Bye Bye Rooster, Welcome Dog
Peter, UNOG
When this issue of UNS reaches
you, the year of Rooster is
behind us and the year of Dog
has just begun. Of course I mean
the lunar calendar, as the New Year of the
solar calendar is history already.
It’s said the year of rooster is full of fighting
spirit. In a sense it’s true. Wars have continued
or erupted here and there in the world.
Hopefully the year of dog will bring an end to
these internal fighting or wars of aggression.
As this Chinese new year of dog unfolds
itself, I’m frequently asked what this year signifies,
if it will be a good year. As always, I say
it will be a good year, although I am by no
means a fortuneteller, yet that’s what I think
or what I expect. There is at least one more
reason to believe that the coming year of
dog will be a good one, for according to
the lunar calendar, there will be two
Beginnings of spring* in the coming year,
one on 7 of the first month of the lunar
calendar, which is 4 February 2006 of the
solar calendar; and the other one falls at
the end of the year, on 17 of the
12th month of the lunar calendar, which
coincidently is again 4 February 2007 of
the solar calendar. This kind of doublespring
year phenomena occurs once
every few years, the last one happened
five years ago and the next one will come
in three years time.
To many, especially farmers, Spring is always a
good season, because they start planting in Spring.
Once you plant, you expect to harvest. That’s
already a good beginning. As at the end of the year
the second Beginning of Spring starts again, so
you will have a good end. What else do we expect
if we have a good
beginning and end?
Many people believe
that when there are two
springs, it will be a very
fortunate and productive
year. A lot of people
prefer to get married
and have children
this year, which was
exactly the opposite
three years ago, i.e. in
the year of horse, in
which many people
chose to postpone their
marriage, for that year
there was no spring. So
let’s expect lots of “small dogs” during
the coming year.
Now let’s look
what will bring to the United Nations Organization
at this double-spring year. It looks
most likely to be also a productive year.
First, the Human Rights Council will be
born. The UN has been pregnant with this
baby long enough; the expectancy date is
long overdue. Of course, the main problem
may be who and how many there should be
its membership. Once the “how many” issue
is resolved, the “who” problem will be relatively
easy to overcome. As far as numbers
are concerned, according to one great
philosopher, for any organization, organ or
body to be efficient, its membership should
never be more than ten. According to him,
human beings have only two hands with ten
fingers, so we are only very good within the
figure of ten. Beyond that limitation, we are
either confused or lost.
Ten can easily lead to a deadlock when
there is a vote, so it’s better to reduce to nine.
To choose nine members among more than
190 member states won’t be an easy job. But
the UN Galaxy system could do the trick at
more or less ease. First, a panel of classification
officers should be created to determine
the criteria; then advertise the membership in
the Galaxy for member states to apply; after
that, create a prescreening panel to classify
the candidates at 15, 30 and 60 day-mark or
simply ineligible; to finish the review process,
create another panel or committee, for example,
the CRC/CRB (Central Review Committee/
board or whatever you wish to call it).
Once the best-qualified countries are recommended
by CRC/CRB, anyone can do the
selection with closed eyes. So in a few
months time, the Human Rights Council
should be up and running.
Apart from the Council, another “nouveauté” in this dog year will be two Secretary-Generals within one year. By the same
token of the two springs theory, this two SGs
phenomena is quite easy to understand. When
the outgoing Secretary General quits the UN
Stage at the end of 2006 and the new one
takes over at the beginning of 2007, it is still
the year of dog in the sense of lunar calendar,
hence, two SGs in a year.
Last but not least, the year with two
springs should be relatively warm; therefore,
the freeze on GS recruitment should be or
has already been “defrozen”, bringing much
needed new blood to the Organization.
With two springs in a year, then we, the
staff may dream for double salary increase or
double promotion, if neither happens, then
just take a double vacation. Anyway, let me
wish all of you a double happiness in this
double-spring year of dog.
*The Chinese Lunar year has been divided
into 24 solar terms: the Beginning of Spring
(1st solar term); Rain Water (2nd); the
Waking of Insects; the Spring Equinox; Pure
Brightness; Grain Rain; the Beginning of Summer;
Grain Full; Grain in Ear; the Summer
Solstice; Slight Heat; Great Heat; the
Beginning of Autumn; the Limit of Heat;
White Dew; the Autumnal Equinox; Cold
Dew; Frost’s Descent; the Beginning of Winter;
Slight Snow; Great Snow; the Winter
Solstice; Slight Cold; Great cold.
© 2006 UN Special |