The perfect rebuttal of this, saving me a bit of time, is found at MorrocoBoard.com – the most damning bit being the following:

The South African delegation voted against resolution on human rights in Myanmar and a British proposal for a briefing on the situation in Zimbabwe, while pushing for similar resolutions against other members of the UN. The South African “undiplomatic” reign over the UNSC was decidedly divisive and non inclusive throwing another blow to the hope of millions of Africans to see their conferences addressed and their voices heard.

If that isn’t enough, our prevention of UN action in Zimbabwe and our assistance in blocking the resolutions on Myanmar, just help to further show what a disaster our time in the powerful chamber has been. Our delegation even voted against a resolution condeming rape as a weapon of war – as the aptly title post South Africa: Supporting Oppression and Torture Abroad shows. (althought to be honest I struggled to find verification of this – but still).

I’m not a huge fan of our government, but generally I am pretty positive about South Africa – yet this is one of this things, when I think about, I believe is disgraceful. I’m not the only one – but I’m surprised I can’t find more bloggers making a deal about this.

Straight away it’s pretty easy to be cynical about this, particularly if you don’t like Tony Blair – but perhaps he is just what this kind of project needs. Nobody is pretending that getting six major religions to work together is easy, and so a big name behind the project might just provide the motivation participants need.

His speech in New York gives some more details – the first part is educational, he calls it religious literacy at one point. To me though the second part has more potential – mobilising faith to help persue the UN Development Goals – beginning with an anti-malaria campaign. I don’t say that simply because I think that the humanitarian goals are more important; but rather I think that they can achieve more and in the long run will help in the work towards the first goal.

There will, of course, be those who think that the whole idea is irrelevant. This isn’t the place I want to deal with the religion argument, but I do think that Blair has a point with his mission. One can’t cast religion aside as irrelevant – and I think that it is quite possible that it will become more relevant in the future, in positive ways (this idea of faith and globalisation is also an interesting one). At the same time, even if you disagree, it is undeniable that religion plays a significant role in the world and the ideals of the project are something to strive for.

As complicated and unclear as it is Tony Blair is onto something here – let’s see where he takes it.