UN General Assembly
1982

We acknowledged, and we say again today, that many of the problems of the South are of the South's own making; but there are other serious constraints that stem from its relations with the North. We see today that the likelihood of such constraints becoming fatal to the world economy has been rapidly increasing since we met at Cancun. Many things have changed since then. In recent years we have witnessed unprecedented hostility, rhetorical belligerence and lack of understanding between the super-Powers. In 1982 the world saw the outbreak and escalation of actual armed conflict in many areas. Such conflicts are irrational in every case and should be of serious concern to us, both because of their very existence and because of the relative ease with which they are coming about. What most concerns and affects the majority of countries, however, is the extremely serious deterioration of the international economy, particularly in the poor countries, where three quarters of the world's population lives and where the consequences of the crisis are felt in tragic measure.