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BEIJING, Feb 08 (IPS) – The Yr of the Dragon is upon us.
UN Secretary-Basic António Guterres mentioned in his message for this Lunar New Yr, “The dragon symbolizes power, knowledge, safety and good luck. We’d like these qualities to rise to in the present day’s world challenges.”
Certainly, we do. Simply contemplate among the challenges from the previous yr.
The persistent drag of COVID-19.
Sluggish economies.
The most popular yr on report.
Local weather disasters, one after the opposite.
A rising tide of pretend information, faux photographs, 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 hundreds of thousands extremely weak, and sending shock waves everywhere in the world.
Stalled world progress on the Sustainable Improvement Targets, the world’s to-do listing for peace and prosperity. Which means extra folks will stay with out water, electrical energy, training 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 power. Throughout the nation, folks will clear their properties and embellish them in purple. 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 yr.
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 yr, when the necessity to part out fossil fuels was acknowledged, and the Loss and Harm 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 around the globe are dropping religion in world establishments and one another.
This power can be wanted on the Summit of the Future this September on the UN Basic 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 deal with one disaster at a time. As quickly as one struggle 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 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 carefully with the Authorities of China in preparation for this Summit.
China has an indispensable position to play. In any case, China is a mannequin for South-South cooperation, wherein growing nations assist different growing nations. China can also 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.
Take into account this. In 2023, China’s $890bn funding in clean-energy sectors was nearly as giant as whole world investments in fossil gas provide.
And the folks of China are an inspiration for numerous others around the globe 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 yr is auspicious for an additional motive as nicely. It’s 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 rejoice the Lunar New Yr around the globe, I’m happy that this yr 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. Might or not it’s a time of nice success, pleasure, and success. Might the Dragon remind us of our skill to create a extra promising future for our personal households, and the higher human household on the planet all of us name house.
Chun Jie Kuai Le.
Siddharth Chatterjee is the United Nations Resident Coordinator in China.
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedAuthentic supply: Inter Press Service
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