Mark Carney, a shining light in a world of strife and utter disorder
The State visit of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Ireland and his ancestral home in Aughagower, Westport, over the weekend was highly significant in many respects.
His arrival came at a time of growing international realisation of the urgent need for change in the world order due to the traditional powers of the United States of America and Russia, among others, consistently dirtying their bibs in so many respects, not to mention the shameful international failings in respect of dealing with the horrors perpetrated by the Israeli regime under Benjamin Netanyahu.
Into this abyss has emerged Mr. Carney, a courageous political leader who is calling for middle powers, such as his own, to work together to counter the rise of hard power and the great power rivalry for the purpose of building a more cooperative, resilient world.
He first came to international prominence by his strong resistance to suggestions by the pompous and arrogant US president, Donald Trump, that he wished to make Canada ‘the 51th state of America’.
In a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last January, Carney stated: “Great powers have begun using economic integration as weapons, tariffs as leverage, financial infrastructure as coercion and supply chains as vulnerabilities to be exploited.
“You cannot live within the lie of mutual benefit through integration, when integration becomes the source of your subordination.”
This is the new world, sadly, and right-thinking people must support people like Mark Carney and Pope Leo in standing up against it.
And the eyes of the world will be looking towards Ireland during its leadership of the EU Presidency to see how it is ‘standing up’ to this ‘subordination’.
The Occupied Territories Bill was one step in the right direction, although its decision to narrow its compass by excluding services was very disappointing.
In a not unrelated matter, Judge Rosario Salvatore Aitala, First Vice President of the International Criminal Court, addressed the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade on June 9 to discuss sanctions taken against his organisation.
The International Criminal Court is currently facing sweeping coercive measures which are meant to silence it, including arrest warrants against elected officials, judges and prosecutors, criminal convictions, financial sanctions and other attempts towards undermining its independence and impartiality.
The Italian lawyer referenced “probably the saddest situation we have faced in 80 years” – namely “the barbarism of violence asserting itself forcefully as the primary measure of interpersonal relations, as a primitive law of international relations and as the main instrument for resolving economic and political disputes.”
It’s some statement, although it probably does not come as a surprise to readers.
But, putting it into further context, he elaborated: “What has changed is that certain political actors are being shown not to believe in the rules of civilisation that they gave themselves. I was born in 1967.
"My parents' generation delivered to my generation a better world than the one in which they lived.
“Regrettably, we are set to deliver to our children, for the first time in a century, a world which will be worse than the one we have been given.”
That is, to say the least, a shocking testament of where the world stands today.