UN General Assembly
1980

14. To their sinking economies Governments are adding the greater and heavier load of some $US 500 billion annually for more and more deadly armaments, while not less than 500 million people are estimated to be living in a state of malnutrition, starvation or famine. 15. Finally, in this climate of strife, came the Middle East war, with all the danger any war in the Middle East may entail. 16. If all this sounds harsh and abrasive, permit me to note that these are not my personal observations. Mauritius is not the first or the second speaker in the general debate; I only repeat and reaffirm what almost all those who preceded me have said and repeated with shuddering unanimity. The only addition I shall make is a comment on the supreme irony that this holocaust of the world peace effort has come on the thirty-fifth anniversary of the United Nations, in the year when its new high membership of 154 brings it close to universality, the 35yearold dream and aspiration of the Organization.