In these dawning years of the third decade of the twenty-first century, despite the progress and huge potential for the further upliftment of the world’s civilizations, the human condition is overwhelmingly racked by global turmoil, convulsions, dislocations and the gravest uncertainties about the future. The specifics that have produced, in their aggregation and multiple interconnections, that debilitating malaise and tumult are well known. We identify here and now those of centrality and urgency: irresponsible and dangerous human-made climate change; a dominant economic and trading system, awash with antagonistic contradictions, which has delivered unacceptable burdens to the poor and the weak, on the one hand, and benefits in abundance to the rich and the strong, on the other; unnecessary and unwise conflicts and declared and undeclared wars, which subvert the settled norms and precepts of international law and contribute to economic hardship and immense suffering globally; avoidable public health emergencies, including pandemics, and the distorted, uneven responses thereto; and the dangerous vanities, delusional vainglories and hubris of men and women in power, particularly in the global centres of
imperialism and in the locales of those intoxicated by the quest for hegemony.
Across the world the faces of ordinary men and women are strained and anxious. Indeed, there is increasingly a sense of despair. At such junctures, historically civilizations have either descended into barbarism of one sort or another or accepted the necessity to repair and embrace fresh hope, conjoined with love for humankind and an abiding faith, made perfect in works. Surely, this is the time to embrace fresh hope. The existential longing that touches the human spirit and soul goes beyond a mere amelioration of our current travails; it demands correctives or reformations of a structural or fundamental kind and fresh thinking. Without fresh hope, a desecration of our future awaits us.
Fresh ideas are a core foundation of fresh hope. Over 130 years ago, the Cuban patriot Jose Marti advised that “weapons of the mind ... vanquish all others”. Through Marti, we learn that
“[A] vital idea set ablaze before the world at the
right moment can, like the mystic banner of the last
judgment, stop a fleet of battleships.”
Our tumultuous times demand fresh ideas and an invigoration of those that have stood the test of time in the march of civilizations into modernity and uplifting governance.
Unfortunately, stale and outmoded thinking too often shapes, and dominates, the global outlook and conduct of the most powerful nations, to the detriment of peace, security and prosperity for all. For example, at least one mighty State wrongly affirms that it possesses an exceptionalism, grounded in a manifest destiny to rule the world. Another State considers, also wrongly, that its population size, growing wealth and increased military prowess, and a civilization that goes back to near antiquity, justify its quest for global hegemony. Others, not quite behemoths, continue to conjure up ancient glories and historic empires as illusory bases for reconstructing the past, oblivious to the fact that any such presumed future of unalloyed grandeur is actually behind them. Amid all of that competitive jostling for power and vainglory, confusion reigns and the overwhelmingly majority of the world’s population suffers. It is instructive to note that the contemporary circumstances of the global political economy and society have prompted the powerful and some wannabe powerful countries to proclaim the necessity of constructing a new world order, each with its own peculiar agenda. But from the global periphery, which encompasses most of humankind, I ask the relevant and haunting questions. What is “new”? Which world? And who gives the orders? The future of humankind depends on satisfactory answers to those queries.
In that maelstrom, the centre cannot hold and things fall apart. Yet we must not metaphorically wring our hands in learned helplessness. The principals are certainly not ignorant of the existing conditions, and there are bundles of credible ideas in our multilateral system for fashioning possible lasting solutions in pursuit of peace, prosperity, sustainable development and security for humankind as a whole. So where do we go from here? Central to a credible, equitable path forward for humankind and to civilized life, living and production is the requisite of quality global leadership. It is a truism that men and women usually make history only to the extent that the circumstances of history and contemporary reality permit it. But it is also true — indeed, necessary and desirable — for global leadership to transcend the existing circumstances that are given and transmitted from the past and to push the boundaries of possibilities, for humankind’s sake, beyond what are normally considered the outer limits. I believe that the world’s peoples are demanding a quality global leadership that not only inspires them but draws out of them their goodness, their elemental yearnings for humanity and their nobility of purpose. Often the people themselves do not even know that they possess such goodness, humanity and nobility.
At this very moment of our meeting here in civilization’s finest hours, we are eyewitnesses and earwitnesses to immense conflict, strife and harrowing suffering in the world at large. It is an indictment on our civilized Assembly that horrific wars rumble on unabated in Ukraine, Yemen, Syria, parts of Africa and elsewhere. At least one of those wars could lead to a nuclear Armageddon. And how much longer must we stand the balkanization and systematic oppression of the people of Palestine by those who are in arrogant disregard of world opinion and international law? Why are the illegal and unjust economic embargo, undeclared war and criminal interventions against Cuba permitted to continue without let-up, despite overwhelming, near- unanimous denunciation by the General Assembly?
Why do we not unequivocally resist imperialism’s sordid attempts to subvert the duly elected Governments of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the
Republic of Nicaragua? How can we look askance, in relative silence and contented inaction, in disregard of Taiwan’s legitimate right to exist in accordance with the wishes and will of the Taiwanese people? Why do we not encourage peace and security across the Taiwan Strait by, among other things, permitting Taiwan’s participation in the relevant specialized agencies in the United Nations system, such as the World Health Organization and the International Civil Aviation Organization? All of those and other twentieth-century quarrels and contentious situations have potentially viable solutions — or, at the very least, mutually acceptable levels of dissatisfaction — lodged within a framework of peace and security. Quality global leadership in communion with the world’s peoples, credible ideas for resolution and a coherent multilateralism grounded in international law constitute the only viable way forward for humankind. In short, let us give mature diplomacy a chance to succeed.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has had to face immense challenges since March 2020 and continues to do so. In March 2020, the coronavirus disease pandemic descended on us like the proverbial thief in the night. Although we did not close our country down, even in the darkest days of the pandemic, much of the world locked down on us. Life, living and production were, and still are, badly affected. In April 2021, my small country suffered 32 volcanic eruptions that caused widespread destruction of property, immense social dislocation, the immiseration of our people and the evacuation of one fifth of the population into emergency shelters. In early July 2021, Hurricane Elsa struck, resulting in further loss and damage. In late February 2022, open hostilities between Russia and Ukraine erupted, exacerbating the economic turmoil that was already brewing globally. The knock-on effects of the Russia-Ukraine war have been terrible for faraway Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and our Caribbean. The price of basic commodities, such as imported fuel, food, fertilizer and hand tools, has gone through the roof. Still, we are a resilient people. We are not a people of lamentations. We are recovering and embracing fresh hope.
We in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines are working hard and smart. But without a fair and just global economic order, a special regard for small island exceptionalism, a global architecture of enlightened multilateralism and internationalist solidarity, our herculean national efforts are unlikely to yield the requisite abundant fruit. Trying to go up a fast-moving down-escalator is a challenging exercise. Accordingly, I adopt and adapt the words of the iconic Barbadian writer Edward Kamau Brathwaite from his poem “The Awakening”.
“I will rise and stand on my feet; ever so slowly I
will rise and stand on my feet... I am learning, just
let me succeed.”
Just let Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, the Caribbean and other developing countries succeed.
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines expresses its profound gratitude for the regional, hemispheric and international solidarity accorded it at its time of real peril during and immediately after the series of volcanic eruptions last year. Within 24 hours of the first cataclysmic eruption, my dear friend Secretary- General Antonio Guterres telephoned me and placed the Secretariat and the United Nations specialized agencies at my country’s disposal. The World Food Programme, UNICEF and the United Nations Environment Programme were particularly heroic in their efforts, admirably coordinated by the Barbados and Eastern Caribbean Multi-Country Office. The World Bank was most helpful, as were the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and its affiliate institutions, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States and individual nations across the world. The outpouring of regional and international solidarity was impressive and deeply appreciated.
However, episodic support must metamorphose into structured, ongoing solidarity if small island developing States (SIDS) are to survive and thrive in this increasingly hostile world in which metaphoric elephants trample with very little regard for the proverbial ants who make up much of humankind and are vital to the well-being of our global civilization’s land- and seascape. The agenda for small island developing States is well known. Some major planks of it are concerted global action on climate change, including sufficient resources for adaptation and mitigation; the availability of optimal financing for development, including the roll-out of a multi-dimensional vulnerability index, a compensation mechanism for loss and damage and a special and meaningful carve-out for SIDS in international trading arrangements; an end to unacceptable weaponizing of the financial system; appropriate reform of the United Nations to reflect the interests of SIDS; and effective implementation of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, particularly where they relate to hunger, poverty and inequality. For our Caribbean, another special concern is the urgent issue of reparations from European States for their commission of native genocide and the enslavement of Africans, which has resulted in painful legacies of underdevelopment. The time has now surely come for the issue to be addressed urgently. Reparations is a just and juridically grounded demand that ought to evoke support from well-meaning people, not confrontation.
The continuing deteriorating situation in Haiti demands focused attention from the United Nations. The Caribbean Community, to which Haiti belongs, is pained at Haiti’s circumstances and the international community’s relative neglect of that invaluable nation. Together, we must do better with and for Haiti in concert with the Haitian people, based on their own home-grown solutions and led by them. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has been actively engaged on that issue within both CARICOM and the United Nations. Haiti’s 11 million people deserve better, and a safe and prosperous Haiti means a far more secure and peaceful Caribbean.
In the Caribbean, beyond the Haitian issue, our national and regional efforts are stymied by the unfairness and relative unresponsiveness of the global political economy. Often, too, the unintended consequences of the actions of the centres of imperialism and hegemonic forces induce suffering or hold back our progress. For example, our Caribbean has had its correspondent banking arrangements compromised or withdrawn by the application of rules that our Governments have had little or no role in making. We heard the Prime Minister of the Bahamas speak about that this morning. Similarly, blacklists and sanctions are imposed or threatened by faceless bureaucrats in imperial centres for this or that matter without any regard for multilateral rulemaking or settled international law. Meanwhile, interference in the internal affairs of our nations persists through external State agencies or private entities of imperialist or hegemonic centres bent on imposing their will to their advantage. Often their relentless misuse and abuse of modern information technologies, with falsehoods and misrepresentations galore, have the effect of polluting democratic discourse and undermining democracy itself. The United Nations must address that issue urgently. The United Nations, too, must reform itself to do its work better. In that regard, reform of the Security Council should be delayed no further. Many sensible ideas for reform are on the table. Let us get on with it and not make perfection the enemy of the good.
The many-sided turmoil of today prompts me to conclude with the probing insights of Guyana’s Poet Laureate Martin Carter, in his celebrated poem “Bitter Wood”.
“Here be dragons, and bitter cups made of wood; and the hooves of horses where they should not sound.... Here is where I am, in a great geometry, between a raft of ants and the green sight of the freedom of a tree, made of that same bitter wood.”
In our final reflections before the General Assembly, let us never forget that our work in this Hall is to improve markedly the lot of all our peoples. To that mighty end, we must construct the best possible partnership between all nations, whatever our differences, to take care of yesterday’s heritage, to accommodate and reasonably address today’s interests and to pursue effectively, in peace and security, tomorrow’s hopes.