Saint Vincent and the Grenadines would like to congratulate you. Mr. President, on Trinidad and Tobago’s assumption of the presidency of the General Assembly at its seventy-eighth session. We also affirm our solidarity with the Governments and the peoples of the Kingdom of Morocco and Libya at this their current hour of peril, consequent upon the recent natural disasters in their countries. We express our sincerest condolences for the immense loss of life.
Across the world today, in large measure, men and women are feeling pain. They are gripped with melancholy and adrift. They are perplexed, even confused, by the complexities and challenges of our human condition, which is awash with multiple contradictions from which arises a yearning for sustainable resolutions. Large numbers of people, globally, are possessed of a mixture of resignation, a sense of futility, a routinization of indifference, even cynicism. And yet at the same time there resides in them, in us. an elemental hopefulness and a sense of social solidarity, a quest for justice and goodness, for the pursuit of equity and equality and for peace, security and prosperity for all — not just for a privileged few in a handful of privileged nations.
It is widely acknowledged that the global political economy is broken and needs fixing, not by tinkering here and there, but through fundamental restructuring of a kind that will endure for the benefit of all humankind, especially those who are disadvantaged, dispossessed or marginalized. It is widely accepted, too. that the vital Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) will not be attained by 2030. Indeed, there will be a significant deficit for practically every developing country. Similarly, it is widely recognized that the climate-change agenda is stalling and in some respects reversing, with dire consequences for humankind, particularly the most vulnerable countries. At the same time, war and conflict rage senselessly across the globe. In at least one case. Ukraine, the principal
adversaries may be unwittingly opening the gates to a nuclear Armageddon.
Contemporary drivers of insecurity and conflict are all jostling one another in an invidious march to infamy and human misery. The expansive and expanding list includes racism and xenophobia; the continuing oppression of women under a patriarchy in too many countries; the seemingly uncontrollable chariots of artificial intelligence; threats of pandemics and the anti-people consortiums of Big Pharma; poverty and food insecurity; ignorance, miseducation and disinformation; terrorism and its associated malcontents; illegal trafficking in persons and narcotics; the subversion of participatory democracy and human rights; the failure or refusal of former colonial Powers to entertain just and legitimate demands for reparations to remedy the contemporary legacies of underdevelopment caused by native genocide and the enslavement of African bodies; and the failure or refusal of the major emitters of greenhouse gases to cough up the resources that the vulnerable countries affected need for adaptation, mitigation, loss and damage. And the list goes on. The melodies that are heard are troubling, while those that go unheard are damning.
Powerful countries and blocs of like-minded States are unwilling or unable to fashion inclusive, effective modalities through genuine multilateralism to address the global challenges facing humankind. Their reflex actions in quest of a continuing imperium or an emergent hegemony are dressed up as self-serving calls for a new world order — all sauce and gall but of little or no substance, and difficult to swallow. From the rough trenches of the periphery. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines responds yet again with three haunting questions. What exactly is new? Which world? And who gives the orders? In that context, after decades of futile bickering and foot-dragging, we should urgently embrace genuine reform of the Security Council. Surely sensible compromises on the matter, reflective of the condition of our world today, are long overdue.
In these troubled and uncertain times, enveloped in limitations and weaknesses, there are nevertheless possibilities and strengths. We need this collective, the United Nations, to immediately display wise and mature leadership in our great endeavour to put things right for humankind. We who are gathered here to represent national or regional interests are not. and cannot reasonably be. agents of purely impersonal forces inexorably driving humankind to further peril or even damnation. Notwithstanding the imperfections of a multilateral system grounded in international law and civilized norms, we in the Assembly, in concert with one another and our peoples, can be the fresh hope, the beacon and the light, not merely to inspire but to draw out of each other and our respective peoples a goodness, a quality and a nobility that we may often not yet know we possess.
In that process. Ictus clear certain ideational cobwebs from our brains. For example, it is wholly unhelpful to frame the central contradictions of our troubled times as revolving around a struggle between autocracies and democracies. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, a strong liberal democracy, rejects that wrong-headed thesis. It is evident to all right-thinking persons devoid of self-serving hypocrisy that the struggle today between the dominant Powers is centred on the control, ownership and distribution of the world’s resources. The struggle has been and continues to be about who gets what, when, where and how. Civilized living now demands fairness, justice, peace, security and prosperity for all. That civilized goal is unlikely to ever be satisfactorily attained if the strong and powerful continue to do what they can with impunity while the weak and fragile suffer what they must, despite their often-enfeebled resistance. Throughout history, powerful countries have exhibited a certain schizophrenia. They possess and deploy all their instruments of domination yet are racked by bewildering insecurities that frequently turn them into beasts of unreason, to their own detriment, as they overreach and sow the seeds of their own downfall, sadly and needlessly hobbling humankind in the process.
Let us accord mature consideration to a matter of immediacy in “our America”, to use Jose Marti’s telling formulation. We urge our friend the United States of America — the most powerful and economically dominant country since the dawn of human civilization, a nation that espouses humane values — to end the unilateral and oppressive sanctions and impositions, contrary to international law. that it has rolled out against Cuba. Nicaragua and Venezuela. It is also plain silly and factually incorrect to label Cuba a State sponsor of terrorism — a label prompted by partisan domestic politics in south Florida that hurts the Cuban people massively and unnecessarily. The sanctions and coercive measures against Venezuela, including the weaponization of the United States dollar, have caused the collapse of the PetroCaribe agreement, which delivered substantial benefits to more than a dozen
Caribbean countries, including Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. We in the Caribbean have thereby become collateral damage.
At the same time, it is long overdue for the Republic of China. Taiwan, to be brought in from the diplomatic cold. That magnificent Chinese civilization, through the fever of history, has delivered to the contemporary world, in practical terms, more than one recognizable national political expression institutionally. Surely Taiwan’s quest for participation in the relevant specialized agencies of the United Nations is reasonable and ought to be accommodated. Taiwan has repeatedly shown itself to be a responsible member of the international community. Peace across the Taiwan Strait is an imperative for the prosperity and security of the world.
On the bundle of issues related to climate change, including global warming, biodiversity challenges, land degradation and desertification, we see a veritable Tower of Babel. There is an overabundance of sweet sounding lyrics by the major emitters, but they turn out to be bitterly deceptive. The lack or inadequacy of meaningful corrective action by the irresponsible climate polluters, both countries and companies, is an unpardonable, egregious wrong and indeed a species of barbarism. The upcoming twenty-eighth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in the United Arab Emirates is a critical test of humankind’s commitment to saving our planet from the ravages of human-made climate change. We know the oft-repeated benchmarks and the corrective agenda. I do not have to repeat them here. In that composite package of policies and measures, special consideration has to be accorded to the most vulnerable countries, such as small island developing States in the Caribbean and the Pacific and the poorer communities in climate-distressed areas of Africa. Asia and Latin America.
Criss-crossing the issue of financing for development in the era of climate change, and the ramifications of the downside of structural distortions in the global economy for poor and vulnerable middle-income countries, is the Bridgetown Initiative 2.0. which has already been endorsed by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC). the Alliance of Small Island States and dozens of countries in the African Union and elsewhere. That progressive initiative contains creative financing proposals that would result in much greater resources, made available on highly concessionary terms, for poor and vulnerable regions. The Multidimensional Vulnerability Index championed by vulnerable middle-income countries, including those in the Caribbean, has a place in the reform mix of financing for development. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines urges the Assembly to show strong support for the Bridgetown Initiative and the Multidimensional Vulnerability Index. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines also endorses the initiative of the Bahamas to remove from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development — the rich club — any global authority it assumes for suzerainty on international taxation and related matters. Properly, they ought to be resident in the United Nations.
As developing countries, we must refrain from being mere prideful villagers, obsessed with immediate trifles and blind to far more compelling issues beyond our individual control, which demand a unifying solidarity with others in order to confront our struggles successfully. Poor, vulnerable, climate-distressed and resource-challenged developing countries are absolutely fed up and insulted by the unfulfilled perennial promises of the developed world on climate financing.
In September 2015. at our United Nations, all nations signed on to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, targeted for achievement by 2030. Earlier this week, the bundle of issues centred on the SDGs were accorded special consideration and there has been canvassing to revitalize them, which is admirable. But the critical issue of ensuring sufficient financing for development, including climate financing and reparations, remains the proverbial elephant in the room and must be effectively harnessed if we are to serve the deserving. Here again, the commitments we have agreed on and entered into must be translated into real action.
As part of the conversation on the SDGs. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has been insisting that there must be a special carveout for reparations from European countries for the legacies of underdevelopment engendered by the genocide of indigenous peoples and the enslavement of African bodies — horrendous crimes against humanity. In that matrix, we need a special focus on Haiti. The case for reparatory justice within the framework of the SDGs is compelling and unanswerably strong. The time for reparations has come — the demand will not go away. Africa, the Caribbean and our diaspora, and others
who hanker for a just world, are insisting on it. In our Caribbean Community, one of our member States. Haiti, continues to be confronted by immediate and multiple existential challenges in the political, security, social, humanitarian and environmental domains. CARICOM is seeking to facilitate a political solution by engaging with the widest possible cross-section of stakeholders to fashion a Government of national unity to replace one that is bedevilled by a lack of legitimacy and effectiveness, and to pave the way for democratic elections in a suitable time frame.
The Security Council cannot reasonably remain aloof from that process, considering the circumstances in which criminal gangs, including those with links to the Government and the National Police, are essentially in control of the capital city. Security supports — not an imperial invasion — are required to accompany a political consensus so as to bolster humanitarian assistance, economic development and a more orderly way of life and living. The situation is dire and growing worse by the day. We must not allow ourselves the luxury of Haiti fatigue. Indeed, the guns and bullets in the hands of the Haitian gangs are also in the bosoms of assorted criminals across the Caribbean and Latin America, and are sourced mainly from the United States. The United States, the Caribbean and Latin American Governments must work together more earnestly to stop the massive flow of guns and bullets.
We urgently need solutions for the wars and perennial conflicts across the globe. For example, the terrible situations in Ukraine. Palestine and a number of countries in Africa and elsewhere are crying out for peaceful settlements between the warring tribes. It is inhumane and wrong that the Palestinian people have had to endure colonial domination and externally induced suffering for decades.
In our America. CELAC, currently led by the pro tempore presidency of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, is at the forefront of the quest to fortify our political cooperation and enhance integration efforts. CELAC is building vital bridges with several blocs and countries across the world, with the aim of promoting peace, security, prosperity and sustainable development for all. It is vital that our shared experiences be translated into shared expressions, including institutional expressions, in order to do the practical work of enhancing life, living and production for all humankind. In addition. CELAC ought to be allowed to follow the African Union into membership in the Group of 20. Let us be more inclusive in solving intractable problems in practical ways. I therefore welcome the European Union’s proposal to initiate an institutional summit bringing together the European Union, the African Union. CELAC. the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Secretary-General of the United Nations. I await the details.
The days of masters and vassals are over. The end days of imperialism are drawing nigh, and the would-be hegemons waiting in the wings with their illusions of grandeur, past or imagined, are bound for disillusionment. In any new world order, the metaphoric lions and lambs must lie down and rise up together in mutual self-interest and for a better world. This world of 8 billion people deserves better. We in the developing world reject the crumbs. There is a loaf to be shared reasonably, with equity, and we must be at the tables where the decisions are made and the food is eaten. Those who think that our heads are in the clouds are profoundly mistaken. We know that in the great cathedral of the sky there is a sun for a steeple. It illuminates our pathways, and we see things clearly, and men and women who see things clearly will never give up on the pursuit of peace, goodness, equity and justice. We do so with urgency, yet with patience and calm, knowing that even now the greener leaves explode, sun brightens stone and all the river burns.
As I conclude, a summation by Daniel Williams, one of my country’s poets, is apt. “We are all time; yet only the future is ours to desecrate. The present is the past, and the past our fathers’ mischief”. In order to avoid desecrating the future, we must be serious about the challenges at hand and work assiduously, in solidarity, to address them satisfactorily. To be sure, there is no perfection this side of eternity, but we can do better than we have been doing. Time is not on our side. Let us not sleep to dream, but dream to change the world for the better.