Peace 2010. From the pens of young writers
IT all started in October of 1955, when satellites in space and radar here on Earth began to pick up strange objects. They also picked up some kind of transmissions that they couldn't decipher. Then, suddenly, hundreds of people began claiming UFO sitings. As this continued the whole world began to worry. Were these really signs of foreign life? Would they harm us? This made people realize that Earth was only a small, little part of a giant universe. They realized that if the people of Earth were to have any chance of defending themselves against outside forces, they would have to be united. After a lot of deliberation and the realization that there was no alternative, it was agreed that all nations should send 11 delegates to a convention in Geneva, Switzerland, where some kind of a solution for peace would be worked out. Some countries were eager to do this, since they had been anxious for peace all along. Other countries were more reluctant, but they went anyway since they didn't want to take the chance of being left to face foreign invaders alone.
It was decided that a form of international government would be set up. The job of this government would be to generally keep peace between nations. This would provide for a means through which all countries could work together to explore space and, if necessary, defend themselves.
At first there were many difficulties, for this was a spur-of-the-moment thing and had not been carefully planned.
Switzerland was chosen to moderate. The delegates were divided into five councils. Each country could decide which of its delegates would belong to which council. The rest of the delegates belonged to one of four smaller councils, two in each council. Each of the four councils was concerned with a specific area of international policy: military and arms, national borders, space, or economics/trade. These councils would come up with proposals related to their areas, and would then present them to the main council for approval. In order for anything to become ``international law,'' it had to be approved by the main council by a three-fourths majority vote. The three-fourths majority was used so that the developed nations didn't dominate the underdeveloped nations, one hemisphere didn't dominate the other, etc. ONCE the structure of this peace council was established, [its members] began to try to reach the goal which people had yearned for for centuries -- peace. The most important aspect of this peace and of the international government was established in the first week of discussion. It was decided that the job of this council [was] to reach and maintain peace between countries, not to affect life within the countries. The international government was only to worry about international relations and not interfere with the governments within a country. This helped to ease the minds of many smaller countries' leaders who had been concerned that their countries would be taken over or transformed in some way.
After the peace council had been working on the [new government's] constitution for about a month, and was far from finished, all of the UFO sightings and transmissions suddenly stopped. . . . The whole world was relieved, but this did create a question. Should the world continue in the struggle for peace if the immediate threat from outside was gone? The consensus of the majority was yes. After all, they had come this far, why stop now? A peaceful world would be a better place, and besides, whatever was out there before might come back.
There were a few countries that wanted to leave the council and just go back to life as it was before. No country ever actually left the council, though. There were many reasons for this. One was that they, too, desired peace, but that wasn't all. They were afraid that if they left the council they would be alienated and perhaps even conspired against. There was also a lot of pressure from other countries for them to stay in the council. Then, on top of everything else, there was still that small, little chance that there really was intelligent life out there and that we would need to protect ourselves from it.
So, the council went back to trying to write the constitution. . . .
It took three years to write the constitution, but nonetheless, on June 27, 1999, the constitution of the world government was signed by every nation in the world. The celebrations that took place that day were the most joyous and exuberant the world had ever known. June 27th was named Pax and was declared an international holiday. It remains today one of the biggest holidays of the year. . . .
There are three main points in the constitution. The first one states that all nations have the right to rule their nations as they please, using whatever government they please as long as it doesn't infringe on the rights of other nations. This was to keep the international government from controlling individual countries' internal affairs and eventually gaining total power over the world.
The second major point made in the constitution is that all nuclear or chemical weapons shall be turned over to the council. These weapons shall be destroyed. All facilities for manufacturing them shall also be destroyed, except for one in the US and one in Russia, which shall be shut down, but kept just in case they are needed for the defense of our planet. Nations may keep their conventional weapons but are forbidden to use them for anything other than sport and internal regulation (police protection).
The final important point of the constitution deals with borders. It establishes borders between nations, only to be changed through a four-fifths majority vote of the council. . . .
The new peace has done wonders for the economies of the world. Now that the money that was spent on weapons can be spent on other things, standards of living have really risen. . . . You know, they still haven't found out what it was that we picked up from space back in 1995, but whatever it was, we really owe a lot to it.
