Five Rays of Hope Stream from the UN
On November 17th, 2021, the President of the General Assembly met, for the first time in 20 months, with Civil Society representatives. The group was purposely kept small, but relief and gratitude showed on the faces of both moderators and participants as they engaged once again in an in-person setting.
President Abdulla Shahid set the tone for this return by sharing his vision statement entitled “Presidency of Hope: Delivering for People, for the Planet and for Prosperity.” Within this statement he included what he called the “Five Rays of Hope”, inviting five separate Civil Society organizations to offer five short keynote statements addressing these Rays.
- FIRST RAY – RECOVERING FROM COVID-19
- SECOND RAY – REBUILDING SUSTAINABLY
- THIRD RAY – RESPONDING TO THE NEEDS OF THE PLANET
- FOURTH RAY – RESPECTING THE RIGHTS OF ALL
- FIFTH RAY – REVITALIZING THE UNITED NATIONS
Some readers of this blog may be familiar with the use of the word “ray” in the Ageless Wisdom teachings in the Alice Bailey material. It is a powerful word with an equally powerful definition.
Ray – “Each of the lines in which light may seem to stream….”
Light did stream from the intentions of the words shared by the participants, and especially from President Shahid himself, who was elected President of the General Assembly just this past June. A diplomat and relentless activist from the Republic of Maldives, he was asked why he wanted to be President. He responded; “I believe that, as leaders, it was time that member states give hope to their constituents. The UN Charter starts as ‘We the Peoples’, so this assembly represents ‘we the peoples.’” He went on to state that leaders should enter into community so that “together, collectively we can do better. In the midst of the devastation of the pandemic there was also goodness. We saw the best of humanity. I want to celebrate that goodness of humanity from this rostrum, here, at the United Nations. I appeal to each of you to convey that message of hope that, together, in unity, we can do better. We have the capacity, we have the resources. What we lack today is the courage…. But this is what my presidency is about, that is why I wanted to be here. To do a little bit of goodness.”
Light is often equated with wisdom. As part of his ending discussion with the Civil Society participants he spoke about the wisdom of consulting the women scientists and ecologists when gathering an understanding of climate change. “They know our Mother Earth better. They go and fetch water, they go and do the farming…. We should be asking women what’s happening to the earth. We should be getting this important knowledge from them. We should be giving them an opportunity to sit around the table when we are making important decisions.”
Then he offered advice to all who hope to do good. The first thing, he said, is to work, passionately, as an individual to affect change in whatever sector you believe in. This will then lead to group involvement. And this, then, will lead to governmental attention.
For those in the General Assembly Hall that afternoon, a little bit of normalcy returned to life - along with, perhaps, a heightened sense of shared purpose. A newly appointed President was making hope a cornerstone of his service at the UN, and he had attached that hope to solid action. A strategy has been laid which squarely involves the people - not just the leaders or policy makers - and a path of achievement has been forged using the Five Rays of Hope.
Time, now, for “we the peoples” to do a little bit of goodness.