Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, 2006

Our President arises in this Assembly as a

breath of fresh air and presides as an inspiration to

women, particularly in the Middle East, and to human

beings all over the world who treasure the stone that

the builder rejects and that becomes the head

cornerstone. I am sure that her presidency will make a

positive and lasting impact on our General Assembly. I

thank her very much for being and doing.

Humanity’s condition today is difficult, complex

and challenging, yet pregnant with possibilities for a

better future. Everywhere the faces of men and women

are strained and anxious; yet, amidst the anxieties, pain

and sorrows there is joyous laughter, which soothes the

soul and summons the human race to embrace the

promise of a redeeming grace, which eschews hate,

greed, callousness, oppression, injustice and violence.

It is still possible for this divided world of inequity and

the inhumanity of man to man to sing with meaning

our redemption song of peace and justice, prosperity

and freedom, democracy and tolerance, unity amidst

diversity, equality and mutual respect.

This quest to mend the broken world is grounded

in the ideals that constitute the core of the United

Nations. This idealism seeks not a world of perfection,

but one of goodness, one of civilization over

barbarism, of humanity over inhumanity. The world,

especially the majority of its inhabitants who happen to

be poor and disadvantaged amidst an orgy of plenty

that resides in a minority, looks to the United Nations

as their hope, as a brightness that illuminates, not

blinds. I bring this simple but powerful message from a

small, developing country in the nearby Caribbean Sea

on behalf of the marginalized of the world, without the

vanity of a pretentious hegemony, an arrogance of

power, or a triumphalism of a presumed manifest

destiny. It is both necessary and desirable to speak this

truth to power.

So more than 80 per cent of the people who

reside in the developing world, and, indeed, all right-

thinking persons, want and demand in this regard

coherent leadership from a reformed United Nations

that is true to its central mandate to serve humanity

well. Unfortunately, the reformation of the United

Nations is moving at a snail’s pace, which frustrates its

work, undermines its efficacy, and damages its

credibility.

To be sure, some modest progress has been made

by way of the establishment of a new Human Rights

Council and the Peacebuilding Commission. But,

frankly, too much time is wasted on fussing and

fighting on esoteric issues touching and concerning the

so-called mandate review and management reform,

rather than focusing on the critical matter of the

implementation of the “development resolution”

adopted by the General Assembly. In the process, too,

let us have a reform of the Security Council that is

meaningful and democratic.

The world’s marginalized and disadvantaged look

askance at a United Nations that daily seeks to

choreograph the dancing of angels on the head of a pin.

They care very little for the bureaucratic harangue that

the United Nations “system-wide coherence” has been

addressed and enhanced, important as that may be for

some professional diplomats. The world’s people want

to know, and to see the practical evidence, that the

United Nations is tackling in a purposeful way the

issues of global poverty, environmental degradation,

climate change, the empowerment of women, the

protection of children, the promotion of peace and

security, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the provision of

clean water and an adequate supply of food, among

other such telling requisites.

Undoubtedly, many, if not most, of the

Governments of the rich and powerful countries show

signs of fatigue and disengagement towards the

developing world. This is evident in their parsimony on

official development assistance and their failure and/or

neglect to advance meaningfully the Doha

Development Round. Better must be done here.

Please note that my strictures are levelled at the

Governments of those countries, and not their people

or their civilizations. Sufficient persuasive evidence

exists that the people in many, if not most, of these rich

countries are sensitive to the concerns of the

developing world, but their Governments do not

sufficiently reflect these sensitivities, despite their

occasional rhetoric to the contrary. Accordingly, the

peoples and civilizations across national boundaries

must link themselves in a tighter nexus or bond, with

or without the mediating formal state apparatuses, and

name and shame those Governments that ought to be

named and shamed.

27 06-52988

In this regard, the proposal before the United

Nations for an alliance of civilizations holds immense

promise, provided that it is not captured by those states

that hanker after an ignoble, unattainable,

unsustainable and fundamentally immoral hegemony.

Our Caribbean civilization, and its Vincentian

component, stands ready and willing to be part of this

magnificent quest for an ennobling brotherhood and

sisterhood of humanity.

While many rich countries turn aside from the

development thrust of the world’s marginalized and

disadvantaged, there is an encouraging trend towards

more and better South-South cooperation. In the case

of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, we are benefiting

from a closer integration network through the

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and the

Caribbean Community Single Market and Economy.

Further, countries such as Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico,

Malaysia and Taiwan, among others, have special and

model relations with our country.

Recently, at the Summit of the Heads of State and

Government of the Non-Aligned Movement, held in

Cuba, the leaders of this 118-member body redefined

its purpose and mandate, in an increasingly unipolar

world, to embrace a thorough-going development

agenda and to facilitate the building of a more

peaceful, just and secure architecture of international

relations. This renewed enthusiasm of the Non-Aligned

Movement strengthens the hands and voices of those

who truly believe that a better, more civilized world is

possible and nigh.

Next year, in March, people of African descent

and all freedom-loving peoples and nations will

commemorate and celebrate the two-hundredth

anniversary of the passage of the act abolishing the

British trade in African slaves to the Caribbean and the

Americas. This is an occasion for historical

reclamation and the righting of historic wrongs. The

trade in, and enslavement of, Africans was a monstrous

crime against humanity and an exercise in genocide

unmatched in the history of the Western world.

European nations and their North American

cousins have failed and/or refused to acknowledge this

sufficiently or at all. There has been no apology for this

crime against humanity and this genocide, conducted

over a prolonged period. There has been no practical

recompense in the form of reparations to the affected

nations and peoples in Africa, the Caribbean and the

Americas. Surely, this issue must be put squarely on

the agenda of the United Nations for speedy resolution.

Without in any way diluting the force of this

representation — indeed in bolstering it — we find it

necessary and desirable to link it in our Caribbean

region with the genocide of indigenous peoples,

including the Callinago and the Garifuna of Saint

Vincent and the Grenadines, and the wholly wrong and

inhumane exploitation by colonialism and imperialism

of indentured labour from Africa, Madeira, India and

China after the abolition of African slavery in the

Caribbean. Europe has much to answer for on these

matters, and should be made to answer properly and

appropriately. Historic wrongs not righted remain scars

on the soul of the oppressor and the oppressed alike,

which continue to haunt over the ages; it is a hateful

burden that must be lifted. This dark night must give

way to a brightened day.

Of all the tragedies engulfing our modern world,

few touch the human soul and spirit as does the

condition of the people in Darfur and Palestine. The

entire world knows who are responsible for the crimes

against humanity in Darfur and in all areas of the

Palestinian homeland. Yet the basic human and

national rights of the people in those geographic

regions are trampled upon daily by alien forces.

Meanwhile, the United Nations appears helpless and its

authority is undermined. Surely, the time is long past

for a resolution of these conflicts, and other enduring

conflicts worldwide, including Lebanon and Western

Sahara. Oppression will not endure indefinitely. That is

the powerful lesson of history. The people’s right to

self-determination must be fully respected.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines is pleased to

see Haiti’s restoration to democracy. The cynical ouster

of the former democratically elected President, Jean-

Bertrand Aristide, in February 2004, ushered in

immense suffering in Haiti under a so-called interim

administration installed by imperialism. The Haitian

people, who endureth for ever, must be applauded for

their commitment to democracy and progress. Their

election of President René Préval represents a strong

rebuke of those who mistakenly believe that the

dangling of money is everything. We heartily

congratulate the new Haitian Government and pledge

to work closely with it in its efforts to develop its

heroic country, the land of Toussaint L’Ouverture.

06-52988 28

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines again pleads

with the United Nations to permit Taiwan, a democratic

and progressive country of 23 million people and a

legitimate political expression of the Chinese

civilization, to be accorded its rightful admission to the

United Nations and its specialized agencies. There is

no adequate justification for the continued exclusion of

Taiwan from participation in the numerous global

exchanges in the several international bodies, including

the United Nations.

Further, the United Nations has a major role to

play in ensuring an easing of tensions across the

Taiwan straits. Aggressive conduct must be restrained

in a context in which Taiwan is committed to peace and

a comprehensive political dialogue.

Modern terrorism is a barbarism out of sync with

civilized life. It affects adversely not only powerful

nations, but developing ones in Asia, Africa, Latin

America and the Caribbean. The evil of terrorism,

including state-sponsored terrorism, must be fought

relentlessly. It must be given no space to thrive. At the

same time, terrorism must be attacked sensibly and not

in a counter-productive way. Too many innocent lives

have been lost through terrorist acts. Saint Vincent and

the Grenadines pledges itself to continue to work

resolutely and fearlessly, without hypocrisy, with all

nations and the United Nations, to eliminate the

dastardly scourge called terrorism and its causes.

Permit me to thank Secretary-General Kofi

Annan for his splendid work at the United Nations and

throughout the world. His accomplishments have been

immense, and we applaud him as his incumbency

draws to a close. We wish him and his family well.

I conclude by reaffirming that it is our sacred

duty to humanity and those unborn to ensure that we

contribute to a safer, more peaceful, more prosperous,

more civilized world. We who have come from

yesterday with our limiting burdens must face

tomorrow with our enabling strengths. We must never

forget that in our work here at the United Nations it

becomes possible to glimpse morning before the sun,

possible to see early where sunset might stain

anticipated night. Let us thus not sleep to dream, but

dream to change the world, for the better.