Yet he was the first secretary general ever to be elected from the ranks of the United Nations staff. Prior to his appointment, he served as Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations. In this Read My Lips feature, Mr. Annan lays out his thoughts on the importance and limitations of markets in triggering global change. It has been said that arguing against globalization is like arguing against the laws of gravity. We cannot wait for governments to do it all.
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Governments tend to be slow moving by nature, because they have to build political support for every step. The problem is this. The spread of markets outpaces the ability of societies and their political systems to adjust to them, let alone to guide the course they take. Open markets offer the only realistic hope of pulling billions of people in developing countries out of abject poverty, while sustaining prosperity in the industrialized world. We must ensure that the global market is embedded in broadly shared values and practices that reflect global social needs, and that all the world's people share the benefits of globalization.