World must pull together in face of unprecedented challenges, Ban warns
NEW YORK. September 7. KAZINFORM Reaching into the sport of rugby for metaphor and the lore of the Maoris, New Zealand's original inhabitants, for wisdom, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made a fervent appeal on Wed for unprecedented global cooperation to meet an exceptional host of complex challenges.
"This week, New Zealand is the magnificent meeting ground of both the world of diplomacy and the world of rugby," he said in an address at Auckland University, New Zealand's largest city, which is hosting a summit meeting of the Pacific Islands Forum while the country at large prepares to hold the Rugby World Cup, opening on Friday, the UN News Centre reported.
"I have come to realize that those worlds are not as different as you might think. In rugby, you lose teeth. In diplomacy, you lose face. Rugby scrums confuse anyone who doesn't know the game. So do UN debates. And sometimes they can look very similar.
"And yet, in heart and spirit the Rugby World Cup is a celebration, a celebration of common values and a way of life: teamwork, mutual respect, solidarity. The qualities of grit and determination - all very useful, I have found, in the world of diplomacy," he added in a speech that touched on climate change, security, sustainable development, the global economic crisis and the sweeping democracy movements in North Africa and the Middle East.
All these challenges mark a time of global transition and global uncertainty, a pivot-point in history that demands big thinking and bold action that have nothing to do with business as usual, a degree of cooperation that is unprecedented and in which the word's young, like those attending his speech at Auckland University, have a major, even a vanguard role to play, he said.
For full version see http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=39458&Cr=pacific&Cr1 =