Crisis is the word of the day.
At the same time, more heads of State and Government are assembled here than ever before -and more human beings, watching this gathering from every corner of the world, are convinced that the United Nations is indispensable for the very survival of mankind. Ever since its first moments of existence, the United Nations has been torn between idealism and power politics, between solidarity and egotism. It has always mirrored the state of the world - but at the same time, it has been much more that the sum total of national interests. The history of the United Nations is the perpetual attempt to bring the world organization closer to the people and to forge them into a genuine community of humankind. On the Organization's fiftieth birthday, the United Nations members assembled here today sense more than ever the growing need to transcend the confines of the nationstate.