BEIJING, Feb 08 (IPS) – The Yr of the Dragon is upon us.
UN Secretary-Common António Guterres mentioned in his message for this Lunar New Yr, “The dragon symbolizes vitality, knowledge, safety and good luck. We’d like these qualities to rise to immediately’s international 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 weak, and sending shock waves everywhere in the world.
Stalled international progress on the Sustainable Growth Objectives, the world’s to-do checklist for peace and prosperity. Which means 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 Yr is an ideal event to return to the supply of our energy. Throughout the nation, folks will clear their houses and enhance them in pink. There can be fireworks, feasts, household gatherings, and dragon dances.
In these celebrations, the folks of China can look to encourage governments in every single 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 part out fossil fuels was acknowledged, and the Loss and Injury Fund was agreed upon.
We see this spirit when international locations 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 international establishments and one another.
This vitality can 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 probability 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 warfare ends, one other begins. A hearth 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 international locations and peoples of the world should come collectively. We should draw on our shared assets, 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, through which growing nations help different growing nations. China can be onerous at work to ship on local weather motion, having set the aim 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 nearly as massive as whole international investments in fossil gasoline provide.
And the folks of China are an inspiration for numerous others all over the world struggling to elevate themselves out of maximum 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 nicely. It is going to mark the seventy fifth anniversary of the institution of the Folks’s Republic of China, an vital milestone within the nation’s progress.
In honour of the many individuals who have fun the Lunar New Yr 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 Yr of the Dragon. Could or not it’s a time of nice success, pleasure, and success. Could the Dragon remind us of our skill to create a extra promising future for our personal households, and the better 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 ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
