Have you received an email purporting to be a UN petition for peace, and urging you to add your name to it and then send it on to all your friends, and then every 500 or so, forward it to the UN? Yes? Well, before you send it on, please stop and think.
You might be interested to know that one of my good friends is listed on the petition with her maiden name - and she’s never signed this petition.
When she received a copy of this petition the other day, she was surprised to see her name on it, because she’d never seen it before. Since she got married three years ago, the name must pre-date that. Eventually, she figured out that the list of names (up to at least #200) had been lifted wholly from a different petition - the one for women’s rights in afghanistan. You remember than one doing the rounds in 1999-2000?
You can compare the name lists here: http://www.geocities.com/paths_of_wisdom/online/afghan.html
Would you like your name on the UN petition to be used at a later date in support of (or against) something else entirely? Regardless of whether you agree with the sentiments behind the petition, adding your name should be a personal choice. I oppose the wholesale importing of petition name lists from one cause to another, because it makes the whole idea of petitions untrustworthy - like photocopying signed sheets to make it up to a million signatures, or copying names out of the phone book.
Anyway, I’d warn people against signing this or any online petition which relies on distribution by email, because they are generally not what they say they are. In this case, the UN Petition for Peace is a hoax and not sanctioned in any way by the UN - anyone who submits a copy to the UN, as instructed, will receive the following response: http://unicwash.org/unic%20was%20response%20to%20petition.htm
As it states there, “We would suggest that since it is member governments of the UN who will decide on whatever action occurs in various situations, citizens should contact their own government.”
If you receive this email petition, and feel moved to sign it, please contact your own government representatives to register your dissent, and urge those who feel passionately about this issue to do the same. One email to a member of parliament will do a lot more than ten hoax emails circulated. I’m all for people doing something to prevent war, or to speak up against it, but it’s so important for that energy to go into activities that might actually make a difference.
More information about the hoax:
– http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-un-petition.htm
– http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/un.htm
– http://www.sophos.com/virusinfo/hoaxes/unpetition.html
