If I ruled the World # 16

Dear Friends: "Let's get things back into perspective here!:

One of the biggest problems we face today are the many countries who were created artificially by colonial powers and / or hegemony by a central power. This has led to a virtual cornucopia of ethnic, indigenous, familial, cultural, kindred and for want of a better word, tribal populations that don't belong (Or shouldn't belong)  in a specific group or region.

Let's start with a list of the most noteworthy and egregious examples we see today:

- The Basques and the Castilians in France and Spain.

- The Bretons, Catalonians and Corsicans in France.

- The Celts in Britain and even the Londoners in England.

- The French in Canada

- The Bavarians and East Friesens (Me)  of Germany. 

- The Sardinians and Sicilians of Italy

- The displaced Bulgarians, Macedonians, Hungarians, Serbs and Bosnians in the Baltics.

- The Hungarians, Crimeans and Ukrainians in Russia.

Plus you have places like the Canary Islands, Gibraltar and the Caribbean Islands and a whole list of other regions that come to mind but are too numerous to mention here! (You will notice that these examples are mostly white-European areas because that's where I'm from, but the same holds true for regions of Africa, Asia, South America and Oceania.)

SO: We are in desperate need of  many more autonomous regions where a certain cultural or religious group can have more say in their affairs and how they are governed. (The Sunni's, the Shia and the Kurds of the Middle-East, or the Serbs and Bosnians in the Balkans are prime examples of this.)

All this might call for a re-alignment of the Nation-States we have today ....., or at least a growing region of autonomous areas where the local or indigenous population can feel they have more of a say in their governance and culture!

We can then divide the world into three distinct area of interest:

1. Increase the power and scope of the United Nations for International Relations.

2. Re-distribute national borders where possible to make countries more accountable and sensitive to the needs of their particular populations.

3. Allow a greater degree of autonomy by States and Provinces within a Country by decreasing the lines of authority and areas of responsibility that a Nation-State holds over local populations. (E.g. Tax Collection, Defense and International Relations. (Everything else like health care, education law and civic responsibility would be more of a local jurisdiction!)

SO: The long and short of it is that you move some of the responsibilities of a Nation State up to to the International level and some of the power down to a local, or civic level!


THIS WOULD INVOLVE MEMBER STATES GIVING UP SOME OF THEIR SOVEREIGNTY AND CONTROL OF CERTAIN GROUPS, BUT WOULD MAKE THE WHOLE PLANET A MORE PEACEFUL AND HARMONIOUS PLACE TO LIVE.