Future Global Network (FGN), a network of NGOs for Peace and Justice of humanity, wish to convey our Solemn Prayers and Greetings for a Peaceful and Harmonious New ‘2008’ Year.
 
Looking back to the previous Year 2007, we could only lament at the sky-rocketing prices of oil and other prime commodities. On the other hand, the world has breathed a sigh of relief with the freezing of Iran’s and North Korea’s, nuclear programs, respectively thus removing two of the apparent contemporary flash points that had threatened peace and stability not only in those parts of the world, but also on the international scene.

The Israeli-Palestine rendezvous in Annapolis under the aegis of the outgoing American president has produced only signs of increased economic sanctions against Palestinians in the occupied territories. In addition to the Apartheid wall nearing its completion, more Israeli settlements are being built on Palestine territory.
 
In Malaysia, politically motivated parliaments of the streets seem to have tainted the good multi-racial image of the country.
 
The assassination of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on December 27, 2007, who is the leading candidate for prime minister’s post in the upcoming January 8, 2008 elections, was another shocking episode to rock the world.
 
The “Confession of an Economic Hit Man” and “The Secret History of the American Empire” books written by John Perkins have revealed a very important chapter in the search for ‘The Truth About Global Corruption’. As a consequence, the rest of the world is almost totally aware of the “International manipulation agenda for total control of the world’s economy” at the highest level of the global political panorama.
 
Let us hope and pray that the ‘international community and freedom-loving nations and peoples of the world’ unite for freedom from foreign domination of their national political, economic and spiritual aspirations in the 2008 ‘year of the rats.’
 
Let us therefore hope that there will be no more economic strangulation to enable poorer and developing countries freedom to chart their own destiny as sovereign entities. As one statesman had said; “The good of mankind should be the ultimate aim of each and every nation.”
 

AHMAD AZAM ABDUL RAHMAN
Chairman, Future Global Network (FGN) and
Council Member, Union of NGOs in the Islamic World (UNIW)