NEW YORK, UN
Racism, climate change and worsening divisions among nations and cultures topped the agenda Wednesday as leaders from China to Costa Rica, from Finland to Turkey to the United Nations itself outlined reasons why the world isn’t working as it should — and what must be done quickly to fix it. Said one country’s president: “The future is raising its voice at us.”
For the first time since the
COVID-19 pandemic began early last year, more than two dozen world leaders
appeared in person at the U.N. General Assembly on the opening day of their
annual high-level meeting Tuesday. In speech after speech, the atmosphere was
somber, angry and dire.
Chinese President Xi Jinping
warned that “the world has entered a period of new turbulence and
transformation.” Finland President Sauli Niinistö said: “We are indeed at a
critical juncture.” And Costa Rican President Carlos Alvarado Quesada declared:
“The future is raising its voice at us: Less military weaponry, more investment
in peace!”
Speaker after speaker at
Tuesday’s opening of the nearly week-long meeting decried the inequalities and deep
divisions that have prevented united global action to end the COVID-19
pandemic, which has claimed nearly 4.6 million lives and is still raging, and
the failure to sufficiently tackle the climate crisis threatening the planet.
COVID-19 and climate are certain
to remain top issues for heads of state and government. But Wednesday’s U.N.
agenda will first turn the spotlight on the commemoration of the 20th
anniversary of the controversial U.N. World Conference Against Racism in
Durban, South Africa, which was dominated by clashes over the Middle East and
the legacy of slavery.
The U.S. and Israel walked out
during the meeting over a draft resolution that singled out Israel for
criticism and likened Zionism to racism — a provision that was eventually
dropped. Twenty countries are boycotting Wednesday’s commemoration, according
to the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which
urged more countries to join them “in continuing to fight racism, bigotry, and
anti-Semitism.”
Following the commemoration,
heads of state will start delivering their annual addresses again in the vast General
Assembly Hall. Speakers include King Abdullah II of Jordan, Indonesian
President Joko Widodo and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Perhaps the harshest assessment
of the current global crisis came from U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres,
who opened his state of the world address sounding an “alarm” that “the world
must wake up.”
“Our world has never been more
threatened or more divided,” he said. “We face the greatest cascade of crises
in our lifetimes.”
“We are on the edge of an abyss —
and moving in the wrong direction,” the secretary-general warned.
Guterres pointed to “supersized
glaring inequalities” in addressing COVID-19, “climate alarm bells ... ringing
at fever pitch,” upheavals from Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Yemen and beyond
thwarting peace, and “a surge of mistrust and misinformation (that) is
polarizing people and paralyzing societies.”
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan said the pandemic was a reminder “that the entire world are part of a
big family.”
“But the solidarity test that we
were put to failed us miserably,” he said. “It is a disgrace for humanity that
vaccine nationalism is still being carried on through different methods,” and
underdeveloped countries and poor segments of societies have been “literally
left to their fate in the face of the pandemic.”
As for the climate crisis,
Erdogan said whoever did the most damage to nature, the atmosphere and water,
“and whoever has wildly exploited natural resources” should make the greatest
contribution to fighting global warming.
“Unlike the past, this time no
one can afford the luxury to say, ‘I’m powerful so I will not pay the bill’
because climate change will treat mankind quite equally,” the Turkish leader
said. “The duty for all of us is to take measures against this enormous threat,
with a fair burden-sharing.”
To compile our list, we spoke with
clubs, players’ agents, commercial sponsors and worldwide soccer experts. All
figures are converted to U.S. dollars using the current exchange rate and
include salaries (pretax) for the 2021-22 season, bonuses and endorsements.
Transfer fees are excluded. - AP
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