French President Hollande's speech during the General assembly, the Hall is approximately 60% empty. Photo: UN.

I was absolutely stunned last month to discover that the General Assembly is basically an inflated oversold assembly of notables that pretend to matter, but in reality have very little influence on world affairs.
You ask why I would say such a thing? Here is the answer.

When the head of state of the fifth largest economy in the world, France, spoke to the gathering last month the hall was more than 60% empty. I don’t believe any one serious was listening to the voice of a President that in normal times has a huge impact on the world. It was pathetic to discover that so much effort was extended on his part, just to speak in front of an empty hall. Yes, it was televised and the cameras pretended to promote the importance to his speech by focusing on the President to avoid showing the emptiness of the Hall, but really, who do they think will believe them when all can see that in reality, it’s a big show where there is no engaged reciprocity. Did any one care or pay attention? and this was for a member of the security council.

If that was the audience for a President of France, what was it for the other leaders of the world? Besides the speech of the President of the USA, the rest of these speeches must have been ridiculously badly attended. Does the UN really matter? when we know that 60% of its membership are countries that have nothing close to democratic governments.

So yes, lets put things in perspective, it’s all a show for an organization that pretends a lot and does in fact very little. Like General de Gaulle used to say , “Le Grand Machin” literally “a big thing” which meant for him an ineffectual bureaucracy that does nothing . De Gaulle said that in the 60’s, not much has changed , unfortunately.

I really don’t know what more to say about it, but I thought it was important to highlight in this world of illusions. We, the people are being played, again and again…..sadly.