UN Day in Turkmenistan

Tariq Saeedi

Ashgabat, 24 October 2008 (nCa) --- Day-to-day journalism is like forced labour. You just do it, whether you like it or not. However, once in a while it is a pleasure to write about something, especially if your stomach is full of food from a dozen countries.

So, it is with great pleasure and chili-bitten ulcers that I am writing about the UN Day reception that was hosted Thursday evening by the UN System in Turkmenistan.

People from all walks of life, and some yet unwalked, attended in large numbers.

More than a dozen embassies put their best food forward

Richard Young, resident coordinator of UN System in Turkmenistan, Miroslav Jenca, head of the UN regional centre for preventive diplomacy, and Reshit Meredov, deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Turkmenistan, made speeches but hardly anyone would be able to recollect their remarks coherently because the wafting aroma, emanating powerfully from five score and five national dishes, had created a hermetically sealed bubble, blocking out all senses except one.

While the taste is still fresh in the mouth, it would be good to remember that the world outside is going to pieces, literally.

The global food crisis is here to stay for a while, the economic and financial meltdown is an ugly lump that may take any shape, some frozen conflicts threaten to become fully fledged wars, poverty has reduced in some places and increased in others, and the UN Security Council has come to look like a player, not an umpire.

What went wrong and where?

Is the UN General Assembly merely a debating club of diplomats with fat salaries?

Has the world not evolved considerably, for better or worse, since the World War II?

Should the whole world remain hostage to the whims and wishes of the United States forever?

Is globalization really a blessing?

Is there any instrument to rectify corporate greed and fiscal irresponsibility?

The only hope for answering these questions honestly is if the esprit de corps that prevails on the UN Day, remains intact the other 264 days of the year.