Time to network

For more than four years, I have worked to organize a website and write the book about a new path to world peace, a global referendum on democratic world government. Now the book is written, a publisher has been found, a publicity agency has been engaged, and the publishing event is mere months away. My hope is that the book will translate into many new mini-referendums, and some chain-voting, and basically some heavy “buzz” that can lead eventually to a UN resolution calling on all states to conduct referendums in tandem with national elections (all premised on the expectation that these referendums will pass, of course). My publisher has advised that radio and TV producers will start calling me for interviews in about a week. So what can I accomplish in the three months between now and the official launch of the book? Networking, is the main answer.

Ted Stalets is our vice president, and he is a father, a husband and a piano store manager, among other things. But when I asked if he might be willing to take the point position on the networking front, he saw this as an opportunity, and welcomed the challenge. Now it is his job (well, not alone, but mostly) to get other groups (schools, universities, offices, church congregations, factories, sports teams, etc.) to do a mini-referendum and commit to getting two other groups (likely of similar ilk) to do likewise within a few weeks. The snowball has to be exponential, and that’s how the tipping point can be reached, how the “viral marketing” can be done. Don’t just wish Ted luck. Give him a hand. Contact some of the leaders of groups you belong to or know about and ask them to consider this, or at least accept an email from Ted asking them to participate. Ted also has free telephone in and around the USA, so you can ask them to accept a phone call from him asking them to consider joining in this campaign. You could try a few local calls, couldn’t you? If we’re able to work up a head of steam between now and September, when the book comes out, there will be a demand for it, and interested readers will be continuing a campaign rather than starting one. And getting a church congregation or a service club or a school to do a mini-referendum won’t cost them any money, just a bit of time to get the word out about the vote, to get the votes in and input on our site and to persuade two other organizations to follow their lead. (That last element—getting two more organizations to join in—is the “multiplier effect” that we need, meaning the creation of a “social epidemic” or a “viral marketing strategy” in the words of Malcolm Gladwell in his terrific book, The Tipping Point.)

Empower the UN

It would seem that a group called “Empower the UN” (http://www.EmpowerTheUN.org or http://myspace.com/EmpowerTheUnitedNations) is Ted’s first specific assignment. He has sent them the contents of the “form” that we had to fill out in order to become part of their group of like-minded organizations. Our objective is to get other organizations to be willing to give the global referendum a chance, and without any sense of competition, the hope is that these other outfits will agree that a global referendum would be the necessary and democratic means by which we, the human race, ought to achieve a democratic world government. The content of that form sums up where VWG is at the moment, and will be posted on the first ETUN website above very soon (perhaps it is there now).

Ongoing Montessori email-to-schools campaign

We receive cc.s of the emails that are being sent out by City Montessori School principal Jagdish Gandhi to 2,000 schools in various countries, and it is impressive to see these in the morning. Schools in many countries are not open between their semesters, so there is some lag in getting responses back. We sent out a press release about the CMS effort, but very few media sources picked it up. One of the obstacles we face is that many people in the media consider world government a pipe dream, and perhaps a dangerous one at that. I have little doubt that if people begin voting in favour of DWG in the millions or the tens of millions, the media will develop a healthy respect for the concept, and take an interest in our progress.

University referendum in Cameroon?

We have recently learned from Board Member Unity Yang that he and a few friends are trying to get a referendum on DWG conducted at his university in Cameroon. Good luck with that, Unity, and please rely on us for whatever help we can offer.

Translators needed

In addition to English, the ballot and the short version of our site are available in seven other languages, French, German, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, Russian and Hungarian. If we are to be truly “available” to all, we need to cover many more languages, and we are asking everyone if they can offer some help with translating. Eventually, we will want to produce the newsletter in other languages as well, but for now, the site and the ballot are the things that matter most. Please help if you can. It comes to about three hours of work, according to the people who have done the seven translations that we now have (we will send a form with English on the left side and boxes to be filled in on the right—it’s really rather easy if you speak English plus a second language).

2,000 schools contacted in India and elsewhere

On April 21, 2008, Vote World Government sent out its first-ever press release. The text is below:

Students in India give “thumbs up” to democratic world government

Nashville, Tennessee, USA, April 21, 2008—Last fall, City Montessori School (CMS) in Lucknow, India, held a student-based referendum on the establishment of a democratic world government (DWG). Some 7,000 ballots were collected (from students 16+ years old, and from family members of students), and 90% of these were “yes” votes. Now, in an effort to grow this initiative into a truly global referendum, the founder/manager of CMS, Mr. Jagdish Gandhi, is emailing 1,000 school principals in India and the principals of another 1,000 schools around the world, asking their schools to participate.

Founded by the well-known Gandhian social worker, Jagdish Gandhi, CMS is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s largest school, with 32,000 students. It is also the only school ever to receive the prestigious UNESCO Prize for Peace Education (2002). CMS organizes peace education activities and hosts many international events, including annual International Conferences of Chief Justices of the World that have been attended by heads of national judiciaries or judges representing their Chief Justices from more than forty countries, as well as by peace advocates from another 35-40 countries.

“Nothing tends to focus the mind more or better than being asked to vote on an issue,” said Anirudh Singh, the head of the World Unity and Peace Education Department (WUPED) at CMS, “and nothing is more urgent than the achievement of democratic world government.”

In his email to other principals, Mr. Gandhi notes that: “… the mandate emerging from a ‘successful’ world referendum (‘successful’ meaning that 50% of all adults vote and at least 67% of those vote ‘yes’ to democratic world government) would be legally binding on all national governments under international law.” He also expresses the view that: “… young people today understand the tragic mistakes that were made after WWI and WWII in terms of creating the old League of Nations and the United Nations, neither of which brought us the hoped-for state of peace and security that was intended.”

The CMS student referendum was done in cooperation with Vote World Government, a new Canadian NGO. At their website (www.VoteWorldGovernment.org) there is further information on the planned global referendum, and an “active” ballot. Internet votes are being collected in order to determine if there is a mandate from the human race sufficient to compel the creation of a directly-elected world parliament empowered to protect the environment from threats such as climate change, ban war, and resolve all international conflicts through world law. The ballot reads: “Do you support the creation of a directly-elected, representative and democratic world government?”

“We’re very proud of this accomplishment,” said Jim Stark, the president of Vote World Government, “and we hope this campaign will grow to the point where schools the world over are following the example of City Montessori School.” Stark has written a book that will be published this September, entitled Rescue Plan for Planet Earth (advance copies are available at www.VoteWorldGovernment.org/books.shtml).

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About the author of the press release: Ted Stalets, a futurist living in Nashville, TN, USA is Vice President of Vote World Government. To download the new student guide, go to:

www.VoteWorldGovernment.org/studentreferendumprogramhowto.pdf. Information on Stark’s upcoming book Rescue Plan For Planet Earth: Democratic World Government through a Global Referendum can be found at www.RescuePlanForPlanetEarth.com. It will be released in the fall of 2008. For further information, write ted.stalets@gmail.com or jimstark@webruler.com. For further information on City Montessori School or Jagdish Gandhi, see www.cmseducation.org/about/jgres.html

This press release is being sent out to thousands of media recipients by a professional publicity firm, which VP Ted Stalets has financed as a special contribution to VWG.

With this action, we believe we have acquired a bit of that most elusive and valuable of political commodity, “Big Mo,” or “momentum.” With the Indian effort underway, we hope to see similar movements in New Zealand, in the USA, and in Canada. Eventually, of course, we want to start a “social epidemic” (as Malcolm Gladwell calls it in his book, The Tipping Point) that will enlist the passionate support of youth the world over. Can you imagine if it became “cool” to stand up for democratic world government?

YouTube videos posted on  Rescue Plan site

Ted Stalets, our ever-ingenious VP, has created two YouTube videos for VWG, featuring the Rescue Plan book, VWG and Jim Stark’s songs One World Soon and I’m Fine. To see these videos, go to www.RescuePlanForPanetEarth.com and scroll down beneath the image of the book cover. One World Soon is about democratic world government, and I’m Fine is a more personal song about the terrible stresses of working for peace during the Cold War. Both of these songs were written by Jim in the late 1970s, and performed in the 1980s by his long-gone band, Evolution. (A third video has now been added, set to Jim’s song Hawk, about a Native Canadian hitchhiker he picked up in the early 1970s.)

Marketing has begun for Rescue Plan for Planet Earth

The Key Publishing House Inc. has begun marketing Rescue Plan for Planet Earth. Ads will be sent to radio and TV producers through the RITR (“Radio-TV Interview Report,” which is where the media often go to find guests for interviews). Rescue Plan will also be included in the New Title shows at bookfairs (London Bookfair, April 2008, BookExpo America, end of May 2008, BookExpo Canada, June 2008). 7,500 flyers will be sent to libraries and bookstores, and 26 review copies of the book will go to key magazines and newspapers in May. The distributor of the book is among the world’s largest distributors, about 40 sales staff all over the world. VWG is very lucky to have The Key Publishing House Inc. as the publisher for Jim’s book.

In search of reviews for Rescue Plan for Planet Earth

It is disappointing to report that George Monbiot and David Suzuki have both responded that they are too busy to do a review of Jim’s book. David wrote to say he would put the book into the well-used library at the Suzuki Foundation. On the bright side, there was a great review from Jerry Tetalman, California president of Citizens for Global Solutions and co-author of One World Democracy (his review was quoted in the last WorldVoter, and is available in full in the “Reviews” link at www.RescuePlanForPlanetEarth.com).

Converting to a membership organization

Work continues (by Ted) on the project to convert Vote World Government to a member-based organization. Unless there is an impediment, we would like to give a one-year free membership to all those who voted “yes” in the global referendum on DWG.

Student Referendum Campaign

The plan for the CMS (City Montessori School) to seek student referendums in hundreds of other schools in India and some neighbouring nations has not gone ahead yet, but we trust it will soon. Ted Stalets has asked his friend Elizabeth Guth, an American teacher, to see if she can get a student referendum organized at her school. To download documents needed to seek and to do a student referendum, go to the Volunteer link on this site. You are encouraged to think of a high school or college or university (or church congregation or company or whatever; it does not have to be a school) where a mini-referendum could be organized, and to just do it, just go ahead and organize it. Contact VWG if you need more advice than is given out in the downloadable documents.)

Reviewing our Board members’ involvement 

Some of our Board Members are very active, but others are either occasionally in contact or virtually inactive. As we move towards the launching of the book and the simultaneous launching of the global referendum initiative, a letter has gone to all our less active Board Members asking them to reconsider whether they want to stay on this appointed Board. It is to be hoped that those who recommit will accept to be given specific assignments from time to time, and will carry them out conscientiously. The preparation phase is nearing an end (after more than four difficult years), and the time has come for less-involved Board members to pick up a paddle or get out of the canoe.

We have a new Board member, Dóra Szabó, of Hungary. She came to our attention when she was volunteering in India, at City Montessori School, helping with the referendum there. She is back in Hungary now, but is planning to go to the USA, where she will be working on a film on the life of Garry Davis, the man sometimes credited with being the first (and surely the most insistent) “world citizen.” Dóra’s photo and short bio are on the “Who We Are” link of the VWG site now, and we welcome her to our great adventure. And by the way, Dóra has translated the short version of our site into Hungarian, our 8th operational language.  Thanks Dóra.

Speaking of school referendums, there is a new “How To” document for anyone who may (themselves or through relatives or friends) wish to pursue a mini-referendum in a high school, college or university. It can be downloaded from the “Volunteer” link on our site. City Montessori School is now planning to email 500 or so other schools in India, suggesting they do this. At CMS, there were more than 7,000 votes collected, and 90% of these were “yes” votes. You are encouraged to think of people you can send this new document to, and encourage them to follow the example of CMS. Young people should take the lead in this quest. It would be great to see votes rolling in at a much higher level, and if you can help in this regard, that would be greatly appreciated.

Vote World Government has no funding yet, and the originators of the project have gone deeply into debt (six figures!) to keep the dream alive. Hopefully sales from the book will help in this regard, but in the shorter term, two ideas exist as possible solutions (or partial solutions).

1) We can try to find an established like-minded organization to do a friendly takeover of VWG. (We have one such organization in mind already, but negotiating such a hand-off could take months. Please note that if VWG ever finds itself in imminent danger of going under, the executive committee, such as it is, will take the decision to do such a transfer if such a possibility realistically exists.)

2) We can restructure VWG as a membership organization. (This is fairly easy to do, but the work of maintaining and “growing” a membership base can be very time-consuming, and is nobody’s favorite job, since it is not directly related to our mission.)

Please feel free to send us your reactions to these ideas. And if you can afford to make a donation personally, be assured that it is rather badly needed.

The first few dozen POD (print on demand) copies of Rescue Plan for Planet Earth are to be produced this week in Ottawa. These are “review copies,” and will be sent out to those who have committed to reviewing the book, and to others that we hope will be inclined to review it (as well as several others who made substantial contributions to the book, just as a “thank you”). The special advance printing of 1,000 copies has been delayed somewhat. It will now arrive in early April, so to those who pre-ordered copies, please be patient. This book is the foundational document of our entire enterprise. The main offset printing is still scheduled for this summer (2008), and will be available to bookstores throughout the world in September.

Board member Raj Shekhar Chandola informs us that there was a referendum at the City Montessori School in Lucknow, India (under his leadership as the head of the World Unity and Peace Education department). Apparently there were 7,073 votes all told, 6,394 “yes” to 679 “no.” That’s better than 90% in favour. I’m not sure motherhood would get that high a plurality! But that doesn’t mean a global referendum is un-needed, only that in the end, it will pass! We will get our global mandate, and it will prevail, legally, politically, and morally.

It took VWG almost four years to get the first 3,080 votes or so, and now we received more than double that number in a few days (it will take some time for volunteers in India to input them all onto our site). That is a lesson we needn’t ever forget. It is altogether appropriate that young people should care so much for their world, for their futures and for future generations that they take the point position in the emerging global referendum campaign for democratic world government. And it is very handy that they all go to school, and can use that common bond to make their statement about the future.

Well done, Raj! Well done Dora! Well done CMS! Now let’s get 1,000 or 10,000 other Indian schools to follow suit. And let’s get Hugh Steadman engaged in a similar campaign in New Zealand, like he said he would do if and as he got a report from India about their experience. And let’s hope I can find a Canadian who will try for such a campaign of school referendums in Canada, backed up by India’s courageous and wildly successful example. And so on.

And unless I’m reading them wrong, this was not only a good success, it was … dare I say it … fun! It hadn’t occurred to me before (being stuck in my office about ten hours a day, seven days a week) that doing the fieldwork on this campaign might be a whole passel of good clean fun! Imagine that, all the thrills of a real revolution without any of the bleeding or dying part! Doesn’t that beat the heck out of video games? Or golf? Or most anything else?

Imagine the party we’ll have in 2018 or so when we watch the inaugural session of the world parliament and realize that we did that! Imagine what it would feel like to know for sure that war was finally over … all war … and we did that, and it wasn’t even that hard! Imagine how nice it will be to know that the increasing pace of global warming has been slowed, stopped and reversed, and that some day the Earth may return to where it should be, with a caring and smaller human race feeding off her treasures and riches … sustainably! I should live so long! And now I just might! This is my idea of real fun! And you are invited to play, whoever you are.

VWG.org has a new Board member, David Christensen, a retired geography professor from Carbondale, Illinois. Dave wrote a fine book about “Limited World Government” called Healing the World, and it is now up for sale on our “Books” link. Welcome, Dave. I will also mention that Dave is the first person to send an email to his entire list of family and friends explaining our strategy and asking them to not only vote, but to keep the voting chain going by getting at least two of their family or friends to continue the voting “chain.” Well done, Dave. I hope many others will follow your lead.

Writing a self-published book is one thing; finding a real publisher is quite another. An established author once told me that only 1 in 1,000 completed books gets published! Those are pretty stiff odds, so I am particularly pleased to report that a contract has been signed for The Key Publishing House Inc. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada to publish my book. It has now been re-written and renamed Rescue Plan for Planet Earth. The old title, Democratic World Government through a Global Referendum, is now the subtitle. Twenty or so “review copies” will be printed POD (“print on demand,” used for small runs) in December, and the first 1,000 will be offset-printed next February. We are hopeful that the formal launch of the global referendum, tentatively scheduled for next spring, will establish our public profile for the first time.

Edie Ivory (Nims) is still on the VWG Board, but after three years of work to get the project off the ground, she has handed over control of the website to Ted Stalets, our new VP (and my literary agent, friend and right hand man). We all owe Edie a round of applause and our heartfelt thanks for her very fine contribution to the cause, and of course she is still with us to bail us out of the occasional technical glitch (among other things). We are very fortunate that Ted has come along to pick up the reins and take matters forward from here. My book, when it is published, will be dedicated to Edie, and deservedly so, since this project would never have gotten off the ground without her expertise and support.

Although we don’t have an exact date, near the end of October, there will be a school-wide referendum at the City Montessori School (the world’s largest secondary school with 35,000 students) in Lucknow, India, using the VWG ballot. We are grateful to Board member Raj Chandola, head of the school’s World Unity and Peace Education department, for this interesting and useful exercise. We hope others will follow the lead of this first-ever institutional referendum and see if it can be replicated at schools around the world.

A short version of the VWG site has been available in German, French and Spanish for some time, but now we have added Arabic and Japanese to that list. Many thanks to Naji Kasem and Yoshiyuki Shiratsuchi for doing these translations, and to Edie Nims for the web work.

The new book, “Democratic World Government through a Global Referendum,” is done, and is available from the “Books” link on the site. There is now a group on Facebook called Democratic World Government, and we hope it will introduce our concept to more and more people.

Our president, Jim Stark, has been busy the last few months, trying to finish his book, “Democratic World Government through a Global Referendum.” The manuscript is now done, and the bound book should be available by the middle of February. The price is $18 per copy CAD ($16 USD), taxes and shipping included. Jim is looking forward to talking to audiences about our initiative, and the book will help make this possible.

David Wright is (among many other things—see www.davidwright.cc) the Founding President of Lawyers for Social Responsibility. He has recently accepted to be the Vice President of Vote World Government, and we are a very fortunate outfit to have such a man on the Board. True to his crusading nature, David has already begun work on a new initiative that fits with and will support the global referendum on DWG. Watch for an announcement in the next month or two.

My apologies for not updating our news more often. There were two reasons for this. First, there wasn’t much news to report, and second, I’ve been quite ill for many months, and am only now “back on my feet,” so to speak.

In general, the global referendum on democratic world government is not “taking off.” I could have said that it’s not taking off “yet,” but I am having difficulty maintaining my faith in the common sense of humanity. Several serious commentators have suggested lately that we may well be seeing the opening shots of World War III, but most people feel such an assessment simply has to be wrong (it doesn’t) and that they are powerless to influence events on the global scale (another incorrect assumption).

I am tired of “allies” who can’t even be bothered to vote. I am tired of allies who can’t be bothered to get all their friends to vote and compel them to get yet others to vote. Yes, 3 billion “yes” votes is a tall order, but you get there the same was you eat an elephant … one bite at a time … or in our case, one vote at a time.

Duskar Barik is a Board member, and he is the first person ever to use our Vote Collection Form to help people who don’t have the Internet to cast their vote in the global referendum on democratic world government. To our astonishment, in late August, he mailed us 800 votes, which was almost double our grand total at that time! Well done, Duskar. And thanks to Raj and Rishi for offering to input those 800 votes on the Vote World Government website (that may take a little while).

Speaking of Raj, that’s Raj Shekhar Chandola, the head of the World Unity and Education Department at the City Montessori School in Lucknow, India, which school was the recipient of the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education in 2002. There are a staggering 29,000 students at City Montessori School, and Raj is preparing for them (at least those 16 years old or older) to vote in our global referendum. Raj has also accepted appointment to our Board, and we welcome him warmly.