There is a very moving paid announcement on the top right corner of page A8 of today's NYTimes. It consists of the text of a resolution passed by the government of the City of Geneva for submission to the federal Swiss goverment, and nothing else.
RESOLUTION BY THE AUTHORITIES OF THE CITY OF GENEVA, SWITZERLANDWhat you cannot see on this screen is the Coat of Arms at the top of the text. Below the shield is a pennant bearing the City's optimistic motto "Post tenebras lux" (after the darkness, the light). The motto had its origin in the middle of the 16th century. It refers to the Reformation. May it be an omen for our own age of darkness.Considering that:
Geneva, as the European headquarters of the United Nations Organization (UN), is a center of negotiation, mediation and the search for peaceful solutions;
as such, our City is a member of the International Association of Peace Messenger Cities, of which it currently holds the Presidency;
the likelihood of a military intervention by the United States and their allies against Iraq is an ever-increasing threat;
sanctions imposed on Iraq are already inflicting the sufferings of war on its population;in the event of war, the first victims will as usual be innocent civilians;
international law, and the institutions responsible for ensuring its application, provide a more effective guarantee for peace and democracy than do the weapons and culture of war,
the authorities of the City of Geneva invite the Swiss government to use all means within its power to prevent war, in particular by intervening in favor of peace, within the framework of the UN.