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to Haiti; and the formation of a tentative peace in Northern Ireland. The very next year, United Nations Secretary General, Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali called on world leaders to help bridge the gap between rich and poor nations. He warned that it was their imperious duty to reflect on a new project of collective life in order to give men and women across the world reasons for hope. Earlier in the decade, Guyana's President, Dr Cheddi Jagan, addressing the Economic Committee of the European Parliament, promoted his idea of a New Global Human Order that would usher in a genuine partnership between governments of the north and the south, a democratic culture, and the application of science and technology for increased production and productivity. And less than a year ago, the poet President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel, warned of the threat of authoritarianism created by the vacuum of communism's collapse. When asked whether he thought communism would ever be revived in eastern Europe, Havel said: "I think it is impossible. The development in irreversible. But there are lots of dangers. It is a big challenge for all politicians to build a new world order." Over the last decade, our civilisation has been desperately seeking a new world ethic, one that would throw up solutions for all the vexing ills of the age such as poverty, disease, racial bigotry and ethnic intolerance, civil strife and wars, unemployment, downsizing, and social marginalisation. We are convinced that any ethic or philosophy which would seriously address and eradicate even half of these ills would be readily embraced by all humanity. 
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