Whirled Peas
'Dya ever sit around in a bar late at night and figure out how to solve all the problems in the world? Well, here's what I came up with.
There are 193 member states of the United Nations. Two countries are non-member observer states: The Holy See and Palestine. Taiwan claims independent status but is not recognized by the UN.
So, we’ve reserved 196 seats at a very large virtual table to discuss solutions to our many problems.
We are not organized under the same rules as the UN. We’re not asking anyone for any money. We can afford the technological facilities for our little project. Transportation will not be necessary since the meeting will take place via the Internet.
Each nation will be allotted an hour to explain its needs, fears, hopes, ambitions, or whatever it feels everyone should understand. One person or a team may represent any nation. The presentation may be in a speech, a poem, a dance, a movie, or any other method that can be broadcast over the internet. All presentations will be pre-recorded. Each nation can view the presentations of other nations in whatever order or at whatever pace they find convenient.
Each nation is encouraged to take notes about every other country.
After the 196 hours of presentations, there will be an open-book quiz to assess comprehension. A score of 90% will be considered passing.
If fewer than 177 countries pass, we will start all over again. The process will be repeated until there is near-unanimous understanding.
Each country will be allowed 15 minutes to whine and complain.
Each country will be allowed 15 minutes to offer suggestions to resolve any problems.
These last 30 minutes are freely open to mixing and matching. Of course, everyone will have access to these responses in the same manner as the original presentations.
Considering time for breaks, meals, sleep, study, and the possible need for repetition, we expect the whole process to take at least three months. Six months might be more realistic.
One year after the meeting, we will reconvene to see if anyone has implemented any of the proposed solutions or to see if any new problems have arisen.
If you like it, we’ll keep doing it. If you don’t, then go back to killing each other.