  |
In 2001 Kofi Annan received the Nobel Prize in conjunction with the United Nations.
The focus of his speech was global inequality.
"Ladies and gentlemen,
Today in Afghanistan a girl will be born.
Her mother will hold her, feed her and comfort her and care for her just as any mother would anywhere else in the world.
In those most basic acts of human nature, humanity knows no divisions.
But to be born a girl in Afghanistan today, is to begin life centuries away from the prosperity that one small part of humanity has achieved.
Even thought her mother would do all in her power, to protect her and sustain her.
There is a one in four risk that the girl will not live to see her fifth birthday.
Whether she does is just one of the tests of our common humanity of our belief in our individual responsibility for our fellow men and women.
But it is the only test that matters.
Remember this girl then our large aims to fight poverty, prevent conflict or cure disease will nothing distant or impossible.
Indeed those aims would seem very near and very achievable as they should.
Because beneath the surface of stats and nations, ideas and language lies the fate of individual human beings in need.
Answering their needs will be the mission of the United Nations in the century to come.
6
