UN General Assembly
2017

It is another year and another session of the General Assembly. We meet in the same Assembly Hall and deliver our addresses from the same rostrum, yet no modicum of protocol can mask the gaping divide in our ranks. We live in an increasingly fragile, unjust and unequal world. A small minority holds the reins of power and wealth among nations and, for the most part, within nations. The overwhelming majority of nations and their citizens are without power, without voice, without the means for a decent life, and often without peace and security. We may be called the United Nations, but the reality is that we are divided nations and societies. Despite our deep divisions, however, our destinies are intertwined in a fundamental way. We share a common home: a small planet in a vast universe, a tiny boat in a vast ocean. Whatever calamity happens anywhere in our world — epidemics, poverty, violence, mass displacement, war, terror — it will eventually catch up with all of us.