World leaders blow hot air at UN confab; Chavez just blows it off! (Meanwhile, over in Myanmar…)

Yesterday, President George W Bush of the United States and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran joined the queue of world leaders delivering canned speeches before the Annual Meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. And even though none of them said anything of any consequence (Do they ever?), it would be remiss of me not to comment.

But I am mindful that it would be a Faustian (and redundant) endeavor to try to separate the wheat from the chaff amongst the speeches emanating from this veritable Tower of Babel masquerading as an international debating chamber.

Therefore, I shall suffice to reprise my commentary from last year. Because the 2006 annual meeting was suffused with such political tension, drama and outright buffoonery (all consummated in the performance of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez – who didn’t even bother to attend this year), that the hackneyed speeches hardly mattered.

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Yesterday, in his address before the United Nations General Assembly 61st Session, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez highlighted his undiplomatic rant against U.S. President George W. Bush by calling him “the Devil”.

But I found it instructive that - when a reporter asked her what she thought of Chavez’s speech – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice replied, quite properly, that she would not dignify it with a comment. Because, frankly, that’s how I feel about all of the hot air passing for dignified debate at this week’s session.

Accordingly, the following is all I care to share about Bush’s congenitally-trite, Ahmadinejad’s passive-aggressive and Chavez’s hysterically-bombastic utterances:

U.S. President George W. Bush:

[Fair enough, Mr Bush. But now that French President Jacques Chirac is leading a European coalition of the willing to betray your agreement to impose sanctions against Iran, what are you going to do to stop it from fulfilling its ambition? Operation deny nukes?]

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad:

[Excellent point, Mr Ahmadinejad. Now tell us which international law gives you the right to develop nuclear weapons to "wipe Israel off the map"?]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez:

[Good one, Mr Chavez. But, if you really think Cuba is the best place to live in the Western Hemisphere (and, by inference, that America is the worst), why do you think so many people are fleeing Cuba and Latin America (including your own country) to seek a better life in the United States? Moreover, if the delegates laughing at your speech yesterday were to vote on your proposal to move the UN out of the US (To where, pray tell, China?), would you bet your presidency on the outcome?]

Meanwhile, one has to wonder about the conscience of Third World leaders who endorsed Ahmadinejad’s speech (indicting America as the greatest threat to world peace) and laughed at Chavez’s comedy routine (demonizing Bush). After all, these are the very same leaders who are still debating whether Bush is right to declare the ongoing slaughter of over 400,000 Africans by Arab militiamen in Darfur an “unfolding genocide”, which requires immediate UN military intervention - in the name of humanity….

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NOTE on Taiwan: One of my associates challenged my cynicism about proceedings at the UN by citing its “pretty significant decision” to reject a bid by Taiwan to reclaim its seat in this august Assembly. In fact, the Taiwanese petitioned to be readmitted as “Taiwan” rather than the “Republic of China” - the name under which they lost their (de facto-independent) seat in 1971 to the newly-admitted People’s Republic of China.

Alas, I was constrained to inform him that Taiwan has failed in similar bids at every annual meeting of the General Assembly since 1992. And, with China increasing its influence amongst the member states each year, chances are very good that all future bids will be similarly rejected. (Incidentally, of the UN’s 192 members, Taiwan is recognised by only 24 relatively poor and powerless countries, including three from the Caribbean.)

NOTE on Myanmar (Burma): It is surreal, yet inspiring, to see Buddhist monks risking their lives to lead pro-democracy street protests against the military juntas that have ruled Burma for almost 50 years. And, technology being what it is today, it’s very likely that these monks might be encouraged, indeed emboldened, by the expressions of solidarity that rolled off the lips of w
orld leaders at the UN this week.

But it behooves these brave protesters to beware that (every year for the past four years) these leaders have expressed similar solidarity with the victims of genocide in Darfur. Yet they have done nothing to give credence to their words.

Meanwhile, in an ominous development yesterday, the junta ordered troops to enforce a curfew to crackdown on the protests that have been growing daily - in size and daring - over the past week. Which means that the conditions are now eerily similar to those that triggered the slaughter of thousands of pro-democracy protesters, mostly monks and students, during Burma’s “8888 Uprising” of 1988.

Will the UN standby and watch history repeat itself…? Is the Pope Catholic…. (Besides, what’s a few thousands Burmese monks compared to a half million Africans!)

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