The United Nations General Assembly sessions kicked off on Wednesday at the 'Glass House', as the UN headquarters is known. The broad theme, as has always been the case, is 'World Peace', often ending up in little more than a verbal diatribe between some nations and leaders.

President Mahinda Rajapaksa slotted as the ninth speaker at the sessions (he would have spoken by now), withdrew for undisclosed reasons, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake doing the honours instead. As he is not the Head of State, he will speak on a late afternoon next week.

Heading the UN's list of priorities this year is nuclear non-proliferation.
This is unquestionably a crucial subject with more countries gaining access to nuclear arsenal and real threats emerging that non-State actors could also come by such deadly material as was the case in Pakistan earlier this year when the Taliban came very close to the seat of power.

The threat of nuclear war has been ever-present since the 'Bay of Pigs' issue between the US and the then Soviet Union over Cuba in 1962. For nearly half a century, the world has learnt to live with this omnipresent threat, though there is justifiable questioning in many countries for whose people, the end of the world is nigh anyway, whether they face a nuclear threat or not.

We are talking of the millions around the world who are poverty stricken, homeless, lacking sanitation, unemployed, forced into child labour, malnourished and dying of starvation. Do they care about the world being blown up?
Similarly, there are other issues of vital importance to the future of the world - climate change for one. Questions are being asked how this crucial issue which took top billing not long ago slipped to second place this year, behind nuclear non-proliferation.

All this brings one to the focal issue. Is the world being choreographed, directed and controlled by those in the Northern Hemisphere, or those living in one part of the world, while the rest are mere spectators - cheering or jeering, as the case may be, but not playing any active role in the proceedings?

Many world leaders have criticized the UN itself, and accuse it of acting on the diktats of those in the Northern Hemisphere (West). Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi, who has slowly opened up his country, nevertheless lived up to his public image of being a chest-thumping basher of the West in his maiden appearance on the UN rostrum. He pretended to tear up the UN Charter and questioned its agencies' pro-West stance. Ironically this is the accusation the West often throws back at the UN especially agencies like the Geneva-based Human Rights Council.

But at least the UN provides a forum for these views to be exchanged, and frustrations vented. With all its inequalities and irregularities, the world is a better place with the UN.

Sri Lanka's new best friend, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez amidst his anti-capitalism rhetoric rather significantly asked whether the world is to believe "Obama 1 or Obama 2". Obama 1 being the US President who is making a genuine effort to change US foreign policy towards a better world and Obama 2, the President whose country, he claims, engineered a military coup d'etat in Honduras and fails to lift economic embargoes on Cuba and his own country. And one might add, commits war crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq while trying to persecute others for alleged wrongdoing elsewhere.

One noteworthy occurrence of yesteryear took place the day before the infamous 9/11 attack (2001) on the US, when Sri Lanka's then Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar broached the subject of terrorism with visiting Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon. Terrorism was not on the agenda of any of the world conferences that year - neither the UN General Assembly, nor the Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) summit. He was bluntly told it was not an issue. Our Diplomatic Editor wrote at the time that when Mr. McKinnon asked Mr. Kadirgamar whether he insisted that a reference be made to terrorism at the CHOGM Declaration and Mr. Kadirgamar said "yes", Mr. McKinnon made a face.
Mr. McKinnon was still in Colombo on the night of 9/11. The rest is history. International terrorism leap-frogged to the top of the agenda at every world forum, not least the UN General Assembly.

Similarly, issues such as climate change and exploitation for the Earth's resources by those living in the Northern Hemisphere; free trade, protectionism and unfair trade practices; illegal immigration; the brain drain from the economically poor countries to the West with no compensation, are all disregarded. Glaring iniquities, like Western farmers being subsidised (analysts say that the subsidy for each cow in Europe is more than what is allocated to a starving African child through the UN's World Food Programme), while farmers in Latin America, Africa and South Asia are deprived of subsidies by lending institutes like the IMF through their Structural Adjustment System, are conveniently ignored.

The world's population will soon hit 7 billion. And Africa which was once a net food exporter is now an importer.
Issues such as freedom of movement vis-à-vis illegal immigration being in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), often quoted against 'Third World' countries by Western human rights groups are also matters that must find a place on the UN agenda.

Political blocs like SAARC, OAU (Organisation of African Unity), the Arab League and NAM (the Non- Aligned Movement) have long abandoned collective action, succumbing to the uni-polar world largely under US stewardship.

The fact that the Indian External Affairs Minister has 52 bilateral meetings during his stay at the UN is a clear indicator that most nations are adopting an ‘each for itself and God for all’ kind of approach.

Having lost its voice and moral clout in international affairs, Sri Lanka has little choice but to swim with the tide - and hope that Obama 1 will prevail over Obama 2, and the rest will fall into place.