In My Opinion
On the Opening Plenary

Are you ready for the new world order?

Peace will reign throughout the planet. Assurance of our safety from other nations will rest on the belief that we are all good people with good intentions.  Weapons of mass destruction will be obsolete.  One percent of our world's gross product will be used to abolish poverty in every country. No longer will we suffer the mind bending inequalities that pervade much of the world today. And finally, industry will adhere to all guidelines and regulations to reduce toxic poisoning of ourselves and the environment.

Sure, it's a long shot, but at the State of the World Forum, these ideas are being thrown around.

This long term goal of global serenity is on the minds of everyone at the forum, but not everyone is at the forum.  Noticeably, leaders of countries embroiled in civil wars or border disputes, leaders who need to be here, are not.

How can we have world peace if all the world's leaders are not involved in the dialogue?  The voices that need to be heard have once again gone unheard.

Another missing element at this year's forum is youth. Almost every person who spoke at Thursday morning's plenary session was over forty years old.  Where are the children?  Why weren't the youth, the future of our planet, a necessary ingredient in establishing a peaceful, healthy world, not invited?

Propagation of the generation gap is quite evident. There is a Youth Summit at the forum, but they have their own agenda, and the forum has its agenda, and never the two shall meet?  Well, youth, your parents have dug themselves one huge hole, and are in the process of constructing a ladder to get themselves out.

The missing elements were surpassed by the forum's overriding message:   to change the mind set of the masses concerning global security.

According to Oscar Arias Sanchez, former president of Costa Rica and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, "Since the end of the Cold War in 1990, there have been $115 billion worth of arms transfers to developing nations, for an average of nearly $23 billion per year.  Over 90 percent of these transfers came from developed nations, and the United States alone accounts for over 45 percent.

Arias states, "It is hypocritical for many developed nations to talk of spreading democracy while providing the enemies of democracy with the means of repression."

What needs to be changed is the belief that nuclear weapons offer security to countries that possess them.

"Nuclear war can never be won, and must never be fought," stated Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, at the forum's opening session.

By no means is this forum going to solve the world's problems, but at least it's a start.  Many of the leaders here have had a major impact on nuclear policy, and know the devastating consequences a nuclear holocaust will have on our planet and its people.

The job now is to keep these nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists and third world countries, and eradicate existing supplies.   Security is not in who has the most weapons to blow each other up, rather it is in knowing your neighbors will be there to support you and work with you in times of dissent.

Mere mortals should not control nuclear weapons.

--Craig Schmalz
25 year old Student, San Francisco State
cschmalz@pacbell.net