Relations in the world and the United Nations are so tense that they are simply crying out for something to cheer them up. Well, their elixirs, lo and behold, are packed in Belgrade, although it is not even managing to calm its own tensions.
The local leader dared to offer others what he could not achieve at home. So that Serbia, as it is today, deserves to become an oasis of dialogue for all those who cannot alleviate, let alone resolve, their mutual disputes anywhere else.
In addition, the UN should move one of its agencies here. Because that way they would be "more representative and better distributed", and it would also be "more profitable than in New York and Geneva".
The participants in the 80th annual session of the UN General Assembly, which is said to have included more than 130 heads of state and government, were probably confused, if not appalled, by such insinuations. How a country that is itself a global problem could offer a solution to global problems was left with a puzzle they had no will to solve.
After all, the bidder himself didn't count on them. The messages were timed to win over his fellow citizens. To present himself to them as a unifier of the world, so to speak, so that there would be no point in them continuing to perceive him as he is, as a provoker of harsh national divisions.
But it would make no sense to further elaborate on this approach, thereby overshadowing the main topics of the session. The dominant themes, alongside the expected preoccupation with the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, were climate breakdowns, drastic inequalities, the reach of artificial intelligence, and a reexamination of the role and even the fate of the United Nations.
In places, it seemed as if the world house itself was to blame for being messy, and not its members, including us. Donald Trump was particularly critical of it, criticizing it for being inefficient, ignoring the fact that it is made that way, above all, by the permanent members of the Security Council, including the USA, who inject the greatest doses of uncertainty into the, so-called, world order.
It has come to the point where crises are the main features of the age and have affected many things on whose beneficence we have long relied. The UN was seen as an organization in which world problems would be peacefully resolved, only to now turn out to be one of them. Democracy was also rightly perceived as the most successful and just order, only to now, due to the inconsistencies it has manifested, come under the onslaught of growing autocratic tendencies and stagger under the onslaught of the right.
The EU established itself as the largest prosperous and peace-making community of different states, which it still is today, but with stumbling caused, in particular, by its inability to navigate the new global power balance. Overly complacent, it found itself unprepared to play in the triangle of Russia (which threatens its security with the war in Ukraine), America (which imposes, along with increased tariffs, new defense spending) and China (which is encroaching with its globalization endeavors).
Globalization has brought world achievements closer to the masses, but now its excesses are treated as a threat to national identities. So it is being opposed by various protectionist measures, just when the growing global problems require global cooperation.
We also rejoiced in efforts to make the planet healthier for life, but now the forces that claim that clean air is just an illusion served up mostly by “left-wing extremists” have become stronger. So, the two largest powers, America and China, are still the biggest polluters.
Migration has existed since the beginning of time, contributing to the creation and development of many countries, but is now increasingly being vilified on various sides as a threat to national and international order. Trump has been the most outspoken in this regard, even saying at the UN that Europe will "go to hell" because of its leniency towards immigrants.
We felt reborn as information became more accessible and diverse than ever, only to fall into a web of distortions. We are under the onslaught of "post-truths," "alternative facts," and all sorts of other brainwashing.
All of this has contributed to the fact that the words in the World Organization echo in the style of "who goes to the UN, who goes to the board". There is not enough usable agreement, even on anything important, since there is none even among those who make it up, and who increasingly do not even pay the mandatory membership fee. However, although it is its mirror, it still functions better than the world - if not preventing, at least not causing harm - that many members create, violating its Charter.
It seems unreal that in the midst of global capitalism, the words of the Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci are quoted as an explanation for the ubiquitous confusion: "The old world is dying, and the new world is struggling to be born, so now is the time of monsters."
There is growing opposition to this present. The Carnegie Endowment recently calculated that in the past 12 months there have been 159 significant anti-government protests around the world, shaking 71 countries. Serbia is listed among them.
Thus, the slogan of the local demonstrators, "Belgrade is a world," is once again coming true. This was appropriately followed by the march of contemporary rebellious students, "Belgrade is a world again."
Our connection with the world is not in crisis...
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