IT is almost impossible to get a cab from New York’s lively Times Square on a busy Saturday afternoon, as some Malaysian tourists painfully discovered the other day.
Clutching shopping bags, they had to walk for miles to reach their hotel on the east side of the city. After all, some 330,000 people pass through Times Square daily, many of whom are either tourists or people working in the area.
Brightly adorned with billboards and advertisements, Times Square is the hub of the Broadway theatre district and a bustling centre of the world’s entertainment industry. Even media giants, such as The New York Times and Thomson Reuters, call Times Square their home.
New Yorkers are unfortunately bracing for more “hardship” in the next two weeks. The annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly will definitely spawn a traffic mess, a security lockdown and a logistical nightmare for residents and tourists alike.
More than 100 world leaders, including United States President Barack Obama, are expected to converge on the UN headquarters here for high-level meetings to look for answers to pressing issues.
Coincidentally, this year’s General Assembly will see an unprecedented confluence of crises. They include the rise of the Islamic State (IS) group in Iraq and Syria, the worsening tensions with Russia over its incursion into Ukraine and the spread of the deadly Ebola virus in Africa.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who arrived here late on Saturday (New York time), is scheduled to address the 69th session of the General Assembly on Friday.
Making his third appearance at the UN as prime minister, Najib is expected to address some of these issues, as well as reiterate a call for global unity to promote peace, understanding and moderation, both between Muslims and non-Muslims, and within Muslim communities.
Diplomats say the main talking points by Western leaders at the General Assembly will be on how to deal with IS in Syria and Iraq.
Obama is likely to focus on this theme in his speech before the UN on Wednesday. He is also due to chair a UN Security Council meeting aimed at stopping the flow of foreign fighters from Arab and Asian nations and the West, who are bolstering the ranks of IS.
The US is also seeking to win crucial support from its Arab and European allies in its military campaign against IS. So far, the response has been tepid from Arab nations.
One international issue of our utmost concern that will be hotly debated at the UN is the tension in eastern Ukraine, which had led to the spectacular downing of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 on July 17, killing all 298 people on board. Obama is likely to use the UN session to garner support for plans to thwart Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Najib, who has surprised world leaders through his quiet diplomacy to secure access to the crash site and recover the bodies, will use the session to push for global civil aviation safety, seek to expedite MH17 recovery and investigation efforts in the crash site, as well as call for justice for MH17 victims.
This will indeed be a busy week for international diplomacy. Hopefully, this UN session, which runs until Oct 1, will generate wider global support to bring the culprits behind the shooting of MH17 to justice. We owe this to the families.