Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on global leaders yesterday to find “seeds of hope” in the turmoil and despair of a world that may seem like it’s falling apart.
In his state of the world address at the opening of the UN General Assembly’s annual ministerial meeting, Ban pointed to crises piling up, disease spreading, Cold War ghosts returning and so much of the Arab spring going violently wrong.
“But leadership is precisely about finding the seeds of hope and nurturing them into something bigger,” the UN chief told presidents, prime ministers, monarchs and ministers from the UN’s 193 member states. “That is our duty,” Ban said. “That is my call to you today.”
Ban cited many crises — from beheadings and the use of barrel bombs in Syria to the volatile situation in Ukraine and Boko Haram’s “murderous onslaught” in Nigeria.
The issue certain to top the agenda at the ministerial session is the threat from Islamic terrorists intent on erasing borders, with the first US and Arab airstrikes in Syria delivered Monday night in response.
Many diplomats hope that crisis won’t drown out the plight of millions of civilians caught in conflicts in Syria, Iraq, Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza; the misery of the largest number of refugees since World War II; and global support for new UN goals to fight poverty and address climate change.
Looking at the array of complex challenges, Norway’s Foreign Minister Borge Brende said: “It’s unprecedented in decades, that’s for sure.”
