NEW DIRECTION

🔴🟠🟡🟢🔵🟣⚫️ NEW DIRECTION Ed. No. 206 - A VACUUM WANTS TO FILL ITSELF

HOTTEST TICKET OFF BROADWAY

(New York 2011, 2026)

Guess which one is the cardboard cutout.

Pics above show this artist's visit to the United Nations in 2011

and a display panel expressing the UN Charter

with the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon (Republic of Korea).

The UN building's interior looked to be quite dated

and was about to undergo renovations.

I did enjoy walking up the circa 1950's stairway where Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint

took flight in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest".

The UN was in session while I was staying at that borough in NYC.

I've never seen such security or lengthy motorcades of black stretch limousines in my life.

During UN sittings they actually cyclone fence the whole precinct for two blocks around making it a citadel

to protect delegates from those who want to make their voice heard.

I actually saw a woman screaming uncontrollably that her husband

had been locked away lost somewhere in Africa.

This was near the 'Knotted Gun' sculpture (pictured). UN security staff were attending to her.

It most surely is an unhappy world. Was then and is now. - N.

PIC: Forecourt of the UN.

Appearances can be quite deceiving. This is actually quite a small sculpture.

SORT OUT YOUR OWN BACKYARD

Trump’s arrogant posturing at the podium of a gathering in the 81st General Assembly of the United Nations (Sept. 2026) where he expressed that he couldn’t decide whether to “annihilate” Iran is a reflection of the ignorance of a world citizenry* not understanding the value of ourselves.

Listening to Australian PM Anthony Albanese’s address to the UN what he said was entirely relevant and lucid and what might be expected of a middle power nation.….But I wondered as the camera panned around a sparsely attended session just how much we are speaking and listening to each other in this time?

The Finnish President Alexander Stubb though seemed to address the moment pointedly. Young new age leaders such as Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten, Saida Mirziyoueva Head of the Presidential Administration of Uzbekistan and Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejon President of Government of Spain left their mark on the world stage with their passionate messages.

So much responsibility being carried on such young shoulders.

And why was it so strikingly noticeable that delegates chattered loudly through the King of Jordan's speech whereas the complete opposite experience of discomfortingly pin drop silence was glaringly obvious for a not a vacant seat in the house session by Donald Trump. Does this say that the world is scared of Donald Trump? Wouldn't he just love that?

Sorry to have to say it but it appears that the world's focus is on the wrong priorities i.e. the problems rather than the solutions.

We live in a world that seems stuck on the finger of pointing out our human shortcomings rather than on the ground solutions. It is easy to point fingers but where are the hands going up to help solve the problem? (which is us by the way).

No doubt world leaders would like to see a better world but I wonder where though in broader ambit is the want to participate in creative peace building and life educational undertakings? We should be celebrating our lives in the face of the darkness.

Yes, that involves a certain strength of which some evidence can be seen but not nearly enough.

It wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that the system we have contributed to making produces a substantial degree of mediocrity and a mountain of upset. What a silly game we have created that seems to be wearing us all down. Clearly we need more peace building projects across the planet but I reiterate that all takes a willing 'hands on' approach. Where are these hands? And do people even have the energy anyway to face the brick wall of our collective "mind's" intransigence. We are so f--king unyielding.

I know for myself that presently I just don't have even the slightest amount of energy to devote to making real and positive action in my own life let alone contribute to the bigger picture. Now I can come up with all sorts of excuses but ultimately I have to admit to myself that I must, one way or the other, have made bad choices in my life that has placed me in this position. And that position is that I don't even want to participate.

I just want to rest.

Maybe that is precisely what our world needs? To pause for a moment and reflect. But we've even convinced ourselves that to pause is to be wasteful and derelict of our duty to prop the whole mess up.

That sort of participation is very dangerous indeed anyway.

What can you contribute if you have nothing to contribute?

A vacuum wants to fill itself.

It was also telling to see and hear so many UN delegates walk out quite loudly of the UN Assembly when Benjamin Netanyahu strode to the podium. He 'thinks' he's right. Trouble is the whole world 'thinks' they're right. That's what makes the stubborn so very wrong.

All are guilty to differing degrees.

The message that all those leaders need to take home to their own countries is “We need to sort out our own backyard”. If we all did that we would have a much happier world.

You can see some of the UN's current session on YouTube. - N.

*People elected Trump quite convincingly too...

"In 2024, 59% of the voting age population headed to the polls, with Donald Trump taking 77.3 million votes to Kamala Harris' 75.0 million." (Source: FoxLiveNow) Actual surplus number of winning voters by head count "2,878,359" (Source: The American Presidency Project).

They wanted him we all got him. But let's not be hasty here. Perhaps Mr. Trump is only a manifestation of the sum total of an attitude and values evident in enough of the world's people across the planet's populace that energises these dictators to high office. Our focus is in the wrong place. - N.

STOP, LOOK AND LEAP. - Neville Williams