Obama decries inequality gap in final speech at UN
NEW YORK: In his final address to the UN General Assembly, US President Barack Obama gave an uplifting speech reminiscent of his campaign for the presidency eight years ago when the world hoped he could deliver what he again called for on Tuesday.
Obama called for a world that overcomes ethnic, racial and religious differences, where “our identities do not have to be defined by putting someone down but by lifting someone up”. While he admitted social progress had been made, most of his speech focused on this theme of an integrating world that is faced with rising divisions inside and between nations.
“Twenty-five years after the Cold War the world is less violent and more prosperous and yet there is uncertainty and strife. Despite progress people lose trust in institutions. Governing becomes difficult, tensions between nations grow.”
A world in which “1percent controls as much as the other 99 percent will never be stable”, Obama said. Advanced communications have made vast numbers of people painfully aware of this, and legitimately resentful, he added. “Expectations rise and a sense of injustice undermines people’s faith in the system. It can’t be fixed by going back to planned economies, but nor can the ‘excesses of capitalism’.”
There is another path, he said. “It doesn’t require succumbing to soulless capitalism but we must recognise that closing the inequality gap and bringing economic growth that is board-based is what’s needed.” He called for strengthened trade unions and “investing in our people and strengthening safety nets so people can take more risks”.
He said this wasn’t charity, but what was necessary to create a stable world economy and social justice. Obama uncharacteristically criticised his own country for at times its use of power in the world.
“Power hasn’t been unipolar for most of history,” he said.
“The end of the Cold War has allowed many to forget this. America’s adversaries and some of its allies believe all problems are caused by and can be solved by Washington. Too many in Washington believe that too.”
While the US had made mistakes, “we have striven to align ideals with our actions”. The US has worked to create high standards for world banking to rein in the “excesses of capitalism”. It was an extraordinary speech by a man who seemed to express what he would have liked to have done during his eight years as president. – Independent Foreign Service