YouSaid · the spoken record

Bird

THE RECORD WRITES THIS SPEAKER AS BIRD

lines on the record: 92
first: 1982-09-24
most recent: 1986-09-24
sittings or episodes: 3
sources: un-general-debate

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“But there has been no consultation with other States; there has been no discussion with other countries. Of course, their response to this charge of lack of consultation will be that the Treaty is open for signature to all, but this ignores the reality that signature does not accord membership in the decision-making commission, nor does it take account of the fact that the presence of South Africa among the Contracting Parties makes it impossible for any State which genuinely opposes the vileness of apartheid to sit in the council of the decision-making commission of the Antarctic Treaty. 19. Antarctica is not so unique as to render a universal leper any less leprous. 20. We have asked for a study of Antarctica in an effort to take into account all the concerns about the area.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“Antarctica covers one tenth of the Earth's surface. It is larger than Australia, larger than Europe, larger than the United States and Mexico combined and larger than India and China together. It is half as big again as the United States. It seems likely that Antarctica's continental shelves harbor vast reserves of oil and gas. It is known to have other minerals, and its marine life is abundant. 17. Since 1959 a handful of countries have arrogated to themselves the right to manage Antarctica under the Antarctic Treaty. They have thus far concluded a convention on marine resources and established a secretariat to service their activities under the convention. They are now in the process of negotiating a regime on minerals exploitation. 18.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“My country welcomes the news of such magnificent co-operation among the Contracting Parties, and we call upon each of them individually and all of them collectively to extend this capacity for co-operation from Antarctica t$ other areas in which they are involved, including arm: imitation, disarmament and territorial disputes. Were they able to do so, the world would become a safer place for this generation to inhabit and for succeeding generations to inherit. The quality of all our lives would improve and the prospects for sustained betterment would be assured. 15. My delegation joined t le delegation of Malaysia in proposing the inscription of the question of Antarctica in the agenda of this thirty-eighth session We are grateful that the General Committee saw merit in endorsing the inscription. 16.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“Not only the rest of the world but their own people were denied any knowledge of the decisions reached or plans made by that small group of States. 13. It took an initiative before this body by my small country, Antigua and Barbuda, together with another small country, Malaysia, for the world publicly to learn that two super-Powers co-operate in Antarctica in a way they failed to do through the cold war, the Cuban missile crisis and the invasion of Afghanistan. Further, it took that same initiative for the world to learn from the mouths of the representatives of two other countries which last year were at war with each other that they, too, are able to co-operate with each other peacefully and constructively in Antarctica. 14.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“It is not as if these Governments are incapable of negotiation; it is not as if they are unable to reach agreement. During this debate and in a meeting of the General Committee preceding it we heard several countries which are normally antagonists tell us how they are able to co-operate in their mutual interest. Two very large Powers told us in a meeting of the General Committee that in Antarctica they co-operate one with the other; they exchange information and conclude conventions on exploitation of marine resources. We were delighted to learn of this co-operation. We recognize that we had not heard about their co-operation before because for 22 years all the meetings of the Consultative Parties to the Antarctic Treaty' have been secret, held behind closed doors.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“The South Korean airline tragedy in which an aircraft carrying 269 civilians was shot down by the Soviet Union brought the human face of cold-war politics brutally and vividly to the world's attention. We looked at that face and it was ugly. We saw mothers weeping for children they would never see again and wives fatally wrenched from husbands. We looked upon that ugly human face that could so callously cause innocent life to be slaughtered, and anger raged within us. There, but for fortune, could have been your wife, my children, your mother. The has come for the Assembly to demand a halt to the madness which produces such tragedy. The time has come for sanity to be recalled to international relations and to be given pride of place. 12.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“In our view, the Prime Minister of Canada is fundamentally correct that we can wait no longer if we are to foreclose the prospects of wars from space. Already it appears that faceless men, in anonymous offices in a few of the world's capitals, are determined to make a reality of science fiction—to play space roulette with the lives of people as the stake and ultimate destruction as the purse. 10. My country resents the fact that we are simply a pawn in a series of global war games. We call upon this body, we urge all nations, large and small, and we summon all peoples, white and black, to resist the tyranny of the minority and to call to account those Governments whose philosophy of militarism threatens the survival of all. 11.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“In this context, Antigua and Barbuda calls for the fullest internationalization of the discussion on arms limitation and disarmament. At the least the United Nations should have a presence at the Geneva talks. But this body should also establish practical mechanisms to sensitize the peoples of the world to the dangers of arms escalation and to alert them to the frightening military technology which now surrounds us. For it is only through such methods, it is only by educating world opinion, including the opinion of the people whose Governments are the principal participants in the arms race, that we can hope to recall this planet from the precipice of mass destruction. 9. My delegation supports the proposal of Canada that a working group on arms control and outer space be established by the Committee on Disarmament.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“We deeply resent the arrogance which leads some States to believe that they have a God- given right to make decisions for the rest of us without dialogue and without discussion. Unless this wanton and wilful disregard for the majority of the world's peoples is corrected, global peace will always elude us and global stability will remain a meaningless dream. 7. Of necessity, the principal characters in disarmament and arms Imitations talks must be those who have so developed and stockpiled those weapons that their participation is mandatory. But the Assembly cannot abandon the task to them alone, for we are now all involved; we are now all consumed by the folly which threatens the extinction of the human race. We have an obligation to our own peoples and to humanity as a whole to bring an end to the madness of militarization. 8.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“Thus, in the drama of negotiation which is being enacted at Geneva on disarmament and arms limitation, the starring roles—indeed the only roles— are being played by the two countries whose arsenals have the capacity for total human obliteration. The rest of us— even though we represent the majority of mankind—have no voice, no say, not a single utterance in those discussions which may well decide whether we live or die. 6. My people find it difficult to place their fate in the hands of any whom they cannot bring to account. I suspect the majority of the peoples of the world hold a similar position. We are dissatisfied with the tyranny of the minority. We are frustrated with being discarded by a handful of countries.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“In the wide scheme of great-Power politics, we are ignored because we do not point a missile at some other country's capital; we are marginalized because we threaten none with weapons of mass destruction; we are disregarded because we have neither the economic strength nor the inclination to intimidate other nations in the world community. 4. In other words, in a world that has become progressively more susceptible to the threat of power, small countries such as mine are discovering with increasing frequency that the principles of justice, equality, universal peace and development for which this body was created are nothing short of illusions—illusions which now only scantily conceal the reality of naked power currently dictating the destiny of humanity as a whole. 5.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“Your well-known negotiating abilities will help to carry this session to a sensible resolution of the issues which lie before us. 2. I also wish to take this opportunity to welcome the newest Member of the United Nations, Saint Christopher and Nevis. This is a small island State, a neighbour of my own country, which has demonstrated that although it is small it is prepared to play a role in international affairs. 3. Apart from Saint Christopher and Nevis, my country, Antigua and Barbuda, was the most recent State to become a Member of the United Nations. We are a small island State, a member of that group of States that is militarily weak and economically vulnerable.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“1. Mr. President, may I first of all congratulate you on your election to the presidency of the thirty-eighth session of the General Assembly. My delegation finds particular pleasure in your election since it testifies to the abundance of talent to he found in our region, Latin America and the Caribbean. Your vast experience of multilateral diplomacy within the United Nations with be much needed during a session which already promises to be of vital importance to the future of mankind as a whole. Beyond the policy statements which we have already heard from such a large number of heads of State is the crucial work which must take place behind the scenes to reconcile divergent views and turn dissension into discussion.”
1983-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 38 (1983)
“It should be a vision which acknowledges the pluralistic nature of our societies, accepts the inevitability of our economic interdependence and resolves that our children should inherit a peaceful and prosperous planet. The Assembly is in a unique position to help mankind establish that vision, for the conditions outside this building-in the cities and rural dwellings of our many countries-demand urgent change. It is a task which should be embraced with alacrity, for future generations will judge us harshly if, despite our recognition of a need to act, we sacrifice long- term global well-being for short-term national gains. Antigua and Barbuda stands committed to help make such a vision a reality.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“The depression of the 1930s and the Second World War were followed by unprecedented international co-operative efforts to reconstruct the world economy. The international economic order, which was established as a result of those efforts, can no longer cope with the realities of the 1980s, but the efforts which attended its creation are worthy of emulation. For it is a similar kind of international effort which our global community requires today, one which includes countries of the North and South, the East and West. Such an effort must have as its goal a vision of how the world could be if there were a will by Governments to make it so.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“My delegation was pleased to see a report this week that the chairmen of the biggest corporations in the United States, including many of those that count on the Pentagon for their business, have called for a cut in military spending. Although their objective may be confined to narrow national concerns in the United States, it is at least an acknowledgement by a powerful group that military spending is not sacrosanct. A halt to the arms race has become a matter for urgent global action in the cause of mankind's survival. The Assembly would fail to satisfy the noble ideals for which the United Nations was established if we turn a deaf ear to the eloquent calls for peace and a halt to the arms race that have echoed so profoundly across so many continents.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“Developing countries received approximately $20 billion in assistance from industrialized nations last year; this year the United States alone will spend $18 billion on exploring the military uses of outer space. Total military spending' last year was $700 billion. That sum totals more than the entire income of 1,500 million people living in the 50 poorest countries. We should all consider what those funds would mean to the quality of life in developing countries if a portion were released for development assistance. Moreover, the rich nations should consider what effect the release of such funds would have on the productive sectors of their own economies, on jobs for their own young people and on health care for their old.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“They are not content that it should remain so. They want a broader, more comprehensive response from Governments, and it is obvious that such a response must be practical steps to arrest the arms race and to devise a system of collective security which demands of each nation a commitment to the protection of mankind as a whole. The arms race competes with development objectives. It not only robs the productive process of resources, it also deprives humanity of the funds needed to improve the quality of life. It not only creates international tension, it stagnates national economies. There are shocking statistics available to all who would pay attention. Funds allocated for technical assistance to all developing countries for the next five years are less than will be spent on weapons in the next five days.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“This summer they openly demonstrated in major cities, including here in New York, the seat of the United Nations. The protests of this generation against the continuous, unrelenting stockpiling of weapons have broken out like a rash. It is a rash of resistance, an epidemic of health in an otherwise unhealthy world. Many of those young people associate the failure to halt the arms race with the ineffectiveness of the Assembly, for in the creation of the United Nations did not Governments enshrine in the Charter a role for collective security? Did they not promise mankind to make the world a safe place in which to live? Did they not extend the hope of an enduring respite from the horrors of war? A generation has come to maturity with conventional wars and the threat of nuclear war still menacing their lives.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“We appeal to both countries to renew their commitment to the Charter and to end this bloody conflict, by complying with Security Council resolutions 514 (1982) and 522 (1982). In doing so, they would ease the suffering of both their peoples, who have been the greatest losers in the confrontation. One cannot help but wonder how many thousands of lives would have been saved, how much destruction averted and how much real development achieved had the Assembly's work on disarmament positive results rather than unmitigated failure. Much was expected from the second special session devoted to disarmament held earlier this year, particularly as tension heightened in so many parts of the world. Not least among those who had high expectations of the disarmament session were hundreds of thousands of young people all over the world.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“These legitimate rights of the Palestinian people must be satisfied, and my Government will steadfastly support every initiative to secure those rights for the Palestinian people, while recognizing that Israel also has a right to exist securely within agreed and recognized boundaries. In any event, as my country has opposed acquisition of territory by force in our own Latin America and recently in the South Atlantic, so we oppose similar acts of aggression in the Middle East. The conflict between Iraq and the Islamic Republic of Iran is another instance of the United Nations being ignored. This two-year military engagement has also cost many thousands of lives. It has been particularly savage, with prisoners-of-war on one side being slaughtered in contravention of their rights as prisoners.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“The tragedy of Lebanon points once again to the manner in which some nations are willing to bypass the United Nations and to disregard its peacekeeping roles. The fact that a search for a solution to the Middle East problems is going on and that a peace-keeping force is in Lebanon without the involvement of the Security Council considerably dilutes the worth of the Organization. It makes small countries like mine wonder about the purpose of coming here at a cost we cannot afford, when the United Nations is dismissed by those who are its greatest power- brokers. Central to the issue which has wrought such catastrophe in the Middle East is the Fight of the Palestinian people to self-determination and their further right to a land of their own in the West Bank and Gaza.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“Consequently, the people of the Middle East, who have suffered so agonizingly long, have found no respite from the pain of war. The recent massacre in the Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut was a cold-blooded and brutal act of barbarism. It goes beyond merely epitomizing the tragedy of the Middle East; it adds a new dimension to the horrors of the confrontation. Lebanon has become the bleeding heart of the world. Its anguish is shared in every man's conscience. This country deserves the urgent support of the international community to bind its wounds, restore its national pride and reconstruct its economy. The Israeli forces could now be helpful to that process if they were to withdraw immediately from Lebanese territory.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“The freedom of the people of Namibia must no longer be blocked by the perpetrators in Pretoria of the wicked system of apartheid must it be delayed by any attempt to link it with the withdrawal of Cuban troops from Angola. The independence of the Namibian people is just, justified and justifiable; it should not be used to serve the national interests of other countries. I wish I could point to the Middle East as an area where the United Nations has been effective, for if this were true thousands of lives would have been spared, cities would have been saved from ruin, and millions of dollars would have been channelled into improving rather than destroying societies. Unfortunately, the principles of the Charter have been flagrantly disregarded and resolutions of the Security Council have been wilfully ignored.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“We do not appear to have much chance of isolating the virus of South Africa, when a Committee established by the General Assembly in to draft an international convention against in sports is unable to present an agreed convention six years later. But we must continue to try, for what is happening in South Africa is a mark against all mankind, an assault on our decency, violence to our world as human beings. It requires every Government represented in the Assembly to support efforts to uphold creative ways in which the wrongs in South Africa can be put right. Not least amongst our efforts must be the full implementation of Security Council resolution 435 (1978), which establishes the framework for the independence of Namibia.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“Those atrocities are now legion: the permanent imprisonment of South African blacks for the crime of believing that they have a right to be free; the sentencing to death of young men because they fought to wrest their country from minority control; the dumping of hundreds of thousands of black South Africans in hastily created Bantustans in order to deprive them of citizenship in the land of their birth. We do not appear to have much chance of addressing the problem of South Africa in the comprehensive manner which it demands if we are unable to compel Member States to comply with our resolutions.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“The inhuman system of apartheid has gone beyond excess in its brutality against the black majority. The iniquities of its regime continue to mock the authority of this body. And what is reprehensible about the success of the South African regime is that Pretoria has received tacit support from many large transnational and some of the very Governments which sit in this Hall. Many will plead that, although they have a connection with South Africa, they decry and bemoan the system is simply an excuse, for they are as aware as we are, though perhaps not as painfully, that any support given to Pretoria serves only to strengthen the regime and intensify its atrocities.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“In this time of disarray in the world economy it is crucially important to establish an international trading system in which the developing countries are accorded a fair and equitable place. Therefore we call on Governments represented in the Assembly to approach the GATT Ministerial Meeting in November with the will to return to a set of agreed principles and rules applying to all international trade and providing a recognizable and ordered framework within which it can grow. Therein, we believe, lies the basis for promoting a sound world economy. Failure to achieve change in global economic arrangements is not the only example of the -Assembly's resolve to right wrongs being thwarted. South Africa is yet another burning example. South Africa continues to be a running sore upon the face of this earth.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“It is believed in some capitals that by shutting out the goods of developing countries local production will be stimulated to the benefit of the national economy. The evidence against that argument is now well known. Indeed recent studies have shown that between and 1977 protectionist measures imposed by the United States on goods imported from Latin America and the Caribbean resulted in a loss to consumers of $1,250 million for carbon steel, $1,200 million for footwear, $660 million for sugar, $400 million to $800 million for meat, and $500 million for television sets-a total of $4 billion for these five items. The cost to the consumer for every job protected was more than $50,000 per year. I submit that the national economy did not benefit in the long run.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“For instance, one in every 18 jobs in the United States is in manufacturing for the third world. In such circumstances it is in the interests of all, including the industrialized nations, for third world States to survive. For if we are unable to purchase goods produced by the developed States they will lose many more millions of jobs, and that may be the trigger for those violent reactions which have not yet erupted in the streets. I have already mentioned our failure to advance the global negotiations and the reduction of aid to developing countries as setbacks to a prosperous global economy. Let me now add protectionism. The protectionism practiced by some developed States is the short-term answer to the problems of adjustment raised by the current recession.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“Those countries have the gratitude of the developing world; they deserve the respect of the international community as a whole. They are Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, from Europe, and Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, three major donor countries that are members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, which gave 3.02 per cent of their gross national product in 1980. It is true that by providing aid in the volume that they have those donors have greatly assisted poor third-world States which are the worst victims of the current recession. But those donors have also rendered a service to the global community, especially the rich, for the third world countries are now the biggest market for the goods of the industrialized nations.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“Developing countries have not only been denied the opportunity to discuss a framework for an international economic system based on the fundamentals of social justice and equality; they have also experienced a reduction in the quantum of badly needed assistance. Official development assistance from the Western industrialized nations decreased by 4 per cent in real terms in 1981. Official development assistance from the Eastern European countries, including the Soviet Union, is of course selective, and these countries have yet to show any interest in the international dialogue on aid, though they are active participants, to their own benefit, in the process of trade. Only a few nations provided more than 0.7 per cent of their gross domestic product, which this body established as a desirable minimum, in the form of assistance.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“Discussion on the global negotiations has been shunted from the thirty-sixth to the thirty-seventh session of the Assembly. While this delaying game has been played in the United Nations the prospects for growth and development in poor countries have been diminished by similar actions in other international organizations. At the recent joint meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank group in Toronto the few ensured that an urgent call by the Group of 24 for an increase in the Fund's quotas of not less than 100 per cent would be ignored. Equally, efforts to persuade donors to the International Development Association to improve their contributions in view of the Association's vital importance to poor countries met with only partial success.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“None the less that is precisely why I state it, for the attention of the Organization and other international organizations must be focused on their collective impotence to meaningfully address the problems of the world while the will of s few dominates the aspirations of the many. As we consider the issues about which the many in the Organization have been concerned, we are struck by the dismal record of failure which confronts us. Let us first examine efforts in the Assembly to bring about change in the global economic arrangements. Although 1981 was the date set for the completion of global negotiations on trade, energy, raw materials, development finance and monetary issues, the few have ensured that this body has failed to produce agreement even on the procedures for such negotiations.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“In fact recent history has shown that the veto has been used to safeguard narrow national interests in defiance of world opinion and the decisions of the Assembly. The use of the veto in such a manner does not inspire confidence in the Security Council. In this context my delegation contends that the most effective action that can be taken to restore the Council to the position of influence which the Charter intended for it is to end the veto system and to democratize the process of decision-making. Even as I state my delegation's position I am sadly aware that it has little chance of becoming a reality, for those that hold power seldom relinquish it willingly.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“But surely the results of a war, in whose creation the majority of the world's people played no part, should not continue to advise the procedures of the Security Council on an everlasting basis. In his report the Secretary-General has himself said that "allegations of partisanship" have been used by some Member States to justify side-tracking the Security Council. He has called on us to "take such matters with the utmost seriousness and ask ourselves what justifications, if any, there are for them and what can be done to restore the Council to the position of influence it was given in the Charter". There is no doubt that there exists among Member States a genuine fear that in certain circumstances members of the Security Council could act in a partisan manner.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“The Secretary-General's report has identified a number of important ways in which the effectiveness of the United Nations could be improved and enhanced, particularly in regard to collective international security. Therecommendations, especially the call for a meeting of the Security Council at the highest possible level to discuss the problems of the United Nations, should be given the support of all Member States. In my view, part of the agenda of that meeting should be consideration of how much more effective the United Nations might be if we ended the veto system provided for the permanent membership of the Security Council. The concept of a veto was developed at the end of the Second World War when a few nations held dominion over many.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“What we have heard is a discourse of the deaf; a mouthing of prearranged statements with no interest in response or reply. Statements have not been made for the benefit of other nations, let alone the world; they have been made for political mileage in national capitals. In that context the report of the Secretary- General on the work of the Organization is both important and timely, for its summons us to recall the principles of the Charter and to review the Mechanisms of the Organization in order to make this body strong, not sterile; decisive, not dilatory; functional, not ornamental. It warns us that in a world fraught with tension and peril the United Nations is indispensable.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“Indeed some are already advocating the Keynesian theory that military spending will create jobs, increase public demand and stimulate economic growth. In these troubled times, the global community should be able to spam the irrationality of the warmongers and turn instead to the United Nations for a sane and sensible direction. The words spoken in the Assembly by the world's leading personalities should invoke in mankind a spirit of hope and a sense of optimism for the future. But we are yet to hear those words. We are yet to hear an attempt at dialogue between the two super-Powers; we are yet to hear an attempt at peace between warring neighbours in the Middle East; we are yet to hear nations climb down from their nationalistic pedestals to the table of peaceful discussion for the benefit of all mankind.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“A blanket of misery has been cast upon the world: it has spared no country and it has brought many to the brink of disaster. This misery can only be measured in human terms-for it knows nor colour, nor religion, nor nationality. It grips many millions in developed countries who must struggle to survive on State support and many more millions in poor countries who must suffer with no support at all. In the 1930s, when mankind experienced a global economic recession such as the one we now face, the economists called it "the Great Depression". It was the forerunner of a terrible war which brought even greater human suffering than had obtained before it. As conditions currently exist in the world, it would not be too far-fetched for some to contemplate wars, however limited, as a solution to the current economic crisis.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“Every month that passes witnesses thousands more people being cast on to the heap of the unemployed with no prospect of jobs, no means of maintaining their standard of living and little means of ensuring the well-being of their families. Many marvel every day that there have not been widespread violent reactions in the streets; others expect those reactions to erupt at any time if this all-consuming recession continues unabated. And while unemployment in industrialized countries reaches the level normally linked with developing countries, the ranks of the unemployed in poor States are swelling to record volumes. Only an immunity to suffering born of generations of deprivation keeps some developing States from explosion.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)
“I wish to join with the leaders of other delegations in paying a tribute to the outgoing President, Mr. Kittani, who distinguished himself throughout last year in his efforts on behalf of the Assembly. I am also honoured to be accorded the privilege on behalf of my country to congratulate Mr. Hollai on his election to the presidency of the thirty-seventh session of the General Assembly. I offer him my delegation's fullest support in the tasks which lie ahead of him. Never in the history of its existence has the Assembly convened against such a background of pervading universal gloom. Unemployment figures I the industrialized countries are assuming proportions traditionally associated with developing countries: 10.1 per cent in the United States and a similar figure in the European Economic Community.”
1982-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 37 (1982)