BEIJING, Feb 08 (IPS) – The 12 months of the Dragon is upon us.
UN Secretary-Common António Guterres stated in his message for this Lunar New 12 months, “The dragon symbolizes vitality, knowledge, safety and good luck. We want these qualities to rise to at this time’s world challenges.”
Certainly, we do. Simply take into account a few of the challenges from the previous 12 months.
The persistent drag of COVID-19.
Sluggish economies.
The most popular 12 months on report.
Local weather disasters, one after the opposite.
A rising tide of faux information, pretend pictures, and hate speech.
Dangers posed by the malicious use of AI, which grows in sophistication by the day.
Conflicts in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine and elsewhere, leaving thousands and thousands extremely susceptible, and sending shock waves all around the world.
Stalled world progress on the Sustainable Improvement Targets, the world’s to-do record for peace and prosperity. Which means that extra folks will stay with out water, electrical energy, schooling for his or her youngsters, or meals for his or her households.
World wide, folks really feel despondency and despair.
If ever we wanted the spirit of the Dragon, it’s now.
The Lunar New 12 months is an ideal event to return to the supply of our power. Throughout the nation, folks will clear their properties and enhance them in crimson. There might be fireworks, feasts, household gatherings, and dragon dances.
In these celebrations, the folks of China can look to encourage governments all over the place to embody the qualities of the Dragon as we head into the brand new 12 months.
We noticed this at work within the shock detente between Iran and Saudi Arabia, brokered by China in March 2023 following years of bitter rivalry, and on the COP 28 local weather convention final 12 months, when the necessity to section out fossil fuels was acknowledged, and the Loss and Harm Fund was agreed upon.
We see this spirit when nations now advocate for trust-building initiatives and worldwide collaboration. These are essential at a time when so many individuals all over the world are dropping religion in world establishments and one another.
This vitality might be wanted on the Summit of the Future this September on the UN Common Meeting in New York. The Summit is a once-in-a-generation alternative to take inventory of the state of the planet and its folks. It’s a likelihood to summon all our braveness and compassion—collectively.
It’s now not viable, if it ever was, to handle one disaster at a time. As quickly as one struggle ends, one other begins. A fireplace is extinguished in a single a part of the world, and one other is ignited elsewhere. One humanitarian disaster right here, and one other one there.
To create lasting peace and prosperity, the nations and peoples of the world should come collectively. We should draw on our shared sources, refine our aspirations, and picture our future. That is what the Summit of the Future will assist make potential.
We on the UN in China look to work intently with the Authorities of China in preparation for this Summit.
China has an indispensable position to play. In spite of everything, China is a mannequin for South-South cooperation, by which creating nations assist different creating nations. China can be arduous at work to ship on local weather motion, having set the objective to realize peak carbon emissions earlier than 2030 and carbon neutrality earlier than 2060.
Contemplate this. In 2023, China’s $890bn funding in clean-energy sectors was virtually as massive as complete world investments in fossil gas provide.
And the folks of China are an inspiration for numerous others all over the world struggling to carry themselves out of utmost poverty.
The UN household in China thanks the nation’s folks and Authorities for his or her endeavours. You embody the spirit of the Dragon.
This 12 months is auspicious for one more cause as properly. It’ll mark the seventy fifth anniversary of the institution of the Individuals’s Republic of China, an essential milestone within the nation’s progress.
In honour of the many individuals who have a good time the Lunar New 12 months all over the world, I’m happy that this 12 months will mark the primary time it joins the UN vacation calendar.
On behalf of the UN household in China, I prolong our greatest needs for the 12 months of the Dragon. Might or not it’s a time of nice success, pleasure, and success. Might the Dragon remind us of our capability to create a extra promising future for our personal households, and the larger human household on the planet all of us name residence.
Chun Jie Kuai Le.
Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator in China.
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedUnique supply: Inter Press Service
