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Supporting UNPA campaign

There's a story about an avalanche expert who was teaching avalanche prediction to a class in the mountains

There's a story about an avalanche expert who was teaching avalanche prediction to a class in the mountains. They dug a snow pit in the top lip of a bowl that was prone to slide. The expert got into the pit while the students formed a semi-circle around him to hear his lecture. He was just pointing to a weak layer in the snow and predicting that this would be where the snowpack would fail when, with a roar, the mountainside fell away. When the snowflakes settled one side of the snow pit was gone, the expert was standing with his toes overhanging an abyss, and the snowpack had fractured precisely where he had said it would. The students reportedly were impressed.

The moral of the story (besides don't become complacent in your expertise) is that big changes in the world are often sudden and dramatic, but are actually the result of many smaller hidden changes that we might not be aware of.

A case in point is the recent resolution by the European Parliament that calls for the creation of a Parliamentary Assembly at the United Nations.

This is an idea that has been around for a long time but it's hard not to think that perhaps its time is finally arriving.

The so-called Arab Spring has shown that people everywhere aspire to freedom and democracy - and are willing to lay down their lives to attain them.

The UN resolution calling on military intervention to protect the people of Libya from their own government is just one example of how people everywhere expect the UN to be more than just a debating society.

The world faces a host of global problems - problems that only a democratic and effective United Nations can deal with adequately.

A UN Parliamentary Assembly would initially be made up of members of parliament and have an advisory capacity to the General Assembly. Representation would more or less be based on population. Proponents predict that it would fairly quickly evolve to having its members directly elected and have real power to make decisions.

The European Parliament started in much the same way and now has developed into a governing body that is both effective and responsible.

To learn more about the UNPA and, if so interested, add your name to a global campaign for its creation, go to www.unpacampaign.org on the Internet.