Crosstalk: September 27, 2016

Alex Newman is an international freelance journalist, educator and consultant. He has a degree in journalism from the University of Florida and has worked for numerous publications. He is the co-author of the book 'Crimes of the Educators'. As a freelance journalist he writes for The New American.

On October 17-20th U.N. member governments will come together in Quito, Ecuador, to meet regarding the 'New Urban Agenda'. According to Alex, this project is part of the broader U.N agenda. It's 24 pages of nice sounding rhetoric that's essentially the U.N.'s attempt to hijack local governments and use them to impose strict rules in areas of planning, culture, education and basically every facet of life.

On a more specific level, Alex mentioned how the U.N. wants to herd people into what the U.N. refers to as compact 'smart cities'. These would be total surveillance societies. They'll know what time you get on the metro each day, what signs you pass on your way to work, the energy usage in your house and more. All of that data will be collected from these human settlements for their 'smart city' initiative.

The U.N. feels this is in our best interest, will bring about equality and make us more prosperous. Alex believes that when you dig deeper and look through the rhetoric, the official justification becomes the idea of sustainability. If you look at how the U.N. has defined sustainability over the years, they have been honest about how they feel concerning middle class consumption in various areas. In other words, the goal appears to be one of severely constricting the ability of individuals to be able to consume resources. This means government at the local, regional, national and global levels must recognize their responsibility to reorient production and consumption.

Is higher education actually a threat to sustainability? Can people avoid the U.N.'s plans by moving to a rural area? Is over-population somehow tied into this? What is the status of the American Sovereignty Restoration Act? These and other questions are answered when you review this edition of Crosstalk.