A busy week at Camp Crazy ...
Well one more week has gone by, and it was a busy one.
The General Debate started this week, and Heads of State from all over the world came to give a 15-minute plug to the UN about what they saw as the most important issues going forward. The event kicked off on Tuesday morning with Brazil (apparently that's tradition), followed by the United States. The security over the past week has been INTENSE to say the least, which I suppose makes people feel safer.
Anyway, Bush's comments were predictable to say the least: terroism, bad. I was surprised how "soft" he was when addressing Iran and Syria ... making comments about how he loves their peoples and their cultures, just not their governments.
The other speeches were less predictable. Later on Tuesday, the Iranian President made his speech ... which was surprisingly discrete ... up until the end, when he invokes the name of almost every Prophet in recorded history. Anyway, I think I will reserve my comments on that for the moment ...
So Thursday was another exciting day ... Lebanon and Canada presented. I listened to Lebanon's Lahoud and it was heart-breaking ... hearing how his country had been torn apart while the international community just sat back and did nothing. Canada, again, was a surprising speech. Harper came out as VERY critical of the UN, which is not the traditional Canadian view toward the Organization. Less surprisingly, he used the majority of his time alotted to push Afghanistan down everyone's throats ... it sounded more like a campaign speech than an address to an international body. Anyway, it was a proud moment to see Canada represented on the international stage.
I was disappointed to see that Britain, China and Germany didn't actually send Heads of State. Having said that, I was very interested to listen to the first two speak. The UK Foreign Secretary was very interesting to listen to, as was the Chinese Minister. He was very concise, direct and relevant in all the comments he made. I say A+ to the Chinese government for representing itself exceptionally well.
On that note, I'm off to take a shower. I was supposed to go to the St. Janero Day festival today in Little Italy, but it's pouring rain outside and I'm not really up to it at the moment.
Cheers.
The General Debate started this week, and Heads of State from all over the world came to give a 15-minute plug to the UN about what they saw as the most important issues going forward. The event kicked off on Tuesday morning with Brazil (apparently that's tradition), followed by the United States. The security over the past week has been INTENSE to say the least, which I suppose makes people feel safer.
Anyway, Bush's comments were predictable to say the least: terroism, bad. I was surprised how "soft" he was when addressing Iran and Syria ... making comments about how he loves their peoples and their cultures, just not their governments.
The other speeches were less predictable. Later on Tuesday, the Iranian President made his speech ... which was surprisingly discrete ... up until the end, when he invokes the name of almost every Prophet in recorded history. Anyway, I think I will reserve my comments on that for the moment ...
So Thursday was another exciting day ... Lebanon and Canada presented. I listened to Lebanon's Lahoud and it was heart-breaking ... hearing how his country had been torn apart while the international community just sat back and did nothing. Canada, again, was a surprising speech. Harper came out as VERY critical of the UN, which is not the traditional Canadian view toward the Organization. Less surprisingly, he used the majority of his time alotted to push Afghanistan down everyone's throats ... it sounded more like a campaign speech than an address to an international body. Anyway, it was a proud moment to see Canada represented on the international stage.
I was disappointed to see that Britain, China and Germany didn't actually send Heads of State. Having said that, I was very interested to listen to the first two speak. The UK Foreign Secretary was very interesting to listen to, as was the Chinese Minister. He was very concise, direct and relevant in all the comments he made. I say A+ to the Chinese government for representing itself exceptionally well.
On that note, I'm off to take a shower. I was supposed to go to the St. Janero Day festival today in Little Italy, but it's pouring rain outside and I'm not really up to it at the moment.
Cheers.
posted by steve at 7:08 AM
2 Comments:
Fascinating! You lucky bastard! I don't understand, though, were you actually IN the room while they gave their speeches? And are you serious, you were PROUD of Canada?!?
And just a suggestion, Mr. International Relations, I finally rented "Syriana" and thought you might like to do the same. It's on the geopolitics of oil. Complex, but good.
Anyway, thanks for those messages describing your weeks!
Dom :)
Yes, d-bil, I was proud to be Canadian. :P Not all of us are les in-D-pendent-istes ... And yes, I got to see the speeches en direct, from the horse's mouth as the saying goes.
Anyway, thank you for the suggestion, I definitely want to go see the movie.
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