UN Chief fires uncharacteristically damning assessment of world amid Covid & BLM protests

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday while delivering the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture made an all-inclusive call to end the global inequalities that sparked this year’s massive anti-racism protests and have been further exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, using uncharacteristically strong language.

'The delusion that we live in..'

“COVID-19 has been likened to an X-ray, revealing fractures in the fragile skeleton of the societies we have built. It is exposing fallacies and falsehoods everywhere. The lie that free markets can deliver health care for all, the fiction that unpaid care work is not work, the delusion that we live in a post-racist world, the myth that we are all in the same boat," he said.

Guterres said that developed countries are strongly invested in their own survival and have “failed to deliver the support needed to help the developing world through these dangerous times.” The speech by the U.N. chief took aim at the vast inequality of wealth - “The 26 richest people in the world hold as much wealth as half the global population,” Guterres said - and other inequalities involving race, gender, class and place of birth.

'COVID-19 is a human tragedy'

Guterres also said that COVID-19 is a human tragedy but has also created an opportunity to build back a more equal and sustainable world. "Our response must be based on a New Social Contract and New Global Deal that create equal opportunities and respect the rights and freedoms of all," he said.

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According to him, a New Social Contract within societies will enable young people to live in dignity; will ensure women have the same prospects and opportunities as men; and will protect the sick, the vulnerable, and minorities of all kinds. The UN chief said, A New Global Deal must be based on -- fair globalization, the rights and dignity of every human being, living in balance with nature, respect for the rights of future generations, success measured in human rather than economic terms.

Answering questions after his speech, Guterres called for “massive support” for the developing world including debt write-offs. He said the suspension of debt payments until the end of this year, which was agreed upon by the G-20, the world’s 20 major economic powers, “is clearly not enough.”

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(With agency inputs)