A special UNGA session

Come September, Come UNGA. The big gathering. Leaders speak. Diplomats meet. Global agenda is set. Challenges are highlighted. Solutions are proposed. Direction becomes clear. This year's United Nations General Assembly was special. It had come at a time of transition. From a World Shutdown to a World Opening up. Last year and a half was an experience of a century. Almost 7 billion people were shut down and knocked down simultaneously by an invisible virus. Sky-scraper offices looming over cities were empty. Streets haunted. Hotels closed. Hospitals, pavements, rivers full of dying or dead bodies. From this death zone to a more alive and buzzing world due to the vaccine treatment is almost incredible. The year and half gone was nothing like ever seen before by generations. Thus, to resume as business as usual is just not an option.

Corona was a big exposé of how limited research is. Of how scarce health facilities are. Of how unprepared human race is. Of how mindless our materialistic rat race is. Of how humanity is still the savior of humans. Of how seriously our environment is abused. But, most of all, of how limited leadership vision is. The towering buildings, the super technologies, the 'White Houses', the Kabul palaces all failed the call. The call to rise against the adversities and conflicts. The call to rise above self-interests. The call to go beyond the past practices. In the future the nations, leaders and people that choose to listen to these calls will be the change agents, while those who ignore the call will just fade into uncomfortable memories. The time to unlearn and relearn is here. Things that need to be deleted from human options are:

1. Race for more and more-Corona has stripped bare the lust for self -indulgence. Big countries are going crazy trying to prevent corona by monopolizing the vaccine. India, the USA and European countries almost backed out of their CoVax commitments to focus on their own populations. Most of these countries are trying to give a third and a fourth shot to their populations while 80% of the people of the world have hardly got one shot. This polarization is self-defeating as the virus will travel back to haunt them. The 76th UN summit is at a crucial juncture for the world community. Not just the world but the UN itself is at crossroads. The United Nations is beset with the 'un-United Nations'. Unilateral actions govern the world. From India's open unilateral flouting of the UN Charter by committing huge human rights violations in Kashmir to Israel bombing Palestinians at whim, the year of pandemic has been the year of the apathetic.

2. Spin and befool-Lying is almost legal now. Most wars, be it Iraq or Afghanistan, were the result of spins spun by doctored reports. This fabrication of truth has caused serious damage to the world trust levels. With so much that is photo-shopped and artificially created, authentic ideas, reports and people get over looked. There has to be a punishment for counterfeiting information as there is for counterfeiting money.

3. Sell and Spend-If somebody was under the illusion that money "greed" will undergo a change post pandemic, they are right. It has undergone a change and has now upgraded to money "slavery" status. Nations and organizations on the resumption of economic activity seem to be going for buy and spend binges with a vengeance. The V shaped economic recoveries are creating all-time supply shortages fueling inflation and creating more obsession with money supply. This is a dangerous 'spend till you are spent' spiral that needs to be decelerated.

The 76th UNGA was a much-awaited event. Unlike the 75th one which was virtual this year's assembly was hybrid. The big country leaders including those from the US, India, UK, etc spoke in person and talked mostly of the post-pandemic challenges. Pakistan sent its foreign minister to the conference but its Prime Minister spoke virtually. While most people were expecting the in-person speeches to dominate the conference, Prime Minister Imran Khan's address again stole the show. The speech in many ways set the course for a new way of viewing, connecting and redeeming the damage done to humans and humanity in the Pandemic:

1. The Sound of Truth-Despite PM Imran Khan's speech being a virtual pre-recorded presentation, it broke all records of viewership. Within 3 days it reached 326000 viewers, while PM Modi's speech had 177,000 views and the American, Chinese and British leaders far behind the Pakistani leader. Why did PM Imran Khan get this huge audience despite it not being delivered in person? Because he was different. He talked about peace instead of war. He logically pleaded for the Afghanistan solution. He talked about "Oneness" rather than being the "only one" in pursuit of control. He talked about human dignity while living and also while dying. These are values that have a universal ring. That is what is needed for the world to unlearn its way of destruction and control and learn the way to connect for a win-win.

2. Make a real difference-The world is more divided, more unequal, more inequitable than before. The incoming UNGA President Abdulla Shahid of the Maldives replacing outgoing President Volkan Bozkir of Turkey has a tough but potentially history changing opportunity to make a difference. Shahid laid out the theme for the session: "Building resilience through hope - to recover from COVID-19, rebuild sustainability, respond to the needs of the planet, respect the rights of people, and revitalise the United Nations." The last piece of this theme to revitalize the United Nations is key. If the very body to develop multilateralism and respect human rights is being perceived as hapless in front of the big powers, what to say of reforming others. The optics at UNGA are foretelling. Modi's eager welcome at the White House was perceived as new era in a renewed US India alliance. It is not new. It is not re-new. It is re-old. It is the same old wine in the same old bottle. It will lead to the same old conflict-ridden, divided, warring, killing, world. A world where money instead of educating people will be spent on educating and training unwilling soldiers. Money instead of researching and preventing the next pandemic will be spent on researching and developing bombs that act as daisy cutters on human bodies. For Pakistan, it is again a time to lead and light the candle of human compassion and values. A light that started glowing when India's venomous right to reply was countered by Pakistan's visually-impaired UN officer Saima Saleem's calm, logical reply. When the blind show the way to the eyes of the world, change is unchangeable.

(The writer can be reached at [email protected])

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021