There are a series of photos circulating on social media showing various powerful people wearing a multicolored badge, which the post claims symbolizes that they are part of a secret organisation planning to dominate the world. In reality, this badge was designed by the United Nations to raise awareness about the Sustainable Development Goals.One of these posts, which has been shared nearly 2,000 times on Facebook, includes four photos showing French President Emmanuel Macron; Horacio Arruda, the national public health director of Quebec; Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director general of the World Health Organization and businessman and philanthropist Bill Gates. A red arrow on each of the photos indicates that they are all wearing the same multicolored badge. The post, written in French, translates as follows: Here are several photos showing the head of the World Health Organization, Macron, Bill Gates, Oracio [sic] Arudaand all of the other world leaders wearing this Global Goals badge for a Global Governance! I think that you understood what their objectives are!
This social-media user doesn’t provide any more information. He doesn’t state it explicitly but he hints at the idea of the New World Order, a popular theory in conspiracy theory circles that there is a secret plan to dominate the planet being led by a small number of powerful individuals. So this post claims that anyone wearing this badge is part of this secret organisation.Similar allegations were circulating online back in April 2018. Some of the posts spread the conspiracy theory that Horacio Arruda was secretly working to further the interests of Bill Gates.
Horacio Arruda travaille pour une équipe et ce n’est pas celle du Québec! C’est celle de Bill Gates et des mondialistes qui veulent vous administrer de force un vaccin et une micropuce. Ils portent tous deux l’écusson mondialiste Global Goals. #polqc #radcan #canpoli #covid19Qc pic.twitter.com/Mv0Rp32wgl Captain Capitalist (@leBlogduPlateau) April 28, 2020
Twitter user Captain Capitalist (@leBlogduPlateau) posted (in French): “Horacio Arruda is working for a team and it’s not Team Quebec! He’s with Bill Gates and other globalists who want to forcibly vaccinate us and implant us with a microchip. They are both wearing the globalist badge Global Goals.” Why this narrative is falseWe ran each of these photos through a reverse image search and it confirmed that each one of them was authentic. The photo of Emmanuel Macron was taken in 2018 during a speech he gave at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in New York as part of the “Goalkeepers” conference. The photo of Bill Gates was taken at the same event, but a year earlier, in 2017.The photo of Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was taken in 2018 during a World Health Organization press conference on the Ebola epidemic. The photo of Horacio Arruda was published by several media outlets in Quebec in 2020.So, what is this badge and why are so many people wearing it? The social media user who posted this was right that the badge refers to the “Global goals”, which are the Sustainable Development Goals defined by the United Nations in 2012 and adopted by the member states in 2015. The UN defines these goals as a universal call to action to hit targets by 2030 aimed at ending poverty, protecting the planet and guaranteeing that all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Anyone can order this badge on the UN site.
Screengrab of the UN site where you can buy one of these badges for $7.99. A color has been assigned to each of these 17 goals, which include an end to poverty, gender equality, climate action or access to clean water and sanitation everywhere. The 17 colors together form the circle-shaped logo.On its site, the UN indicates very clearly that these goals “are not legally binding” but push governments to carry out actions to meet these objectives. So the different politicians and influential people who wear this badge aren’t part of a specific group or a secret organisation; when they wear this badge at important meetings or events, it symbolises their support for these goals and their wish to work to further them even though they are not legally bound to do so. That’s also the case for Bill Gates and his foundation. In 2017, they launched a project called “Goalkeepers” to push global leaders to work harder at achieving these goals.
Are we on course to meet these objectives? In an address to the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2020, UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres gave a grim assessment, saying “for the first time in 30 years, poverty is rising. Human development indicators are declining. We are careening off track in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals”. He added that the Covid-19 pandemic had a massive and damaging effect on progress. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has also reported that the pandemic has affected progress towards these goals, leading to an increase in hunger and other forms of food insecurity. The last report by the UN about the Sustainable Development Goals, which was published in July 2020, does include some small signs of progress, including an improvement in maternal and infant health, access to electricity and the representation of women within governments. However, the report did conclude that these small signs of progress were not enough to reach the goals. In summaryThis badge is a symbol of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and, when politicians and public figures wear it, it represents their support for working towards these goals for 2030. These goals are non-binding and the latest reports show that they are far from being met.
