PAST EFFORTS AT JOINDER

SOCIOLOGICAL AND SOCIAL

In addition to the numerous assemblages of nations, or groups from different nations, for reasons having economic bases, there have also been many instances wherein two or more countries, or organizations therefrom have joined together, or otherwise interacted, in the interest of some sociological or humanitarian purpose or cause.

As long ago as 1894, athletic interests from a number of nations met together to form the beginnings of the International Olympic Committee.  It has eventually come to represent over 125 countries, and to oversee the Summer and Winter Olympic Games which are regularly held in various parts of the world.  The Olympics is one shining example of friendly and sportsmanlike encounters among persons from all over the world, as participants and as audiences, wherein there is sought only excellence and victory in a sporting event.

In addition to gatherings for the purpose of sponsoring  and holding international athletic contests, many other early meetings were organized for the purpose of improving conditions for certain peoples within our world.  For example, as early as 1900, an international fund was conceived, and applied toward attempts to eradicate hunger in the Indian subcontinent.  And, in September, 1906, an international conference concerning protection and benefits for the workers of the world opened in Berne, Switzerland.

In 1910, with the particular help of one Jean Henri Durant, a Swiss philanthropist, an international conference was convened which resulted in the formation of the Red Cross.  This is another worthy organization whose activities routinely cross national borders, attempting only to assist people and populations during times of crisis.

An assemblage from a number of nations, calling itself the "U.N. Food Conference," met in Virginia for the first time in 1943, to discuss and implement details for a hoped-for and anticipated equitable worldwide distribution of critical food resources after the conclusion of World War II. 

Sometimes communications between nations having social consequences has consisted only of the policy makers of one nation rendering assistance to needful persons from somewhere else.

For example, in the early part of 1947, Great Britain gave shelter and employment to 20,000 dependent women from German refugee camps.  This token of assistance on Britain's partwas not without its reward for the grantor as well: for it helped allay the labor shortage caused by the casualties of World War II which beset Britain after the War's termination. 

In 1949, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions was founded  Still functioning, its purpose is to promote and safeguard the interests of working people the world over; and it has affiliated trade unions in approximately one hundred countries.  Its headquarters are in Brussels. 

Other things having social significance happened in 1949 as well.  That year, after Russia had imposed a blockade in Germany, the United States and Great Britain joined together to inaugurate and operate the famous "air lift."  This noble undertaking resulted in an airplane landing behind the Russian blockade approximately once each minute, for almost a year.  In doing so, these two allied nations delivered many tons of needed supplies into Berlin during this period.

In November, 1974, a World Food Conference wqas convened in Rome.  It was held for the purpose of seeking and implementing international measures to eradicate hunger and malnutrition throughout our world.  The need to help increase food production in developing countries, via increased assistance by the rest of the world, was the focal point.  An annual food aid target was set as a way to measure accomplishment of the Conference's goals.

In July, 1985, ten thousand gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, on the occasion of an international parley concerning women's rights.  A similar ambition fostered the calling of a World Conference on Women, which opened in Beijing in September, 1995.

And in June, 1987, an international meeting was held in Washington, D.C., for the purpose of establishing more and better means of coping with the worldwide scourge called "AIDS."  This was the third of a series of such assemblages, seeking to deal with but one of so many problems that continue to beset all of us--regardless of nationality or political affiliation.  By August, 1994, the seventh of such conferences was held, this time in Japan.  The bad news was that, by this time it was estimated that more than seventeen million people around the world were infected with HIV.  It is things like this that ought prompt the world to "go to war" to defeat.  Would funneling some of the money spent on bigger and better bombs and bombers into more research in, and wider availability of medications for, tragedies of this nature be of help?  The answer is obvious.

In March, 1995, a conference called the World Summit on Social Development met in Copenhagen.  There, a group of world leaders discussed means to alleviate a number of worldwide social ills, including poverty, unemployment, and social integration.