{"id":1079,"date":"2025-10-02T04:02:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/the-thing-that-feeds-the-other-ills\/"},"modified":"2025-10-02T04:02:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T04:02:13","slug":"the-thing-that-feeds-the-other-ills","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/blogs\/future-calling-blog\/the-thing-that-feeds-the-other-ills\/","title":{"rendered":"The Thing That Feeds The Other Ills"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"content column wide left normal content view\" id=\"content\">\n<div class=\"rounded-corner\"><\/div>\n<article class=\"fader\">\n<div class=\"overlay\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"image\">\n\t<\/div>\n<header class=\"contents\">\n<h1>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tThe thing that feeds the other ills<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h1>\n<div class=\"addthis\">\n\t\t<!-- AddThis Button BEGIN --><\/p>\n<div class=\"addthis_toolbox addthis_default_style\" addthis:title=\"The thing that feeds the other ills\t\">\n<div class=\"notification\">\n<form method=\"post\" action=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\" style=\"display: inline;\">\n\t<button class=\"follow\" type=\"submit\" name=\"ActionAddToNotification\" title=\"Follow this blog\" id=\"author\"><\/button><br \/>\n\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"ContentNodeID\" value=\"8195\"\/><br \/>\n\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"UserRedirectURI\" value=\"\/Blogs\/Future-Calling-blog\"\/><br \/>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t<a class=\"addthis_button_facebook_like\" fb:like:layout=\"button_count\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t\t<a class=\"addthis_button_tweet\" tw:via=\"thebrokeronline\"><\/a><br \/>\n\t\t<a class=\"addthis_counter addthis_pill_style\"><\/a>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<p>\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n\t\t<!-- AddThis Button END -->\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<h3>\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/authors\/annandale-rob\/\">Rob  Annandale<\/a>\t\t|<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong>26 December 2025<\/strong><br \/>\n\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"body contents\">\n<aside class=\"textblock\">\n<article>\n<h1>About the author<\/h1>\n<div class=\"tleft\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/var\/broker\/storage\/images\/authors\/annandale-rob\/170880-1-eng-gb\/annandale-rob_author.jpg\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"tright\">\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/authors\/annandale-rob\/\">Rob <br class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\"\/>Annandale<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRob Annandale is a Vancouver-based journalist whose writings on Haiti and West Africa have appear&#8230;\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/authors\/annandale-rob\/\">full profile<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<br class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/article>\n<\/aside>\n<p>\t<!-- body --><\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">We live, it seems, in a post-consensus world. Or at any rate, meaningful agreements appear to be beyond reach in the current global context. The Busan&nbsp;and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cop17-cmp7durban.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Durban<\/a> summits have come and gone and can now take their places among the many other conferences that have promised so much and delivered relatively little. Next stop, Rio de Janeiro.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">When was the last time international negotiations produced an accord that was ambitious, legally binding and inclusive all at once? Instead, we tend to get the lowest common denominator on climate change, vague and unenforceable pledges on poverty eradication or the exclusion of key players on arms control. While it is important not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good in such complex negotiations, international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) run the risk of legitimizing a process that holds little prospect of delivering the significant changes they seek. If these groups want different outcomes over the long term, they must address the structural blockage common to all these disappointments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">In his new book, <i>Republic, Lost<\/i>,&nbsp;Harvard law professor Lawrence Lessig stresses the importance of getting at \u201cthe root, the thing that feeds the other ills, and the thing that we must kill first.\u201d Although he is referring to the corrupting influence of money in American politics, that \u201cthing\u201d in the context of tackling hunger or global warming is surely the artificial separation of the world\u2019s people into 193 self-interested political parcels.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">The result is what former UN special representative for business and human rights <a href=\"http:\/\/www.globalpolicyjournal.com\/audio\/gp-interview-john-ruggie\" target=\"_blank\">John Ruggie<\/a> calls \u201cgovernance gaps&quot;,&nbsp;a term he uses to describe \u201cfragmented and decentralized\u201d political systems struggling to keep up with the integration of the economy, environment and other networks: \u201cHow to bridge those governance gaps, in my view, is probably the most significant challenge with regard to global policy for a generation or so going forward.\u201d In other words, global challenges \u2013 or \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.un.org\/events\/youth98\/pressrel\/sgyouth.htm\" target=\"_blank\">problems without passports<\/a>\u201d&nbsp;as Kofi Annan called them \u2013 require global solutions that a system based on competing states is not providing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">As long as states represent the highest form of political authority, it will be impossible to channel human self-interest toward common solutions. What we need is a global democratic structure with accountability mechanisms and incentives\/rewards that do not rely on the current nation-state system. Such a development would not necessarily mean the end of national governments but more likely, the creation of an additional body with global loyalties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">To that end, the UN is not the solution. The five Security Council vetoes, the membership of undemocratic regimes and the equal weight in the General Assembly of India\u2019s 1.1 billion people and Andorra\u2019s 80,000 might be the organization\u2019s most glaring democratic shortcomings. But any club of nations must inevitably fall prey to governments that prioritize the interests of their own populations. A reformed UN could perhaps be the venue for discussions on establishing a new body that would represent the world\u2019s people on a one person, one vote basis. But just as development industry workers are fond of saying they aim to put themselves out of work, the same should go for the UN.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">If INGOs want to see real action on their traditional international issues, they must work towards a new form of governance that depends for legitimacy to a considerable extent on those they seek to help. And since the task will be a difficult one, they must do what NGOs are forever calling on governments to do: work together.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Of course, INGOs are not about to turn away from their fields of expertise to devote themselves fulltime to pushing for global democracy. But they are uniquely placed to challenge assumptions that allow people to protest against America\u2019s one percent without considering that they could be members of the global one percent. To think that it is less wrong to have certain tightly guarded privileges for being born European than it is for being born heterosexual or male. Or to believe that democracy at the national level is worth dying for, but democracy at the global level is not even worth asking for. Imagine the potential impact on public discourse if a substantial number of INGOs formed a pact to devote, say, 10 percent of their time and resources to such a campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">\n\t\tThere are obvious concerns about centralization of power, protection of minority rights and integration of voters from non-democratic countries that would need addressing. But recognition of these challenges should serve as the starting point to developing necessary checks and balances, rather than justification for maintaining a status quo that is so unfair to so many. When it comes to addressing world poverty, climate change, financial regulation, disarmament, etc.,<b> <\/b>global democracy may be an insufficient condition, but it is a necessary one. The sooner we stop trying to fix problems with the wrong tools, the better for everyone.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p class=\"credit\">Photo credit main picture: Baigal<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<!-- body -->\n\t<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section class=\"commentform content column wide left\">\n<div class=\"topright\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"bottomleft\"><\/div>\n<h1>Comments<\/h1>\n<div class=\"form\">\n\t<a id=\"formstart\"><\/a><\/p>\n<form enctype=\"multipart\/form-data\" method=\"post\" action=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\">\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Your comment will not be automatically posted but first reviewed by the editor. If the editor has questions with respect to the content of your comment, you will be contacted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"input-row\">\n\t\t\t\t<label for=\"reaction-name\">Name:<\/label><\/p>\n<div class=\"input\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<input id=\"reaction-name\" class=\"halfbox\" type=\"text\" name=\"Name\" value=\"\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"input-row\">\n\t\t\t\t<label for=\"reaction-subject\">Subject:<\/label><\/p>\n<div class=\"input\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<input id=\"reaction-subject\" class=\"halfbox\" type=\"text\" maxlength=\"40\" name=\"Subject\" value=\"\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"input-row\">\n\t\t\t\t<label for=\"reaction-comment\">Message:<\/label><\/p>\n<div class=\"input\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<textarea id=\"reaction-comment\" class=\"halfbox\" name=\"Comment\"><\/textarea>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"submit-row\">\n\t\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n\t\t\t\tvar RecaptchaTheme='white';\n\t\t\t\tvar RecaptchaLang='';\n\t\t\t\tvar RecaptchaOptions = {\n\t\t\t\ttheme: RecaptchaTheme,\n\t\t\t\tlang: RecaptchaLang\n\t\t\t\t};\n\t\t\t\t<\/script><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/files\/challenge-k-6lfb9quaaaaaaepvwx5fiki25xfnxbh85tkko1-d.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n\t<noscript><br \/>\n  \t\t<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thebrokeronline.eu\/noscript_k-6lfb9quaaaaaaepvwx5fiki25xfnxbh85tkko1-d_ext_iframe\/\" height=\"300\" width=\"500\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><br class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\"\/><br \/>\n  \t\t<textarea name=\"recaptcha_challenge_field\" rows=\"3\" cols=\"40\"><\/textarea><br \/>\n  \t\t<input type=\"hidden\" name=\"recaptcha_response_field\" value=\"manual_challenge\"\/><br \/>\n\t<\/noscript>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"submit-row\">\n\t\t\t\t<button class=\"grey\" type=\"submit\"><span class=\"yunu3cvqabft7vifv\">Submit<\/span><\/button>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" value=\"8276\" name=\"NodeID\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<input type=\"hidden\" value=\"\/Blogs\/Future-Calling-blog\/The-thing-that-feeds-the-other-ills\" name=\"RedirectURL\"\/><br \/>\n\t<\/form>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<div class=\"clear\"><\/div>\n","protected":false,"raw":""},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The thing that feeds the other ills Rob Annandale [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template_4.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1079","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The thing that feeds the other ills \/ Future Calling blog \/ Blogs - The Broker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We live, it seems, in a post-consensus world. 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