Building world democracy through the UN

The evolution of autonomous units of organized human society from tribes to sovereign nation‐states has been paralleled by a belief in a need for global unification under a religious or secular authority.

A modern alternative to the subordination of nation‐state sovereignty to a higher authority is to restrain the excesses of the established world system by institutionalizing in the United Nations a democratic voice for the world public's opinions. This could be done by means of: (1) a UN Second ('we the peoples') Assembly or related proposal; (2) a UN Parliamentary Assembly to represent national parliaments; (3) an assembly representative of non‐governmental organizations affiliated with the UN or its Agencies and other bodies; (4) a UN‐grassroots system for information‐sharing and dispute‐solving.

The paper summarizes the principles of these approaches, and outlines in more detail the multidisciplinary basis of the concept of a UN Second Assembly, the Penrose method for equitable voting power or distribution of seats in a world assembly, and the work of the International Network for a UN Second Assembly (INFUSA) including the initiative for a series of international Conferences on A More Democratic United Nations (CAMDUN).     

Congenital Rosai–Dorfman disease presenting with anemia,thrombocytopenia, and hepatomegaly

Rosai–Dorfman disease (RDD) is a rare entity of non‐Langerhans cell histiocytoses (non‐LCH) which usually presents with bilateral painless cervical lymphadenopathy. We describe a neonate with RDD who presented with anemia, thrombocytopenia and hepatomegaly. He recovered spontaneously with conservative management. This represents an atypical presentation of RDD. Conservative management with close monitoring can be adopted for some with systemic involvement. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2009;52:415–417. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.