With increasing frequency, people trying to solve local problems discover there are aspects of the problem (such as in the case of environmental pollution) that are related to communities outside national borders.

It then becomes necessary to find like-minded citizen groups, build coalitions and address the respective government departments in both countries. In many cases, the issue concerns several regional or neighbouring nations, even the global community itself and requires a co-ordinated approach.

Many global institutions function in a collegial, non-legal way because there is very little in "world law" and certainly no world government.

Considering the cultural and political diversity of the global family of nations, the consensus statements achieved through the United Nations process, for instance, may be seen as quite miraculous. On the other hand, the incredible pace of change and technological advancement indicates that our global institutions must become more responsive to community needs, advancing implementation of agreed upon commitments.

Global Institutions are again an "arena of tension" between differing interests. Corporate institutions such as the World Trade Organization work diligently to achieve policy which will "pry open" markets, make resources available to transnational corporate entities, often without adequate obligations to the nation state in which they are located.

Considering this global "force d'argent", the work of the NGO sector is with the poor, the homeless and the hungry to persuade governments to institute policies which provide greater benefits to local populations.

Canadians have become part of a global community that is completely unlike Canadian reality. Forty percent of the global community is chronically malnourished. Western designed, global economic institutions manipulate borrowing, lending and indebtedness. Environmental impacts such as deforestation of the tropical rainforest (the lungs of the earth) are direct results of the lack of direction in global economic systems for financial equilibrium and advancement of the poorest nations.

Consequently, we lack trading partners with "real" purchasing needs while the "systems" assure resource exploitation which feeds the throw-away societies of the west. The environmental degradation of the western society overshadows that of the larger, but desperately poor populations of developing nations.

Population growth slows with education and health care. We all must rethink lifestyle in terms of sustainability for future generations.    

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United Nations Association of Canada