 The 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly saw leaders from across the world talking about a wide variety of subjects, including the Ukraine war, hunger and climate change. This session was especially significant considering the rise in tensions following the Ukraine war and the controversies around the Taiwan Straits. How were these issues addressed and what were some of the key interventions at the UNGA? Vijay Prasad of Tri-Continental takes stock of the session. Human Development Indicators look at the fact that these indicators have for the second year consecutively, first time in 32 years that you had a two-year consecutive drop in human development indicators, the sustainable development goals and so on. You would have hoped that at least one head of government would have referred to that report. The absolutely essential nature of this decline in well-being, the food price inflation that's going to increase the insecurity of people and so on. But it really isn't like that. Most people come and they give very canned speeches. The one speech that did stand out was the speech made by the President of Colombia and that's Gustavo Petro. It's his first appearance at the UN General Assembly. Mr. Petro made a very strong statement about the war on drugs which had been largely prosecuted by Western governments against countries that produce the raw materials for many of the world's narcotics that's opioids, cannabis and cocaine. In this case, Mr. Petro focused on cocaine because the coca plant is grown in the Andes particularly in Colombia and he argued that the entire strategy on the war on drugs is a war on the peasantry of Colombia and on petty dealers in North America and Western Europe and he suggested this kind of attack on the supply side is creating environmental destruction. They use chemical weapons against these peasants. It's creating a climate catastrophe and so on and he said look why not look at the drug crisis as a demand side problem. Let's look at why people in these affluent societies suffer from a kind of affluensia. There's alienation, there's social distress that leads to increased drug taking and I thought it was a very sincere and moving speech which came to the heart of many of our problems in the world. I very much hope that this speech is read and studied by people around the world but more than that that it has an impact on the other heads of government who really need to wake up and no longer pretend that there isn't a kind of cascading catastrophe in the world. The UNGA session followed shortly after the meeting of some of the world's powerhouses in Samarkand as part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. This grouping has a very different perspective from the G7 and opens the possibility of a different way of approaching issues. The members of the SCO have internal differences but may also be able to move forward in spite of them. What does the SCO stand for today and what is the path ahead for the grouping? The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is the largest regional body in the world you know it comprises about 40% of the world's population represented in the SCO largely because of the membership of India, Pakistan and of course China. These are very large countries the heart of Asia. If you add in Russia that's about maybe 60% of the Eurasian landmass is part of the SCO. Now Turkey wants to join the SCO that's interesting it's a NATO member Iran has been inducted into the SCO. It's a major regional body in fact a major world body about 40% of the world's population as I said represented in the SCO. If you look at the G7 countries the group of seven countries they only represent 10% of the world's people and yet you know they have positioned themselves as being the executive of world affairs when in fact they don't represent a near even a plurality or a majority whereas the SCO with 40% you know has some considerable standing. Also major countries India, China, Russia and so on major powers in Eurasia in this body it was interesting because the western press largely focused on whatever criticisms were made to the Russians by India and China that seemed to be the focus of attention. In fact the real issue was that they were all talking to each other that there was not a kind of great wall being created around Russia they were all talking very civil way they are in fact increasing their ties increasing commercial ties trade and so on. This should be a model for world affairs you know India and Russia don't agree on everything for goodness sake I mean there's a lot that they don't agree on but they are still able to talk civilly they're still able to talk fraternally about problems in in either country. One wishes that this kind of attitude would prevail in the rest of Europe and perhaps European countries would find a way to talk to Russia to try to get this conflict in Ukraine off the table it's creating major food and fuel price inflation in countries members of the SCO but in the rest of Asia in Africa Latin America in fact the whole world is struggling with food and fuel price inflation the SCO was trying to engage the Russians encouraging them to move in a direction towards peacemaking hopefully there'll be pressure on Ukraine in that regard in fact quite the opposite Ukraine made some major military gains in Kharkov and and so on just before the SCO met the appetite for negotiation is not there and the west has in fact been scuttling attempts at negotiations since April of 2022 a long time that they've been saying no negotiation no negotiation so yes the SCO the Shanghai Cooperation Organization took the words cooperation which is in the name of the body and the word mutual very seriously and I think that this is a positive development look there's lots of things you may not agree with the SCO about the way they they talk about commerce and trade and so on might have disagreements on this or that but I think the most significant thing is that entities but you know political forces which don't see eye to eye on everything are still able yet able to talk to each other to advance certain issues and so on I think that's a very productive you know and positive outcome of the SCO meeting it's also important to say that you know many of these countries then will come to the United Nations and there you know it really is no longer being what it it hasn't met its promise which is to become the place where political forces from different backgrounds are able to talk to each other it's really not like that you know there's still the kind of belligerent language from the United States against Cuba and Venezuela and so on when is that going to end