The Caribbean at the UN

The traditional end-of-September opening of the UN General Assembly this year drew its usual complement of 100+ of world leaders – including most of those from the Caribbean. PM Kamla Persaud-Bissessar was one of the more than one-third who decided to stay at home. As usual, the US president dominated the press coverage, even though he treated it more as a campaign stop in the ongoing US presidential sweepstakes. There was no Gaddafi this year, striking his tent in Central park to compete for primetime reportage.
Obama’s half an hour speech focused on the Middle East where the outrage over the scandalous video of the prophet Mohammed added to the ongoing tensions between Iran and Israel. His decision not to meet Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised eyebrows but not his decision to forego mingling with the other leaders present in NY. Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar was photographed with Obama only because they both happened to be staying at the Waldorf Astoria.
As usual, the Caribbean leaders, along with those from other smaller countries not caught in the cynosure brought on by conflict, used the opportunity to network on the sidelines, meet with donors and funding agencies and plead their countries’ case for increased assistance in the final leg to 2015. This, of course, is when the Millennium Goals are supposed to reach completion point.
They were, in turn, wooed by countries that need their votes later in the session. Australia, for instance is competing with Luxembourg and Finland to fill two of the ten temporary spots on the 15-member Security Council. Its Foreign Minister has already announced that they have secured the votes of 14 of the 15 members of CariCom. It would be interesting to find out what was the quid pro quo, standard in these horse trading matters, that was delivered or promised.
The UN Secretary General, addressing the opening session spoke passionately about his new initiative, called Education First, for which he named President Donald Ramotar among the selected world leaders to review the global education system. Speaking at the launch where several world leaders including SA president Zuma were present, President Ramotar praised the initiative but identified the cost of textbooks as a binding constraint in the delivery of education to the poor. Teeing off a local contretemps over photocopying of textbooks, he recommended that UNICEF investigate the possibility of having copyright laws in this specific area be reviewed. President Ramotar has been given a very powerful bully-pulpit to follow up on his suggestion.
Jamaica’s PM Portia Simpson-Miller along with PM Freundel Stuart of Barbados and Ramotar all spoke up for middle-income states in their addresses to the General Assembly. They called on the international community not to forget them in aid for development and the fight against disease. Simpson-Miller noted that several of the countries are highly indebted and extremely vulnerable to external shocks and natural disasters, face significant obstacles in efforts to spur economic recovery and growth, and are hampered by the volatility of energy and food prices, decreases in export commodity prices, and weak capital inflows.
Unfortunately, the world turns on a political calculus in which self-interest is the prime factor. Now that the leaders have returned home, the real work of development begins.