YouSaid · the spoken record

Jaswant Singh

lines on the record

57

first

1999-09-24

most recent

2000-09-24

sittings or episodes

2

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

1. “What significance lies in the observation that no global peace conference has taken place to mark the end of this last war? The United Nations could have been cast anew, made contemporary and democratized, drawing upon our collective experience to tackle new challenges with greater responsiveness. Can we, even now, do something at this last session of the General Assembly of this millennium to correct this? Can we pledge afresh to invest this institution with faith, commitment, political will and the resources that it needs to make it the vehicle capable of realizing the aspirations of all humanity, an instrument that will steer planet Earth into the next century? We do not enjoy an abundance of options. The sapping of the vitality or the diminishing of the centrality of the United Nations must not be permitted.”

   1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

2. “In response, we created the League of Nations. But war, regrettably, was not avoided. The League failed because we failed the League. And thus followed the second great war, at the end of which the world emerged armed with weapons that could destroy all that human genius and ingenuity had created and every vestige of life. But, from the ruins and devastation of the second also emerged the United Nations, with mandates of broader powers and responsibilities. The third great conflict was the cold war. This deeply affected, shaped and influenced the development of the United Nations. This war, too, extracted a heavy price, directly and through proxy conflicts, as well as political and social upheavals, but then these became its epilogue.”

   1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

3. “This century has been the most bloodthirsty, perhaps because it is in these last 100 years that humanity has employed science to perfect means of killing as never before. Our passage has seen us move from the Gatling gun to a world menaced today by MIRVs. That early machine gun, the then-great mower down of the early 1900s, seems today almost a toy by comparison. We have split the atom, but employ the released energy less for peace and more for weapons of unimaginable destruction. Chemical defoliants and sophisticated biological weapons are also this century's contribution. The century that passes experienced not two, but three great wars. Each was a cataclysm, fought globally and at enormous cost. When the first ended, the survivors 39 emerged from the trenches, searching for a better world so that war would not recur.”

   1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

4. “In a wired-up world, the computer has today become what the fountain pen was in the early years of the twentieth century. The revolution of the digital has arrived. Humanity today is healthier, better fed and more sheltered than our forefathers were. But want and hunger, disease and deprivation are still widespread, including in developed societies. We have at our command more information than ever before, but are we that much wiser? Literacy has spread, but is mankind better educated? We are more connected globally, but are we as humankind? Have this linkage and interconnection reduced conflict and animosity? And thus, the tabulation of our assets and liabilities of this century flows. As we have improved upon and added to almost everything that we inherited in 1900, so most sadly have we to violence, too.”

   1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

5. “But, in contradistinction, it has also been a century of the most profound transformations and of the most significant social, political and technological advancements. This, above all, has been the century of the ascendancy of the individual and of democracy. It is that period in which dynasties vanished and revolutions swept empires off the face of ancient lands. Centuries-old colonialism became history against the irresistible heave of the colonized to reclaim their lands, their souls, so that oppressed humanity could regain a voice, a say in its own political and economic destiny. It is the century in which we plumbed the depths of the oceans and soared into the infinities of space; when man first set foot on the moon, reached Mars and even deeper into the recesses of the unknown.”

   1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

6. “I have no doubt their presence shall enrich our deliberations. Even as I address this Assembly, the century draws to a close and the world prepares to meet the year 2000. It is only appropriate and instructive, therefore, to look back and to reflect upon the journey that humanity set out upon 100 years ago. Where did we think we were then headed and where have we actually reached? Could any then foresee what 1999 would bring? Thus, are there, in the passage of the years that have gone by, any landmarks that could indicate a path for our future? For that, we need to assess the twentieth century, and there is but one yardstick by which we can judge: the criteria of the stated objectives of the United Nations. Indisputably, the twentieth has been the bloodiest of all centuries.”

   1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)

7. “It is a particular pleasure to see Mr. Gurirab presiding over the last session of the General Assembly of the twentieth century. I consider myself singularly fortunate and greatly honoured to be representing my country, India, on this occasion. I do believe that, in the many years that he spent here pursuing the dream of independence for his people — which, happily, is now a reality — he, more perhaps than others, has seen the United Nations at its best. That is why the perspective that he brings to the office of the President, enriched as it is by living through the very articles of faith of the United Nations, is near unique. I am sure we will all profit from it. I take this opportunity also to warmly welcome three new Members to the United Nations: Kiribati, Nauru and Tonga.”

   1999-09-24 · UN General Assembly · General Debate, Session 54 (1999)