It is optimism time!
Merry Christmas and Happy new year!
Being totally immersed in the Mahabharata times, I found it hard to blog about anything that will bring a cheer!
Scanned papers and my mail and luckily found something to cheer about.
The common man's voice: Abhay K, Dec 14, 2011, 12.00AM IST --TOICreation of a global parliamentary assembly at the UN would be in India's interest.
A second chamber at the UN - directly elected by the people across the world as a new subsidiary organ of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) - can make the world's citizens stakeholders in the UN system and global governance. In the UNGA, India has just one seat and so do, for instance, Samoa and Tuvalu, both of which have a population of just a few thousands...This major lacuna in the present Westphalian world order could be overcome by creating a directly elected United Nations Parliamentary Assembly (UNPA).
In the beginning, members of the UNPA could be elected by the parliaments of the 193 UN member states... But at a later stage, its members should be directly elected by the world's citizens. The UNPA will probably have about 800 elected members, distributed on the basis of degressive proportionality with each member state having at least two seats.
India, being the second largest country in the world in terms of population size (and soon to be the largest), should have the second largest number of seats in a UNPA. Indian representatives in the UNPA would be a formidable force and could become a source of great influence for India in shaping global affairs. This would complement India's global influence as a permanent member of the UN Security Council (whenever India becomes a permanent member).
India itself is a laboratory for democracy on a large scale and thus can offer its extensive experience in building a workable UNPA.
If you are worried about foisting Indian parliamentarians onto the world stage, looking at the antics of our fathers of the Nation, we are right to be worried! Hope is round the corner. Here is a Fw. I saw recently in my mail box.
forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on their address list;
in turn ask each of them to do likewise.
In three days, most computer literate people in India will have this message. This is one idea that really should be passed around.
_*Reform Act of 2011*_
1. No Tenure / No Pension.
Parliamentarians collect a salary while in office but should not receive any pay when they're out of office.
2. Parliamentarians should purchase their own retirement plans, just as all Indians do.
3. Parliamentarians should no longer vote themselves a pay raise. Their pay should be linked to the CPI or 3%, whichever is lower.
4. Parliamentarians should lose their current health care system and participate in the same health care system as the Indian people.
5. Parliamentarians should equally abide by all laws they impose on the Indian people.
6. All contracts with past and present Parliamentarians should be void effective 1/1/12. The Indian people did not make this contract with them. Parliamentarians made all these contracts for themselves.
Serving in Parliament is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.
If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in India) to receive the message. Don't you think it's time?
THIS IS HOW YOU FIX Parliamentarians !
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