Page 411 - 100 Reflections that Crafted Geneva International_V-Petrovsky_private special edition

Bringing the Concept to Life

• Respect for nature: We do not have the right to squander the riches
of our environment — they belong to our children and our children's
children.

• And finally, Shared responsibility: States must act together to
maintain international peace and security, in accordance with the UN
Charter.

It is in everyone's interest to take these six values set out by the Secretary-
General as guidelines and practical advice. As the world becomes more
interdependent, for the sake of stability and prosperity for us all, the earth's
riches and opportunities need to be shared more equally among its peoples.

As we stand, this goal is a long way off. Currently more than half the human
race has yet to make or receive a telephone call, let alone use a computer.
Nonetheless, new technology, which is at the heart of Globalization, has
the potential to provide solutions for addressing the world's inequalities. These
not only include faster economic growth and higher living standards which
should result from rapidly expanding markets but also the information
revolution. This should mean that even in the remotest parts of the world
people should be able to get access to education programmes; up-to-date
medical research and agricultural data. If in your future career you enter
the telecoms industry, medicine or agricultural research, you could find
yourself making a significant contribution to the quality of the lives of people
on the other side of the planet. It may be that you will be working for your
Government — but it is just as likely you will be working for a private
company. This is another significant change we are seeing - the increasing
partnerships between the public and private sector. Just recently, for
example, the Secretary-General announced a project in which Ericsson
telecommunications will supply mobile phones for staff working in
emergency situations.

As you can see, Globalization is a reality which means the lives you will live
will be profoundly different than those of your parents and grandparents.
Whether you spend your careers working in an office in Singapore, Nairobi or
Zurich you will have access to the same news, the same weather reports, even
the same products via the Internet. That may not seem such a strange notion to
you but for my generation, it is quite extraordinary. For most of my life
technology has consisted of type-writers, telephones and televisions. The word
"Satellite” described the way one planet circled another and surfing was
something one did with a board at the beach!

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