The winds of change have, unlike ever before, cast reservations over the international order of reverence. As each nation scrambles to keep its citizens out of harms way, multilateralism, or in simpler terms, unity of nations is neglected. Nations, in such times of uncertainty, must unite. Unite, not for personal enrichment but global welfare. The beacon of hope and the long-standing guardian of united world order, the United Nations must, as it has in the past, act to unite. In this regard, history postures itself as a potent catalyst illustrating the virtues of multilateralism. 1960, like 2020 was marred with political turmoil, unprecedented world events, and an increasingly divided society. On the 3rd day of February in 1960, Prime Minister Harold Macmillans, an evangelist in hopes of reviving multilateralism, addressed the Parliament of South Africa in Cape Town. His speech was titled, the Winds of Change and coincided with the British empires decline in comparison to the rise of independence movements within the British colonies.

Before addressing the Parliament, the British Prime Minister traveled around the Union and found a deep preoccupation with what was happening in the rest of the African continent. He said, I understand and sympathize with your interests in these events and your anxiety about them. Ever since the breakup of the Roman Empire, one of the constant facts of political life in Europe has been the emergence of independent nations. They have come into existence over the centuries in different forms and kinds of Governments. But all have been inspired by a deep keen feeling of nationalism. In the 20th Century and especially since the end of the wars, the processes which gave birth to the nation-states of Europe have been repeated all over the world.

We have seen the awakening of national consciousness in peoples who have, for centuries, lived in dependence upon some other power. Fifteen years ago this movement (de-colonisation) spread through Asia. Many countries, of different races and civilizations, pressed their claim to an independent nation. Today, the same is happening in Africa. The wind of change is blowing through this continent and whether we like it or not this the growth of national consciousness is a political fact. We must all accept it as fact and our national policies must take account of it. I sincerely believe that if we cannot do so, we may peril the precarious balance between East and West on which the peace of the world depends. The struggle is joined and it is a struggle for the minds of men. This is much more than our military strength or our diplomatic and administrative skill. It is, of our way of life at the same time we must recognize that in this shrinking world in which we live today, the internal policies of one nation may have effects outside it. So we may sometimes be tempted to say mind your own business. These days, I would expand the old saying so that it says, mind your own business but mind how it affects my business too.

The population of America like Africas is a blend of many different strains. Over the years most of those whove gone to North America have gone there to escape conditions in Europe. The Pilgrim Fathers were escaping from persecution, as Puritans were escaping the Marylanders. Roman Catholics, throughout the 19th century witnessed a stream of immigrants across the Atlantic from the Old World to the New to escape. From the poverty in their homelands and now in the 20th Century, the United States have provided asylum for the victims of political oppression in Europe. Thus, for the majority, America has been a place of refuge. Therefore, for many years the main objective of American statesmen, supported by the American public, was to isolate themselves from Europe. Americans, with their great material strength and the vast resources which were open to them saw this as an attractive and practicable course. Nevertheless, twice in my lifetime in the two Great Wars of these 50 years, they have been unable to stand aside. Twice, their manpower and arms have streamed back across the Atlantic to shed its blood in those European struggles from which their ancestors thought they could escape by immigrating to the New World. When the Second War was over, they were forced to recognize that in the small world of today, isolationism is out of date and more than that, it offers no assurance of security. The fact is that, in this modern world no country, not even the greatest can live for itself alone.

What Dr. John Donne said of individual men 300 years ago is true today of my country, of your country, and all the countries, any mans death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls it tolls for thee. All nations are now interdependent. Yet, they are, one upon another, and this is generally realized throughout the Western world. Russia has been isolationist in her time and still has tendencies that way but the fact remains that we must live in the same world. With Russia, we must find a way of doing. Similarly, the independent members of the Commonwealth do not always agree on every subject. It is not a condition of their association that they should do so.

On the contrary, the strength of our Commonwealth lies largely on the fact that it is a free association. Free, independent and responsible for ordering its affairs. But, bearing in mind that, cooperation, in the pursuit of common aims and purposes in world affairs. Moreover, these differences may be transitory in time. They may be resolved. We must see them in this perspective, in a perspective against the background of our long association. If this, at any rate, I am certain those of us, who by the grace or favor of the electors are temporarily in charge of affairs in your country and mine, we, fleeting transient phantoms of the great stage of history have no right to sweep aside on this account the friendship that exists between our countries. That is the legacy of history. It is not ours alone to deal with. To adapt to a famous phrase, it belongs to those who are living, it belongs to those who are dead, and to those who are unborn. We must face the differences but let us try to see a little beyond them. Down the long Vista of the future but as time passes and as one generation yields to another, human problems change and fade. Let us, therefore, resolve to build and not to destroy. Let us also remember, weakness comes from division and in words, familiar to you, strength from unity.

As pervasive viruses infiltrate lives on racial, health, gender and sexual orientations. The virus of stigmatization and isolationism personifies the 21st Century and the myriad of global complications. Life, as it was known, is on trial. The inequalities have perpetuated and have fundamentally shifted the world in a stagnant state of paralysis. But, it is worth remembering that only after the Dark Ages was there an Age of Renaissance and only after a crisis would one value the values it espoused. As the turbulent winds of change are blowing throughout the world and the global human consciousness must rise. Otherwise, the ultimate tragedy of humanity will prevail. Thus, to survive, we must unite and hope we can live to fight another day.

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