DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY OFFICE OF SPOKESPERSON FOR GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT

 

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of the daily noon briefing by Enrique Yeves, Spokesperson for the President of the General Assembly.

Good afternoon to everybody.

I know there are many people going around and there are many activities going on today.

The general debate started this morning and in his address to the plenary, the President of the General Assembly, Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, mentioned some of the most pressing problems that the world faces today.

He said:  “More than half the world’s people languish in hunger and poverty while at the same time more and more money is spent on weapons, wars, luxuries and totally superfluous and unnecessary things.  We must resist the temptation to bury our heads in the sand in an attempt to deny reality.  Let us be brave enough to acknowledge the worst inequities that exist in the world and within most of our countries, even in many of the most developed countries.  And these inequities are time bombs that will not simply go away if we ignore them.”

Let me now provide you with the latest figures on attendance for the general debate.  As from now we have a total of 78 Heads of State and 37 Heads of Government.

And basically this is all that I have for you today.  Any questions?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  Yes.  When is the Nicaraguan President scheduled to speak in the general debate?

Spokesperson:  I have here the latest schedule.  According to the latest schedule, the President of Nicaragua, [David] Ortega [Saavedra], is supposed to talk on Friday morning.  He is scheduled for Friday morning.  I think this is a last-minute change because he was scheduled for this morning originally.  No more questions?  Time to go for work!  Thank you very much, bye.

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For information media • not an official record