10 days ago, Helen Clark announced that she is a candidate for the job of the United Nations Secretary General. The present S G, Ban Ki Moon, retires at the end of this year. Early this morning NZ time, she gave an 11 minute speech to the UN General Assembly in New York, and then answered questions for the next 2 hours.
She is one of 9 candidates. They include 3 other women. If the UN wants a woman this time, they have 4 to choose from.
Who is Helen Clark? She was Prime Minister of NZ for 9 years, before John Key. Although she was from the Labour Party, John Key has supported her because it would be good for NZ if she was successful. For the last seven years, she has been Administrator of the UN Development Programme. The aim of this programme is to help people and countries in poverty. In her speech this morning, she said to the General Assembly that she has visited two thirds of the countries represented in the UN and talked to their ministers. She is therefore, well known.
In her speech, she talked about the problems for the UN to deal with: poverty, conflict, terrorism, refugees, pandemics and climate change. She said that people around the world have hope and expectations that the UN will reduce inequality and build a better and safer world. She talked about the role of women but also of youth, how young people are the hope of the world.
She also talked of her own skills and experience and her belief in social justice. Her first political action when she was young, was to protest against apartheid in South Africa. She finished by talking about the importance of transparency in the UN. Perhaps this was because we have heard so much about corruption in sport and politics recently.
You can listen to her speech. (Warning: she speaks quite fast.)
Vocabulary (They are all nouns)
• candidate – someone who wants to be elected
• poverty – being poor
• conflict – war
• pandemics – disease spread through many countries like bird flu
• expectations – people expect the UN to solve all problems
• inequality – not equal chances for everyone
• social justice – equality for all
• apartheid – separate society for black people and white people
• transparency – being open, not hiding things, no corruption