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IDEAS DON'T REPORT TO CUSTOMS
Terry Koch, staff reporter
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*
Appeared in At Your Leisure, Ogdensburg,
New
York, USA, Sunday, April 9, 1978
There is a poster
on one wall of Stephen Gill's book‑filled office, down in the basement of
his home on a muddy side street in Cornwall. It reads "Only One Earth. One
Way To Preserve It. World Federalism."
Stephen
Gill--novelist, poet, non‑fiction writer, publisher and "citizen of
the world"-- is a national director of World Federalists of Canada"
and the editor of its small newspaper. There in Cornwall, where three borders
(Ontario, Quebec and the United States) meet, at a time when the Quebecois talk
of separatism and other Canadians stress national pride, Gill is doing his
share to try to bring the world together under a single government. "A
person who is born here or has become a citizen is proud," Gill said.
"and that is good. But we should be proud of
being human beings. Just to be proud of being English, Canadian, American,
German...l'm against that."
Gill's own experience
has perhaps broadened his views. He was born and grew up in India. From there
he moved to Ethiopia, where he taught until he moved on again, this time he
migrated to England. Finality he travelled across the Atlantic to Canada, took
citizenship, and settled in Cornwall.
"I became a
world federalist," he said, "before I became a "World
Federalist." I noticed that there
was a double standard in the world. The people were the same everywhere. They
were friendly but the governments were not."
World Federalism
We believe the
whole world is one country," Gill said. "We do not believe in
artificial things like passports."
World Federalists are not shadowy men in trench‑coats furtively
passing out pamphlets from dark doorways in Ottawa's By‑Ward Market. They
are, said Gill, usually lawyers, doctors, writers and "what you might call
intellectuals" pursuing their end through peaceful and democratic means,
avoiding partisan politics and recruiting members from among the ranks of high
elected officials of all political parties in many countries. Norman Cousins,
former editor of the magazine Saturday Review, is a member. So is an MP
from Windsor, Ontario.
The Canadian chapter has about 2,000
members and is headquartered in Ottawa. "We have not used the grassroots
method", Gill said. "We are small but have a great deal of
influence." World Federalists believe they can achieve their goal by
strengthening and restructuring the United
Nations until it
becomes a world
federal authority with
strong powers. They advocate disarmament
through, among other things, unilateral initiatives, control of the arms trade
and monitoring of the export of nuclear technology and equipment (Gill is
against all use of atomic energy). They support a strong worldwide peacekeeping
force with power to intervene even if not
invited.
They believe in
the abolition of all national armies except for internal "police"
purposes and promote compulsory stepwise negotiations to settle disputes
between nations. Although they back
strong efforts toward insuring human rights in all countries, they do not
support interfering with a country's economic system or in other internal
matters.
What About Quebec?
While Gill works
his way toward World Federalism, virtually next door to him Quebec struggles
with the idea of separatism. "World Federalists," he said, "are quite free on the
Quebec issue. Many of us are for a form of (Canadian) federalism that does not
allow for exploitation. The fanatic or extreme part of nationalism we don't
approve of. It hinders world unity.
"We are of
course," Gill added, "for federation, but we don't involve ourselves
in that issue because it is not important. We should think about other
problems. If there is a third world war there won't be a Quebec or a Canada or
a United States left." Driving a wedge between Quebec and the rest of
Canada is the language issue. Some World Federalists, Gill said, support and
learn the use of an "international language" like Esperanto or
Interlingua, "but it's not an issue we involve ourselves in. We have
sympathy for it, but it is up to the people."
A Dream Told Him
One of the books
that fuses his political and writing passions was The
Discovery of Bangladesh, a non‑fiction work that was published in
England. It describes the political circumstances that led to the killing of
3,000,000 of the Bangladesh people by Pakistan. Gill wrote the book, he said,
after he was told to do so in a dream. It was not an elaborate dream, he
added-- simply a voice telling him to write.
Certain dreams,
Gill said, are not caused by "disturbances" like indigestion, and do
not surface from the subconscious, "but are of a spiritual nature. This
dream was one of those." As a
Christian, he points to the history of dream prophecies and dream
interpretations in the Old Testament. "Joseph interpreted dreams.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream and it was interpreted by one of the prophets.
"In a
spiritual sense," he added, "I am guided by dreams." He noted
that as a boy in India he dreamt about a lottery number. The next day no one in
his family bet upon it, but it was the winning number. He hastens to point out that he does not
consider himself a saint or holy man, "but I have developed my own theory.
Persons who are less materialistic, less greedy, can develop this faculty. It
is similar to praying. If one prays for others it helps. But if one prays for
oneself it usually does not."
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