Armed with a new sex scandal that can further damage Republican opponents of the Obama Administration, our media haven’t found much time to cover the U.N. Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis underway at the world organization’s headquarters in New York. But the Obama White House is working hand-in-glove with a Communist Catholic Priest who gave a bizarre speech on Wednesday devoted to saving “Mother Earth” from evil capitalists.

A performance as gripping as that of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford admitting to adultery was turned in by Miguel D’Escoto, the President of the U.N. General Assembly, when he declared that “There is a growing awareness that we are all sons and daughters of Earth and that we belong to her.” He urged “a planetary civilization” that is “more respectful of Mother Earth, more inclusive of all people and with more solidarity with the poorest, which is more spiritual and full of reverence for the splendor of the universe and which is much happier.”

D’Escoto, who was suspended from his priestly functions by the anti-communist Pope John Paul II, is an advocate of Marxist-oriented Liberation Theology and received the Lenin Peace Prize.

He said the U.N. must become a Noah’s Ark to save humanity.

D’Escoto is the same U.N. figure who recently dismissed the Iranian president’s threat to wipe Israel off the map by saying, “Words don’t kill.”

But words do mean something, and D’Escoto masked his call for global socialism in fancy and flowery words and phrases. He made it clear with his talk of protecting “Mother Earth” that environmentalism would be the ticket to the creation of the new international socialist order. 

D’Escoto declared that “We still need to recognize that the globalized means of production, in their industrial voracity, have in large measure devastated the Earth and thus have also damaged the common good of Earth and humanity. We must urgently seek other paths that are more humane and more favorable towards life: the paths of justice and solidarity which lead to peace and happiness.”

Capitalism cannot be reformed, he said, adding that “…controls and corrections of the existing model, while undoubtedly necessary, are insufficient in the medium and long term. Their inherent ability to address the global crisis has proven to be weak. Stopping at controls and corrections of the model would demonstrate a cruel lack of social sensitivity, imagination and commitment to the establishment of a just and lasting peace. Egotism and greed cannot be corrected. They must be replaced by solidarity, which obviously implies radical change. If what we really want is a stable and lasting peace, it must be absolutely clear that we must go beyond controls and corrections of the existing model to create something that strives towards a new paradigm of social coexistence.”

The solution, he went on, involves the affirmation of a “global ethic” for “safeguarding the common good of the Earth and humanity.”

He explained, “We will start with the assumption that the community of peoples is simultaneously a community of common goods. These cannot be appropriated privately by anyone and must serve the life of all in present and future generations and the community of other living beings.”

The reference to being “appropriated privately” was, of course, a dig at global capitalism and the concept of private property.

If we don’t replace capitalism with international socialism, he said that “we could arrive at the same destiny which has already befallen the dinosaurs.”

In fact, Soviet-style communism went the way of the dinosaurs but its adherents, such as D’Escoto, are very much alive, and working with the Obama administration through the U.N. That was evident in the opening remarks to the conference provided by Obama’s very good friend and close adviser, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan E. Rice. She said that the United States had “placed the highest priority” on the conference and that “President Obama understands that our collective response to the crisis will make up an important moment in world history.” Committing to more foreign aid from hard-pressed U.S. taxpayers, Rice went on to say that “the United States understands that we have an economic, security, and moral obligation to extend a hand to the countries and the people who face the greatest risks today. That is why we have supported substantial increases in resources to boost the emergency lending capacity of the IMF. That is why we have backed increases to help regional development banks accelerate lending of their own.

The theme of a new international socialist order was predictably echoed by Rodrigo Malmierca Diaz of Communist Cuba, who said that the U.N. conference “must define the mandates, duties, governance structure, and management procedures of the new international monetary and financial institutions” that are supposed to come into being.

Making it clear that the U.S. would lose its sovereignty and standing in this process, he added that “…it must lead us to a pattern of monetary reference not depending on the economic stability, legislation or political decisions of only one country.” He called for “an international economic order based on sustainable development and the generation of wealth on the basis of justice.” This new system will have institutions “subordinated to the United Nations system,” he said.

Almost as bizarre as some of the opening remarks, the United Nations University has produced a special “conversation series” in connection with the conference with such notables as American leftist Professor Noam Chomsky, a leader of the Communist Party spin-off group, the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism. The United Nations University describes Chomsky as being among “the most important intellectual and policy voices from around the globe.”

The “conversation” with Chomsky consists of links to his various media appearances, including on the far-left “Democracy Now!” radio program hosted by Amy Goodman, and Iranian television.

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