UN General Assembly
2009

In speaking to the General Assembly in France’s name today, I am well aware that we all have a historic responsibility in the current circumstances. In the midst of a financial, economic and social crisis that has no precedent in the history of the United Nations, and faced with the threat a global ecological disaster, we must now invent a new world where the follies of yesterday are no longer possible. That is our responsibility. Now we all know towards what catastrophes our obstinate attempts to solve the problems of the twenty-first century with twentieth- century ideas and instruments may lead us. No one among us can claim any longer that he did not know. There is a universal awareness that the path that the world has taken over the past few decades is a dead end. This awareness is born of sorrow, suffering and fear. We are politically and morally accountable for the suffering on our planet. Tens of millions of men and women have lost their jobs and their homes. A billion