Murder runs the Globe. [Rap]

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MURDER RUNS THE GLOBE
By Akala
Album: Knowledge is Power Vol. 2

Every shot that thunders through the nighttime, don't you wonder
What potential was extinguished to keep the flames burning under?
Through the underworld and overworld, principles are so the same
Though we pretend they're not, as if they do not control cocaine
But you'll find it's connected
Every kid in the hood that's living with a death wish
Is the same as the King who kills for the bling
But he is just much more reckless
It's the King that I'm talking about
Though he is born with a silver spoon in his mouth
He still gonna clap for the slightest of chat
At any world leader that can't back it
If he is sitting on the boxes
They are just oil or mineral deposits
Food he is moving, fucking with our profit
So he better stop it
They say money makes the world go round, but it don't
That is just not true
If you ain't got guns to protect that money
I'lI regret that, sonny, it is more fool you
Only murder further agendas that money couldn't force
Eliminate the foes who propose to suppose a different course,
Of course a little torture is usually a big supporter
Though there's nothing quite like killing
Good riddance to non-supporters
We demonise the man on the corner, paint him as a thug
We worship murder so much, it's just that he ain't killed enough
You wanna commit murder but not end up in cuffs?
You gotta make it to the Premier League - a thousand murders plus.

Whoever said that money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe.

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe.

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe.

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe.

Every knife that puncture lungs of sons, don't make you wonder Mums?
If he was born to billionaires backed by a hundred guns
Would he be living still, drinking, sleeping, eating meals?
Instead of dead where it don't count
We expect you to be killed
Because living as a pauper is a fate that is tainted
Acquainted with torture
We ain't debating the rape of the daughter
If she was raised in particular borders
Place that fate made particular slaughters
No fate, just particular orders
It's the way of the world, no accident, in fact it's immaculate
You got a big gun, start clapping it
'Cause the language of power devour quick
Any silly biddy, little pacifist or activist or challenges
Brown or black skin savages who inhabiting land with minerals in it
Who think for a minute that the rhetoric we spoke -
Hope. Was not meant to be a joke?
Don't dream compassion will happen, it won't
Just go straight for the throat
Because any nation or races that prove themselves incapable
Of matching modern murder machines make themselves enslavable
It is murder not money we desire insatiable
The thrilling of the killing, it's million dollars sensational, YES!
What you can't do with a bribe
Can be achieved in a breeze with a gun and a knife
Because only murder further agendas that money couldn't grind
Nothing like a couple dead kids to change a parents' mind!

Whoever said that money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe.

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe.

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe.

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They didn't know
Murder runs the globe
Murder runs the globe.

Let's get a little clarity
You ain't got the capacity to internationally
Have a say in the ways things happening
You expect to collect more battering?
Your arsenal, it ain't got no nukes
Armies equipped with too few troops
We're laughing at you when you call truce
It's part of the ritual to shoot-shoot-shoot
You got no background in colonisation
Or public resource privatisation
You can't bang with the big boys, face it
But you still wanna play like Satan
You got no death squads to call your own
Or a pilot to fly your drones
Much less bulldozers for their homes
Talk gangster and you want to name Al Capone?
He was an amateur, silly, little boys don't understand
Even he went jail for tax evasion
For missing a payment in the payment plan
To the man, one with invisible hand
And a hidden fist to enforce my plan
I am just because I can, more wicked than the Summer of Sam
Kick your shit and I kick mine fam
You bust your gun and I bomb your land
Only murder further agendas that money can't control
Nothing like a massacred village to get the problem solved!

Whoever said that money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They just didn't know
Murder runs the globe
M-m-murder runs the globe.

Who said money makes the world go 'round?
They didn't know
Murder runs the globe
Murder runs the globe.

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance! ..............................................................................................................................


A Note From The Gull

Thank you, Akala.    

If we are like-minded and you have been listening intently to this message, you will need now to take a few minutes and a few deep breaths. This rap is a punch in the gut, the artist's stark and nightmarish evaluation of the state of play in this world. Every time I've listened to this rap, without fail, it has left me chilled to the bone and dead silent. I am stilled because I cannot believe that that is all there is to it - and yet. On the one hand Cain's bloodstained forefinger stabs opens the Bible at Genesis 4:8 to reveal that even second generation humanity, not long expelled from Eden, had already bared its fangs and claws. On the other hand, to this day I still feel the palpable spirit of my grandfather who never once lifted his hand or his voice against me and whose love made my world go round.

Although he is not condoning murder, for 4 minutes and forty seconds, Akala takes us, willing or not, beyond the pale, beyond the reassuring long arm of Joseph Conrad's policeman on every corner, beyond the admonitions of every mystic, priest, peacemaker, messiah silenced by murder, and way behind the back of all of humanity's moral codes, built and fortified over centuries of us needing to protect ourselves from the worst of ourselves. And in that dark place he brings us face to face with a dystopian underbelly that many of us would prefer to ignore. For the homeland, though, it is a reality with which the newspapers are happy to accost us.

This rap gives the listener a great deal to think about and it is not pleasant. Worryingly, one may also realise that to the ears of some listeners contemplating involvement, or already actively involved in murderous activities, this rap could present itself as an anthem, a call to arms, a liberating justification. Knowing something about Akala's consciousness and mission, I understand that this is not his intention.

In my opinion, it is power that runs Caesar's globe. To acquire that power, you can either buy it or take it. Money is one way to buy that power and murder is one of the most effective ways to take power by force. I make a distinction when I say Caesar's globe because I do believe that among those whose spirituality establishes primary allegiance to God's world, there are those who are completely beyond the threats or seductions of worldly powers. They are the material of which martyrs are made.

Whether humans know instinctively or have to be taught that taking human life is wrong, is a question which I am not qualified to answer. My mind balks. As a Christian, I have been taught that we should not even dream of going down that road, should be horrified at the thought of the blood of another human being on our hands, no matter what justification can be used. Thou Shalt Not Kill has no escape clause for Christians. But Christians living in Caesar's world sometimes render to Caesar more than is sanctioned by the religion. This allows us to find justifications - some legal - for killing with our own hands or for condoning by active agreement or silence those who kill "on our behalf". I am thinking here about state-sanctioned murder, domestic and international wars, or the thousand and one deliberately engineered pollutions and privations which result eventually in the deaths of groups considered expendable at home and abroad.

Human Not Kill Human.

In the video clip below excerpted from the film Planet of the Apes, Caesar makes the decision to not save [to kill] Koba even though Koba's desperate appeal to Caesar's conscience, "Ape not kill ape." should have been irresistible. Caesar is able to make this decision by allowing a switch in perception that alienates or others the one to be liquidated. Although in principle he also subscribes to the rule that apes should not kill apes, his final assessment is that the ruthless Koba is not to be recognised as one of their kind. "You are NOT ape."


Ape Not Kill Ape | Planet of the Apes | Uploaded by James Mahon
We can identify a similar distancing in our own acceptance of violence against others. The rival gang member/leader of a nation who is a challenge to our life/turf/profits, is not a human being like us. Those citizens consuming the food/water/air that we have tainted to make our profits are just statistics, not human beings like us. The millions of human beings who have been and will be aborted are inconvenient things, not human beings like us. The persons about to be destroyed by the terrorists are leverage, not human beings. The murderer about to be hanged/electrocuted/poisoned/decapitated by the state is a monster beyond remedy, not a human being like us. Those civilians being killed by airstrikes are collateral damage, not human beings like us.

These things are never easy to contemplate and this is why Akala's rap is such a bitter pill to swallow. The unloveable Koba has a history. Circumstances shaped Koba into an enraged creature to be distrusted and feared and eventually to be regarded as a nonsalvageable liability. He was also hurt and if we take the time to uncover the experiences that bring us to the point of choosing murder, they are almost always miserable. Murder is not to be embraced because it comes from misery and it does not make anything better. The hurt from which many murderers spring is passed on like a virus to the survivors of their murderous actions. Thou Shalt Not Kill attempts to break the cycle before the murderer's/murderous pain is transmitted to continue the vicious cycle ad infinitum.

Dr. Gary Slutkin, the epidemiologist and originator of the Ceasefire Chicago program [2000] had been studying infectious diseases in Africa. The idea occurred to him that he should begin looking at violence, especially gang and drug related violence, as a transmittable disease.

"Like preventing a death from an infectious disease, preventing a death from homicide would not only save a life, but it would decrease the likelihood that more homicides would occur. In other words, it would stop “the infectious spread” of homicides.

"The Ceasefire Chicago project, now known as Cure Violence, represents a new approach to a problem that is typically attacked through tougher sentencing and more policing. Proponents of this epidemiological approach to social ills say that society is currently structured to “treat” or “quarantine” the problem of violence and homicide after it occurs by incarcerating criminals associated with violent crime and murders, such as gang members or drug offenders.

"But, as with outbreaks of infectious diseases, Dr. Slutkin says we can take preventative approaches by utilizing known disease models to identify the conditions under which violence spreads, preventing an outbreak of even more violence.

"The model is especially useful for gang violence, says Dr. Slutkin, who found that former gang members could act as “interrupters” who could diffuse conflicts ....... in order to keep one act of violence or homicide from begetting another...

"The study of disease has long taken into account how social factors, such as socioeconomic status and neighborhood crime put people at greater risk of disease, but the idea that homicide and other social problems like incarceration are the disease has only recently been used as a way to tackle these problems." Read more at the SOURCE

The findings also showed that factors other than gang or gun violence—which criminal justice analysts often blame—was initially at work in propelling the spread of homicides. The suspicion was that socioeconomic realities, like poverty or poor community infrastructure, may play a bigger role.

Although the programme claimed successes in reducing violence, funding has been withdrawn as of 2015.

Caesar runs the globe.

.....................................................................................................................................................
"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

Pope Francis’ Speech to United Nations [Text]

FULL TEXT OF POPE FRANCIS' SPEECH TO THE UNITED NATIONS
Friday 25th September, 2015

Mr President,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

"Thank you for your kind words. Once again, following a tradition by which I feel honored, the Secretary General of the United Nations has invited the Pope to address this distinguished assembly of nations. In my own name, and that of the entire Catholic community, I wish to express to you, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, my heartfelt gratitude.

"I greet the Heads of State and Heads of Government present, as well as the ambassadors, diplomats and political and technical officials accompanying them, the personnel of the United Nations engaged in this 70th Session of the General Assembly, the personnel of the various programs and agencies of the United Nations family, and all those who, in one way or another, take part in this meeting. Through you, I also greet the citizens of all the nations represented in this hall. I thank you, each and all, for your efforts in the service of mankind.

"This is the fifth time that a Pope has visited the United Nations. I follow in the footsteps of my predecessors Paul VI, in1965, John Paul II, in 1979 and 1995, and my most recent predecessor, now Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, in 2008. All of them expressed their great esteem for the Organization, which they considered the appropriate juridical and political response to this present moment of history, marked by our technical ability to overcome distances and frontiers and, apparently, to overcome all natural limits to the exercise of power. An essential response, inasmuch as technological power, in the hands of nationalistic or falsely universalist ideologies, is capable of perpetrating tremendous atrocities. I can only reiterate the appreciation expressed by my predecessors, in reaffirming the importance which the Catholic Church attaches to this Institution and the hope which she places in its activities.

"The United Nations is presently celebrating its 70th anniversary. The history of this organized community of states is one of important common achievements over a period of unusually fast-paced changes. Without claiming to be exhaustive, we can mention the codification and development of international law, the establishment of international norms regarding human rights, advances in humanitarian law, the resolution of numerous conflicts, operations of peace-keeping and reconciliation, and any number of other accomplishments in every area of international activity and endeavor. All these achievements are lights which help to dispel the darkness of the disorder caused by unrestrained ambitions and collective forms of selfishness. Certainly, many grave problems remain to be resolved, yet it is clear that, without all those interventions on the international level, mankind would not have been able to survive the unchecked use of its own possibilities. Every one of these political, juridical and technical advances is a path towards attaining the ideal of human fraternity and a means for its greater realization.

"For this reason I pay homage to all those men and women whose loyalty and self-sacrifice have benefitted humanity as a whole in these past seventy years. In particular, I would recall today those who gave their lives for peace and reconciliation among peoples, from Dag Hammarskjöld to the many United Nations officials at every level who have been killed in the course of humanitarian missions, and missions of peace and reconciliation.

"Beyond these achievements, the experience of the past 70 years has made it clear that reform and adaptation to the times is always necessary in the pursuit of the ultimate goal of granting all countries, without exception, a share in, and a genuine and equitable influence on, decision-making processes. The need for greater equity is especially true in the case of those bodies with effective executive capability, such as the Security Council, the Financial Agencies and the groups or mechanisms specifically created to deal with economic crises. This will help limit every kind of abuse or usury, especially where developing countries are concerned. The International Financial Agencies are should care for the sustainable development of countries and should ensure that they are not subjected to oppressive lending systems which, far from promoting progress, subject people to mechanisms which generate greater poverty, exclusion and dependence.

"The work of the United Nations, according to the principles set forth in the Preamble and the first Articles of its founding Charter, can be seen as the development and promotion of the rule of law, based on the realization that justice is an essential condition for achieving the ideal of universal fraternity. In this context, it is helpful to recall that the limitation of power is an idea implicit in the concept of law itself. To give to each his own, to cite the classic definition of justice, means that no human individual or group can consider itself absolute, permitted to bypass the dignity and the rights of other individuals or their social groupings.

"The effective distribution of power (political, economic, defense-related, technological, etc.) among a plurality of subjects, and the creation of a juridical system for regulating claims and interests, are one concrete way of limiting power. Yet today’s world presents us with many false rights and – at the same time – broad sectors which are vulnerable, victims of power badly exercised: for example, the natural environment and the vast ranks of the excluded. These sectors are closely interconnected and made increasingly fragile by dominant political and economic relationships.

"That is why their rights must be forcefully affirmed, by working to protect the environment and by putting an end to exclusion.

“First, it must be stated that a true “right of the environment” does exist, for two reasons. First, because we human beings are part of the environment. We live in communion with it, since the environment itself entails ethical limits which human activity must acknowledge and respect. Man, for all his remarkable gifts, which “are signs of a uniqueness which transcends the spheres of physics and biology” (Laudato Si’, 81), is at the same time a part of these spheres. He possesses a body shaped by physical, chemical and biological elements, and can only survive and develop if the ecological environment is favorable. Any harm done to the environment, therefore, is harm done to humanity.

"Second, because every creature, particularly a living creature, has an intrinsic value, in its existence, its life, its beauty and its interdependence with other creatures. We Christians, together with the other monotheistic religions, believe that the universe is the fruit of a loving decision by the Creator, who permits man respectfully to use creation for the good of his fellow men and for the glory of the Creator; he is not authorized to abuse it, much less to destroy it. In all religions, the environment is a fundamental good (cf. ibid.).

"The misuse and destruction of the environment are also accompanied by a relentless process of exclusion. In effect, a selfish and boundless thirst for power and material prosperity leads both to the misuse of available natural resources and to the exclusion of the weak and disadvantaged, either because they are differently abled (handicapped), or because they lack adequate information and technical expertise, or are incapable of decisive political action. Economic and social exclusion is a complete denial of human fraternity and a grave offense against human rights and the environment. The poorest are those who suffer most from such offenses, for three serious reasons: they are cast off by society, forced to live off what is discarded and suffer unjustly from the abuse of the environment. They are part of today’s widespread and quietly growing “culture of waste”.

"The dramatic reality this whole situation of exclusion and inequality, with its evident effects, has led me, in union with the entire Christian people and many others, to take stock of my grave responsibility in this regard and to speak out, together with all those who are seeking urgently-needed and effective solutions. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the World Summit, which opens today, is an important sign of hope. I am similarly confident that the Paris Conference on Climatic Change will secure fundamental and effective agreements.

“Solemn commitments, however, are not enough, even though they are a necessary step toward solutions. The classic definition of justice which I mentioned earlier contains as one of its essential elements a constant and perpetual will: Iustitia est constans et perpetua voluntas ius sum cuique tribuendi. Our world demands of all government leaders a will which is effective, practical and constant, concrete steps and immediate measures for preserving and improving the natural environment and thus putting an end as quickly as possible to the phenomenon of social and economic exclusion, with its baneful consequences: human trafficking, the marketing of human organs and tissues, the sexual exploitation of boys and girls, slave labor, including prostitution, the drug and weapons trade, terrorism and international organized crime. Such is the magnitude of these situations and their toll in innocent lives, that we must avoid every temptation to fall into a declarationist nominalism which would assuage our consciences. We need to ensure that our institutions are truly effective in the struggle against all these scourges.

"The number and complexity of the problems require that we possess technical instruments of verification. But this involves two risks. We can rest content with the bureaucratic exercise of drawing up long lists of good proposals – goals, objectives and statistical indicators – or we can think that a single theoretical and aprioristic solution will provide an answer to all the challenges. It must never be forgotten that political and economic activity is only effective when it is understood as a prudential activity, guided by a perennial concept of justice and constantly conscious of the fact that, above and beyond our plans and programs, we are dealing with real men and women who live, struggle and suffer, and are often forced to live in great poverty, deprived of all rights.

"To enable these real men and women to escape from extreme poverty, we must allow them to be dignified agents of their own destiny. Integral human development and the full exercise of human dignity cannot be imposed. They must be built up and allowed to unfold for each individual, for every family, in communion with others, and in a right relationship with all those areas in which human social life develops – friends, communities, towns and cities, schools, businesses and unions, provinces, nations, etc. This presupposes and requires the right to education – also for girls (excluded in certain places) – which is ensured first and foremost by respecting and reinforcing the primary right of the family to educate its children, as well as the right of churches and social groups to support and assist families in the education of their children. Education conceived in this way is the basis for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and for reclaiming the environment.

"At the same time, government leaders must do everything possible to ensure that all can have the minimum spiritual and material means needed to live in dignity and to create and support a family, which is the primary cell of any social development. In practical terms, this absolute minimum has three names: lodging, labor, and land; and one spiritual name: spiritual freedom, which includes religious freedom, the right to education and other civil rights.

"For all this, the simplest and best measure and indicator of the implementation of the new agenda for development will be effective, practical and immediate access, on the part of all, to essential material and spiritual goods: housing, dignified and properly remunerated employment, adequate food and drinking water; religious freedom and, more generally, spiritual freedom and education. These pillars of integral human development have a common foundation, which is the right to life and, more generally, what we could call the right to existence of human nature itself.

"The ecological crisis, and the large-scale destruction of biodiversity, can threaten the very existence of the human species. The baneful consequences of an irresponsible mismanagement of the global economy, guided only by ambition for wealth and power, must serve as a summons to a forthright reflection on man: “man is not only a freedom which he creates for himself. Man does not create himself. He is spirit and will, but also nature” (Benedict XVI, Address to the Bundestag, 22 September 2011, cited in Laudato Si’, 6). Creation is compromised “where we ourselves have the final word… The misuse of creation begins when we no longer recognize any instance above ourselves, when we see nothing else but ourselves” (ID. Address to the Clergy of the Diocese of Bolzano-Bressanone, 6 August 2008, cited ibid.). Consequently, the defense of the environment and the fight against exclusion demand that we recognize a moral law written into human nature itself, one which includes the natural difference between man and woman (cf. Laudato Si’, 155), and absolute respect for life in all its stages and dimensions (cf. ibid., 123, 136).

"Without the recognition of certain incontestable natural ethical limits and without the immediate implementation of those pillars of integral human development, the ideal of “saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war” (Charter of the United Nations, Preamble), and “promoting social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom” (ibid.), risks becoming an unattainable illusion, or, even worse, idle chatter which serves as a cover for all kinds of abuse and corruption, or for carrying out an ideological colonization by the imposition of anomalous models and lifestyles which are alien to people’s identity and, in the end, irresponsible.

"War is the negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment. If we want true integral human development for all, we must work tirelessly to avoid war between nations and between peoples.

"To this end, there is a need to ensure the uncontested rule of law and tireless recourse to negotiation, mediation and arbitration, as proposed by the Charter of the United Nations, which constitutes truly a fundamental juridical norm. The experience of these seventy years since the founding of the United Nations in general, and in particular the experience of these first fifteen years of the third millennium, reveal both the effectiveness of the full application of international norms and the ineffectiveness of their lack of enforcement.

"When the Charter of the United Nations is respected and applied with transparency and sincerity, and without ulterior motives, as an obligatory reference point of justice and not as a means of masking spurious intentions, peaceful results will be obtained. When, on the other hand, the norm is considered simply as an instrument to be used whenever it proves favorable, and to be avoided when it is not, a true Pandora’s box is opened, releasing uncontrollable forces which gravely harm defenseless populations, the cultural milieu and even the biological environment.

“The Preamble and the first Article of the Charter of the United Nations set forth the foundations of the international juridical framework: peace, the pacific solution of disputes and the development of friendly relations between the nations. Strongly opposed to such statements, and in practice denying them, is the constant tendency to the proliferation of arms, especially weapons of mass distraction, such as nuclear weapons. An ethics and a law based on the threat of mutual destruction – and possibly the destruction of all mankind – are self-contradictory and an affront to the entire framework of the United Nations, which would end up as “nations united by fear and distrust”. There is urgent need to work for a world free of nuclear weapons, in full application of the Non-Proliferation Treaty, in letter and spirit, with the goal of a complete prohibition of these weapons.

"The recent agreement reached on the nuclear question in a sensitive region of Asia and the Middle East is proof of the potential of political good will and of law, exercised with sincerity, patience and constancy. I express my hope that this agreement will be lasting and efficacious, and bring forth the desired fruits with the cooperation of all the parties involved.

"In this sense, hard evidence is not lacking of the negative effects of military and political interventions which are not coordinated between members of the international community. For this reason, while regretting to have to do so, I must renew my repeated appeals regarding to the painful situation of the entire Middle East, North Africa and other African countries, where Christians, together with other cultural or ethnic groups, and even members of the majority religion who have no desire to be caught up in hatred and folly, have been forced to witness the destruction of their places of worship, their cultural and religious heritage, their houses and property, and have faced the alternative either of fleeing or of paying for their adhesion to good and to peace by their own lives, or by enslavement.

"These realities should serve as a grave summons to an examination of conscience on the part of those charged with the conduct of international affairs. Not only in cases of religious or cultural persecution, but in every situation of conflict, as in Ukraine, Syria, Iraq, Libya, South Sudan and the Great Lakes region, real human beings take precedence over partisan interests, however legitimate the latter may be. In wars and conflicts there are individual persons, our brothers and sisters, men and women, young and old, boys and girls who weep, suffer and die. Human beings who are easily discarded when our only response is to draw up lists of problems, strategies and disagreements.

"As I wrote in my letter to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on 9 August 2014, “the most basic understanding of human dignity compels the international community, particularly through the norms and mechanisms of international law, to do all that it can to stop and to prevent further systematic violence against ethnic and religious minorities” and to protect innocent peoples.

"Along the same lines I would mention another kind of conflict which is not always so open, yet is silently killing millions of people. Another kind of war experienced by many of our societies as a result of the narcotics trade. A war which is taken for granted and poorly fought. Drug trafficking is by its very nature accompanied by trafficking in persons, money laundering, the arms trade, child exploitation and other forms of corruption. A corruption which has penetrated to different levels of social, political, military, artistic and religious life, and, in many cases, has given rise to a parallel structure which threatens the credibility of our institutions.

"I began this speech recalling the visits of my predecessors. I would hope that my words will be taken above all as a continuation of the final words of the address of Pope Paul VI; although spoken almost exactly fifty years ago, they remain ever timely. “The hour has come when a pause, a moment of recollection, reflection, even of prayer, is absolutely needed so that we may think back over our common origin, our history, our common destiny. The appeal to the moral conscience of man has never been as necessary as it is today… For the danger comes neither from progress nor from science; if these are used well, they can help to solve a great number of the serious problems besetting mankind (Address to the United Nations Organization, 4 October 1965). Among other things, human genius, well applied, will surely help to meet the grave challenges of ecological deterioration and of exclusion. As Paul VI said: “The real danger comes from man, who has at his disposal ever more powerful instruments that are as well fitted to bring about ruin as they are to achieve lofty conquests” (ibid.).

“The common home of all men and women must continue to rise on the foundations of a right understanding of universal fraternity and respect for the sacredness of every human life, of every man and every woman, the poor, the elderly, children, the infirm, the unborn, the unemployed, the abandoned, those considered disposable because they are only considered as part of a statistic. This common home of all men and women must also be built on the understanding of a certain sacredness of created nature.

"Such understanding and respect call for a higher degree of wisdom, one which accepts transcendence, rejects the creation of an all-powerful élite, and recognizes that the full meaning of individual and collective life is found in selfless service to others and in the sage and respectful use of creation for the common good. To repeat the words of Paul VI, “the edifice of modern civilization has to be built on spiritual principles, for they are the only ones capable not only of supporting it, but of shedding light on it” (ibid.).

"El Gaucho Martín Fierro, a classic of literature in my native land, says: “Brothers should stand by each other, because this is the first law; keep a true bond between you always, at every time – because if you fight among yourselves, you’ll be devoured by those outside”.

"The contemporary world, so apparently connected, is experiencing a growing and steady social fragmentation, which places at risk “the foundations of social life” and consequently leads to “battles over conflicting interests” (Laudato Si’, 229).

"The present time invites us to give priority to actions which generate new processes in society, so as to bear fruit in significant and positive historical events (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 223). We cannot permit ourselves to postpone “certain agendas” for the future. The future demands of us critical and global decisions in the face of worldwide conflicts which increase the number of the excluded and those in need.

"The praiseworthy international juridical framework of the United Nations Organization and of all its activities, like any other human endeavor, can be improved, yet it remains necessary; at the same time it can be the pledge of a secure and happy future for future generations. And so it will, if the representatives of the States can set aside partisan and ideological interests, and sincerely strive to serve the common good. I pray to Almighty God that this will be the case, and I assure you of my support and my prayers, and the support and prayers of all the faithful of the Catholic Church, that this Institution, all its member States, and each of its officials, will always render an effective service to mankind, a service respectful of diversity and capable of bringing out, for sake of the common good, the best in each people and in every individual.

"Upon all of you, and the peoples you represent, I invoke the blessing of the Most High, and all peace and prosperity. Thank you."

SOURCE

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A Note From The Gull

Thank you, Pope Francis.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare