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Stuart calls for new architecture of global finance

UNITED NATIONS, CMC – Barbados’s Prime Minister Freundel Stuart has made an urgent suggestion of a “new architecture of global finance” as the economic crisis continues to grip his country and the rest of the world.

In addressing the 66 th  Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Stuart said this “new architecture” would “render unlikely the prospect of our lurching from one crisis to another, and lay the ground work for a smooth and balanced economic recovery that avoids the massive social dislocations, which we are now witnessing.”

Stuart declared that the current global economic downturn might have been avoided, if corporations had restrained their greed, and government oversight and regulation at the international, regional and national levels had been more vigorous and more rigorous.

“Recovery that comes at the expense of the poorest and most vulnerable in our societies is not only unenlightened economics but also very dangerous politics,” he said.

“We in Barbados have welcomed the rise of the global economy in the past two decades, since it has the potential for creating prosperity for all nations. But it will only realise its potential if the increasingly volatile flows of international capital are governed by fair and transparent rules,” he added.

In laying down an orderly framework for global financial and economic transactions, Stuart invoked the Greek philosopher Aristotle: “Equality between equals and proportionality between unequals.”

He said his administration believes that the path to prosperity lies in “open economies, open societies, and open governments, and is constantly positioning itself to compete as a fully compliant, transparent, rules-governed global entrepreneurial and financial centre.

“Yet, to our dismay we find that the rich and powerful keep changing the rules to their advantage and to our disadvantage,” he said, adding that it is a violation “both of fair play and of commonsense to move the goal posts while the game is in progress.”

“Let it be clearly understood that, on this issue, it is not charity we seek; it is justice we demand,” the Barbadian leader declared.

He said none of the nations represented in this current debate will enjoy sustainable prosperity “if we continue to abuse the environment, which we hold in sacred trust for future generations.

“It is an inconvenient truth that the success of humanity’s development goals depends on the ability of our planet to sustain our consumption and production practices,” he said.

Stuart urged the world body to be cautious about how it uses fossil fuels, about carbon emission levels and about the unregulated treatment of waste.

Noting that the planet has now begun to protest through dramatic changes in climate and the prospect of sea-level rise, the prime minister said the very existence of Small Island States (SIDS), like those in the Caribbean and the Pacific, could be imperiled if current trends are not halted or reversed.

He said Barbados has been an active participant in the environmental movement since the Rio Conference of 1992, stating that it has been proud to have hosted the first Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of Small Island States in 1994 and continue to work with other SIDS to update and improve the Barbados Programme of Action and the Mauritius Strategy for its further Implementation.

He said the island also continue to work towards the success of the RIO + 20 Conference on Sustainable Development, stating that he was “deeply honoured” to have been asked to serve on the UN Secretary-General’s High Level Panel on Global Sustainability.

“That our task is challenging, no one will deny, required as we are to formulate a blueprint for economic growth and prosperity that focuses on the eradication of poverty, while ensuring greater equality and inclusion, and reducing the devastating impact of human activities on ecosystems and the environment,” he said, disclosing that the work of the panel is “progressing smoothly.”

Stuart said without peace and security, it is difficult to create and maintain the social conditions that constitute “an indispensable prerequisite” for economic progress and prosperity, stating that the protracted conflict in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians has become a “disturbing anomaly in a world where so many other disputes have been peacefully resolved.

“It is an anomaly because everyone knows what the solution is,” he said. “It is disturbing because the only thing preventing a resolution of the issue is an unhappy convergence of dysfunctional political currents at the domestic level,” he said.

Stuart said while the State of Israel has a right to exist and the people of Israel have a right to live in security and to do so with the full and undisputed recognition of the rest of the world, the Palestinians, on the other hand, are entitled also to enjoy the “fruits of prosperity within their own sovereign state.

“Much else in this conflict may be negotiable. Surely, those two postulates are not,” the Barbados Prime Minister said, adding that the Holy Land has, for centuries, been the “locus of humanity’s hopes.

“It is high time that it now become a symbol, not of humanity’s divisions, but of humanity’s unity,” he said. “This state of affairs will ensue only when the disgracefully long wait of the Palestinians for a homeland is brought to an end.”

The Barbadian prime minister also called for end to the United States economic embargo on Cuba, saying the measure now in its 50 th year had “long outlived its usefulness and should be lifted”.

Stuart said Barbados fully embraced Cuba as an important Caribbean partner, stating that, ever since 1972, Bridgetown had committed to a policy of “constructive engagement” with Havana.

“Barbados respects the sovereign rights of Cuba and supports, unequivocally, its full integration into our hemisphere,” he said.

“Barbados does not believe that actions, such as the decades-long economic embargo, aimed at isolating Cuba, or any other measures that create greater hardship for the Cuban people, will facilitate the full integration which we consider to be both desirable and necessary,” he added.