Good Times

Obviously I have been very excited and happy all week because of two things:
1. The meeting of the 64th UN General Assembly, and
2. The G20 Summit, which is conveniently being held in Pittsburgh this year.

The General Assembly has turned out to be both enlightening and hilarious so far. If you hadn't heard anything of Muammar Qaddafi's ridiculous speech (and I'm sure you have), here are a few highlights:
-George Bush should be investigated by the UN and put to death because he started the Iraq War.
-Swine flu was made in a laboratory by the companies that make the vaccine as a large capitalization scam, and the "fish flu" is next.
-The proposed two-state solution regarding Israel and Palestine should be thrown out and the new state should be called "Isratine."
-Mines make a great defense tool. His argument: If you invade then you die, but that's okay because you're invading me. He also mentioned his website.
-The Taliban is okay.
-The General Assembly should be moved from NYC, because he suffered from jet lag on the trip.
-If the European nations do not pay reparations of exactly $7.77 trillion, Africans will come to Europe and take the money from them.
-Obama is a "son of Africa."
After the speech? Well, the American diplomats who watched mainly sat with shocked and stunned faces. However, one Chinese diplomat was cracking up in laughter. I wonder why.

The G20 Summit has pretty much gone as planned. Now, you may be wondering why the G20 is beginning to replace the G7 and G8. Simply put, the G7 and G8 are too small; they consist mainly of the most powerful western nations, and do not include some of the biggest emerging economies. Twenty is just a better number. The G7 and G8 will be used primarily as a political forum rather than an economic one. By doing this the G20 has supposedly helped balance the world economy by giving emerging nations greater say. Is this true? I guess we'll have to find out during the next two G20 Summits in Canada and South Korea next year.

There weren't a lot of particularly new or interesting things that happened at the G20. One thing popped out a bit, though. With the recent discovery of TWO nuclear facilities in Iran, Obama was reluctant to say much at the General Assembly. At the G20, however, Obama, Nicolas Sarkozy and Gordon Brown decided to take a stronger stand. This is what he said:

"Iran's decision to build yet another nuclear facility without notifying the IAEA represents a direct challenge to the basic compact at the center of the nonproliferation regime."

Technically, Iran does not have to alert the International Atomic Energy Agency about their nuclear enrichment facilities until at least six months before they start up. Ahmadinejad says there are 18 months left until become functional, i.e. Tehran has a year before it is required to say anything. The problem here is that the plants apparently do not contain enough material to produce energy, but do contain enough to produce a weapon. Also, according to Obama, the structures do not fit the description of a peaceful nuclear power facility. This may turn out to be a major inhibitor of peace talks between the US and Iran.

Aw well. Not like we're doing anything right on that front anyway.