I’ve recently argued that the United Nations is the Borg. Its overriding goal is to homogenize us. To make us all uniform. Consistent. Compliant.
Last week, a news story by Jamey Keaten, Geneva correspondent for the Associated Press, appeared on the website of the Canadian Television Network (CTV) under the headline: UN: 40 countries agree cars must have automatic braking. It begins:
Forty countries led by Japan and the European Union – but not the U.S. or China – have agreed to require new cars and light commercial vehicles to be equipped with automated braking systems starting as soon as next year, a UN agency said Tuesday.
It’s quite possible these measures make total sense. They may be a brilliant idea that will “save more than 1,000 lives every year within the EU” as the official press release claims. But let us pay close attention to what’s going on here.
This agreement is being ushered into existence by an obscure entity, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). Its original mission was to help rebuild Europe following World War 2. Decades later, it helped former East Bloc countries recover from Communism.
It’s plain as day, therefore, that UN bureaucracies never die. Rather than shutting themselves down and freeing up resources for other purposes, these zombie entities stagger on.
Half a century after its original mandate vanished, the UNECE has now decided its duty is to establish “norms, standards, and conventions to facilitate international cooperation” – thus the rules about your car’s emergency braking system.
It also says it’s working hard to promote European economic integration. As if a bloated, multi-headed monster bureaucracy known as the European Union weren’t fully focused on exactly that task.
UNECE’s 70th-anniversary celebratory video talks about sustainability, forestry, the environment – as if multiple other UN bodies don’t spend all their time working on precisely those matters.
Despite being the UN Economic Commission for Europe, the UNECE website tells us it consists of “56 member States in Europe, North America and Asia” – which is double the number of countries actually in the EU (28).
Presumably, other nations feel it’s good policy to keep half an eye on what’s going on there. Which means that taxpayers in Canada, the US, and elsewhere routinely pay for our governments to send diplomatic delegations to the UNECE.
One wonders how many similar UN zombie entities exist, and how large is the annual bill.
But let us return to the news coverage. Here in Canada, the headline told us 40 UN countries are on board with the new brake rules.
Since there are 193 nations in the UN, an equally accurate headline would have been: One-fifth of UN members agree cars must have automatic braking.
The opening sentence informed us that while “Japan and Europe” are part of this agreement, America and China aren’t. From the onset, therefore, we were invited to view this as a conflict between ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys.’
Journalist Keaten did include this paragraph:
The United States, China and India are members of the UN forum that adopted the new regulations. However, they did not take part in the negotiations because they want to ensure that their national regulations keep precedence over UN rules when it comes to the auto industry.
This is the crux of the matter, isn’t it? Innovation is fostered by freedom and flexibility. Strangling your auto industry in UN red tape is a dubious path to prosperity.
Shortly afterward, we read:
Jason Levine, executive director of the non-profit Center for Auto Safety, said lack of U.S. participation in the UN group is embarrassing for a country that once led in auto safety.
“It is yet another indication of the auto industry in the United States and the Trump administration’s complete lack of leadership when it comes to the safety of everyone on the road,” Levine said Tuesday. [bold added]
Geneva is UN headquarters. Most news outlets around the world can’t afford to pay a reporter to live in Geneva, so everyone relies on news coverage provided by wire services such as the Associated Press.
In this case, the AP Geneva correspondent story blandly refers to the UNECE as a “UN agency,” a “UN forum,” and a “UN group.” Readers aren’t told it’s a zombie, Euro-centric, utterly redundant entity well past its expiry date.
They aren’t told that 16 nations out of the 56 who participate in the UNECE – 30% – have not committed to these new brake regulations.
Instead, an activist was used to cast this as good versus evil: the sensible, virtuous UN battling uncooperative holdouts like US President Trump. Holdouts who don’t care about “the safety of everyone on the road.”
Read more at Big Pic News
All the technology is in place now. It would be difficult to attempt to opt out without arousing suspicion.
Drive an old vehicle, no debit or credit cards, no cell phone, pay with cash only, but there’s surveillance cameras everywhere. Dash cam’s. Cops have licence plate reading technology. Drones. Satellites.
Our activity on the Internet is like a public diary. Third parties like Google, Amazon,and Facebook exploit it.
Now, western governments and corporations are saying NO to Huawei spying for China.
I won’t let that recent development lessen my wariness of Big Brother. ” He ” is not a trustworthy friend.
Isn’t the objective to monitor, regulate and ultimately control human movement ? How far off are we from an AI voice saying “driver you have exceeded your permitted driving mileage . Additional fines are being assessed and your car disabled . Good day” . It happens already with cell phones when you go over the data limit .
There are a lot of people who believe that everything should be forced to be the same. These people tend to appointment themselves as the one who decides.
I have fought this in high tech industry. Similar groups each had similar but different customers. Each group had fine turned the way it operated to meet its customer’s needs. Then a few people from one of the groups decided their way was best and were able to force it on the other groups. The quality of service suffered.
In another example the European Union council voted that all of the famers’ compost piles had to be on the same place on their property. I believe it was the north east corner. Even if the compost pile had been in a different place for hundreds of years, they were required to move it or face a fine.
Forcing everyone to be “uniform, consistent, and compliant” is also used as a means to implement political agendas. Perhaps it was twenties years ago that the UN was working on a gun control treaty to apply to all nations that the liberal nations expected to pass. The given reason was the easy access kids in Africa had to AK-47’s. However, the treaty went way beyond that problem and would have destroyed many guns rights in nations like the US. President Bush (I don’t know which one) supported doing something about the problem in Africa but not the rest of the treaty. The Secretary-General of the United Nations at the time expressed disappointment.
The “uniform, consistent, and compliant” concept is big in the climate change movement. Self appointed elite expect people, states, and nations all follow their agenda.
Did the United Nations conceive of and invent automatic braking?
No. But I’d like to congratulate those that have. It is a timely technology. Distracted driving is a deadly epidemic. People are addicted to their phones and awareness campaigns and hefty fines haven’t fixed the problem.
Headline you won’t see: ” ABS prevents collision Monday morning”
Maybe the UN wants the world to believe that THEY forced the big bad uncaring corporations to equip their death traps with life saving technology. Truth is, if it isn’t standard equipment already, it’s desirable enough to attract buyers to vehicles that have it. It’s being embraced by the car makers already. Advertisements mention it prominently.
Instead of the UN pushing it, why hasn’t the insurance industry done so? Motorcycle riders should be lobbying for a better version of it.
The United Nations is trying to take credit for a capitalist win.
Two times within a month my mother-in-law got the accelerator confused with the brake peddle. Both times she destroyed a number of cars including her own. Fortunately no one was hurt either time, but that was just luck. From my point of view, collision avoidance technology makes a lot of sense.
The UN the Useless Nations was never ever created for World Peace its all about World Goverment all under their control there are no Doves living at the UN just Vultures