UN General Assembly
1992

are capable of making a useful contribution to our work at the United Nations. We all rejoice at the end of the cold war. We can all breathe easier now that the threat of a nuclear holocaust has been reduced. But while none of us died as a result of the cold war, during all those years millions died from poverty, and hundreds of millions suffered hunger, malnutrition, lack of education, poor housing and the indignity of unemployment. The tragedy is that the system continues to take its toll. Now that the cold war is ended, are we not entitled to expect something more than triumphalist declarations of this fact? It is unforgivable that, while military budgets remain so largely disproportionate to any rational security need, children are dying from hunger or preventable disease. If, over the next five years. Governments in our hemisphere alone were to reduce their military budgets to a level 20 per cent below 1990 figures, a minimum of $50 billion would be available at the end of that period for the war on poverty.