Category Archives: United Nations

Reviews of books on the United Nations.

UN Plaza, International Day of Peace, San Francisco, September 21, 2025

Frederick Glaysher, reading from Into the Ruins of Modernity at the UN Plaza, International Day of Peace, San Francisco, September 21, 2025. 26:49 minutes.

Watch on Youtube Channel or below

Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations June 26, 1945
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which
twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind,
and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
AND FOR THESE ENDS
to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, and to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS
Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.

San Francisco City Hall in the background. Videographer, Jay Krohnengold.

Into the Ruins of Modernity:
FROM Into The Ruins: Poems. By Frederick Glaysher. Softcover. $18.00. Preface. Earthrise Press, 1999; 2024 Revised Edition. Several new poems. 88 pages. ISBN: 9780967042190. Printed in the USA, UK, Australia, India.
FROM The Bower of Nil: A Narrative Poem. Softcover. $18.00. Earthrise Press, 2002; 2024 Revised Edition. 72 pages. ISBN: 9780967042143. Printed in the USA, UK, Australia, India. https://bookshop.org/shop/earthrisepress
Holiday Special 15% Discount, until January 31, 2026, on The Parliament of Poets: An Epic Poem and The Myth of the Enlightenment: Essays use LOVEBOOKSELLERS in the Bookshop Org checkout cart.

Frederick Glaysher has been an outspoken advocate of the United Nations, an accredited participant at the UN Millennium Forum (2000), and attended the UNA Members Day 2012 on the Millennium Development Goals, held in the General Assembly Hall. Member/Board Member, UN Association of Greater Detroit UNA-USA. 2000/2012-2013.

Frederick Glaysher studied writing under a private tutorial, at the University of Michigan, with the poet Robert Hayden and edited both Hayden’s Collected Prose (University of Michigan Press) and his Collected Poems (Liveright). He holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan, the latter in English. At the college and university level, he taught rhetoric, American and non-Western literature, humanities, world religions, etc., for ten years.

He lived for more than fifteen years outside Michigan—in Japan, where he taught at Gunma University in Maebashi; in Arizona, on the Colorado River Indian Tribes Reservation, site of one of the largest internment camps for Japanese-Americans during WWII; in Illinois, on the central farmlands and on the Mississippi; ultimately returning to his suburban hometown of Rochester.

A Fulbright-Hays scholar to China in 1994, Glaysher studied at Beijing University, the Buddhist Mogao Caves on the old Silk Road, and elsewhere in China, including Hong Kong and the Academia Sinica in Taiwan. While a National Endowment for the Humanities scholar in 1995 on India, he further explored the conflicts between the traditional regional civilizations of Islamic and Hindu cultures and modernity.

#unitednations #UNPlaza #sanfrancisco #internationaldayofpeace #poetry #epicpoetry

Leave a Comment

Filed under United Nations

Zoom Poetry Reading for Book Beat Bookstore

“A Little Girl Alongside a Road” is a poem about an experience that I had in China in 1994 (correct date), near Dunhuang, Gansu, relatively close to Xinziang, where perhaps as many as 1.8 million Muslim Uighurs have now been thrown into concentration camps by China and subjected to horrifying abuse and slave labor. We human beings on this planet must honor and protect their dignity and humanity.

Special thanks to ML Lieblier, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, for hosting and inviting me to participate in his recent poetry reading benefit on Zoom for Book Beat bookshop on Sunday, December 6, 2020. Book Beat, Oak Park, Michigan, has a couple of my books available The Parliament of Poets and The Myth of the Enlightenment.

Frederick Glaysher

Leave a Comment

Filed under Epic, United Nations, Universality

The Search for Universal Spirituality. A Talk by Frederick Glaysher

Theosophical Society of Detroit – Friday, December 7, 2018. 7:00 – 9:00 pm. Q&A. 27745 Woodward Avenue, Berkley, MI 48072.

FG
Frederick Glaysher

Frederick Glaysher spoke about the long journey of modernity during the last 130 to 150 years in search of a universal conception of spirituality. Glaysher discusses the book The World’s Parliament of Religions, 1893, and key influential speakers and groups represented at The Parliament in Chicago, including Vivekananda, Brahmo Samaj, the Unitarian Church, and the Theosophical Society, highlighting and surveying Madame Blavatsky’s emphasis on Universal Brotherhood and the study of comparative religion. Further currents include Dara Shikoh, Rammohan Roy, Rabindranath Tagore, Abdul-Baha, Rumi, Kabir, poets and mystics, Emerson. Among other seeking souls touched on, Evelyn Underhill, Arnold Toynbee, Micea Eliade, Joseph Campbell, and Huston Smith.

Frederick Glaysher

Leave a Comment

Filed under Epic, United Nations, Universality

UNA-USA Members Day 2012

I was in New York for a few days at the United Nations Association Members’ Day, February 10, 2012, held in the General Assembly. The dozen panelists discussed a wide range of compelling global issues, including,

UN Peacekeeping: Its evolution and operations globally
The Security Council’s new assertiveness in peace and security
Rio+20: Pre-event expectations and potential impact
Millennium Development Goals: Post-2015: What’s next?
Family Care & Women’s Health and Re-productive Rights

UNA Members Day February 10, 2012

https://www.unausa.org/members-day-2012

View from Jamaica… in the UN General Assembly Hall, where I sat during the UNA Members Day, Feb. 10, 2012. My tweets are available on my Wall below, if interested in highlights.

 

 

 

 

UNA Members Day 2012

View from behind Burundi… in the UN General Assembly, where I sat during the afternoon, the UNA Members Day, Feb. 10, 2012. My tweets are available below, if interested in highlights. Susana Malcorra, UN Under Secretary-General of the Department of Field Support, on peacekeeping. An out-standing speaker…

My Twitter highlights follow…

“Millennium Declaration… unprecedented international compact” “signed by world leaders” #unausa #membersday2012 Corinne Woods –(@fglaysher)

“…relentless corporate propaganda” denies global warming. Jeffery Sachs #unausa Members Day — (@fglaysher) February 13 at 7:13am

JFK …make the world safe for diversity…. this small plant.” #unausa #membersday2012 — (@fglaysher)

Kofi Annan “No government has the right to hide behind national sovereignty.”… Ambassador Di Carlo #unausa

Israel, Palestinians….”need to come to terms.” Di Carlo #unausa #membersday2012 —  February 12 at 9:00pm

“Peacekeeping… the whole range… difficult command and control.” Ugo Salinas #unausa #membersday2012 — fglaysher (@fglaysher)

“…institution building so that the peacekeepers can withdraw.” Ugo Salinas #usauna #membersday2012

“Why has [peacekeeping] not really worked? …lack of speed is a political one.” Wolfgang Weisbrod-Weber #unausa #membersday2012 — fglaysher (@fglaysher) i.e., UN tends not to move fast enough to keep up with a developing crisis. The machinery is not in place to allow it to do otherwise.

“Countries don’t want the Secretary-General to have a rapid response force because he might use it.” Wolfgang #unausa #membersdY2012 — fglaysher…

“Peacekeeping …. is based on the willingness of member states.”

FG sitting in the UN General Assembly, at Jamaica, in the morning. 2012

Leave a Comment

Filed under United Nations