Saving Humanity and Planet Earth (SHAPE) is a project to expose the perils of confrontation in the nuclear age and explore pathways to a safer, just and sustainable future.
RECENT EVENT
RESHAPING OUR MALFUNCTIONING WORLD:
Change is in the Air
A webinar is coming your way that will tackle head-on some of the troubling questions raised by the virtual impotence of the UN in the face of terrible wars, senseless, bloodshed and war crimes. Similarly, with the almost complete disregard of international law by governments right across the spectrum. The webinar brings together a diverse and uniquely equipped group of intellectuals and practitioners for a lively, thought-provoking, even provocative conversation. Join:
Richard A. Falk Professor Emeritus of International Law Princeton University
Hans von Sponeck former UN Assistant Secretary-General for Iraq
Grace Naledi Pandor South Africa’s Minister of International Relations & Cooperation 2019-24
Vijay Prashad Executive Director of The Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research
Following the four presentations we will distil a strategic direction for future engagement with the focus on concrete initiatives that SHAPE, together with other civil society organisations and perhaps some likeminded governments and international agencies, can pursue in coming months and beyond.
CROWDFUNDING APPEAL
Restore Hope - SHAPE
To get SHAPE’s ambitious international program under way funds are urgently needed. We have to pay for the communication tools (both software and hardware), access to a range of services, venue and equipment hire, at least part-time employment of people with relevant skills, and, where necessary, some limited forms of advertising. We have in mind, in due course, applying to philanthropic bodies for one or two grants., But such applications take time and there is no guarantee of early success. In the meantime, we have to rely on the goodwill of our supporters. Please contribute as generously as you can to this appeal, and encourage others to do likewise.
THE CALL
To All Who Care about Humanity’s and the Planet’s Future
Humanity has reached a tipping point. It is time for governments, international institutions and people everywhere to take stock and act with renewed urgency. The Ukraine conflict is inflicting death, injury, displacement and destruction, exacerbating a global food crisis, driving Europe into recession, and creating shock waves across the world economy. The Taiwan conflict is threatening to escalate into outright war that would devastate Taiwan and turn East Asia into a powder keg. More troubling still is the toxic relationship between the United States on the one hand and China and Russia on the other. Here lies the key to both conflicts.
What we are seeing is the culmination of decades of gross mismanagement of global security. The United States has been unwilling to accept, let alone adapt to, the rise of China and the re-emergence of Russia. It remains unwilling to break with outdated notions of global dominance – a legacy of the Cold War and the triumphalism that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union. A global power shift is taking place. The West-centric world, in which first Europe and then the United States held sway, is giving way to a multi-centric, multi-civilisational world in which other centres of power and influence are demanding to be heard.
FROM THE BLOG
