The Lighter Side of Politics at the UN General Assembly

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UNITED NATIONS, Sep 11 2026(IPS ) -When over 130 world leaders show up in New York for the top-level section of the General Assembly next week– it will be unusual to hear compelling, headline-grabbing political declarations from the podium.

The speeches before the 193-member General Assembly, and UN press rundowns that periodically follow, are mainly verbose and monotonously uninteresting. The exceptions, nevertheless, are unusual.

When Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi went to the UN in September 2009, a report in the London Guardian stated he “got his 15 minutes of popularity at the UN structure in New York and kept up it. He kept up it so hard he extended it to an hour and 40 minutes, 6 times longer than his allocated slot, to the discouragement of UN organizers”.

Gaddafi completely measured up to his track record for eccentricity, bloody-mindedness and severe terminology, as he wrecked a copy of the UN charter in front of startled delegates, implicated the Security Council of being an al-Qaida like terrorist body, required George Bush and Tony Blair to be prosecuted for the Iraq war, required $7.7 trillion in payment for the devastations of manifest destiny on Africa, and questioned whether swine influenza was a biological weapon produced in a military lab.

By the way, according to one report, there were 112 various spellings of the Libyan leader’s name, both in English and Arabic, consisting of Muammar el-Qaddafi, Muammar Gaddafi, Muammar al-Gathafi, Muammar El Kadhafi, Moammar el Kazzafi, Moamer, El Qathafi, Mu’Ammar, Gadafi, and Moamar Gaddafi, among others.

The Wall Street Journal ran an animation teasing the several spellings, with a going to press reporter, on an individually interview in Tripoli, informed the Libyan leader: “My editor sent me to discover whether you are Qaddafi, Khaddafi, Gadafi, Qathafi or Kadhafi?”

A remarkable Soviet-US fight occurred at the General Assembly hall in October 1960 throughout the height of the Cold War, however this time it was in between the USSR and the Philippines, thought about a close United States ally at that time.

The Filipino delegate Lorenzo Sumulong, blasted the USSR, explaining that “individuals of Eastern Europe and in other places (under Soviet supremacy) have actually been denied of the totally free workout of their civil and political rights and which have actually been engulfed, so to speak, by the Soviet Union”.

Incensed by the remark, the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, who was leading the Soviet delegation, countered with a revenge, explaining the Filipino as “a jerk, a stooge, and a lackey”, and a “toady of American imperialism”– words that are hardly ever heard in the General Assembly or the Security Council nowadays. Forget the North Korean refrain: “Running Dogs of Imperialism”.

A similarly famous story was the longstanding report that Khrushchev eliminated his shoe and kept banging on his desk, to be acknowledged, on a point of order.

The only proof was a single picture in blood circulation, which was dismissed by some as a phony created by United States intelligence– which was long before the age of digital innovation and photo-shopping.

The British Prime Minister, Harold Macmillan, who was at the podium, jokingly reacted to the Soviet leader’s mad outbursts by notoriously asking the Speaker: “I must like that to be equated, if I may,’ amidst loud laughter.

UN speeches are equated at the same time into 6 of the UN’s main languages– Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish– however never ever the banging of shoes.

In another bygone period, Ugandan leader Idi Amin triggered a stir when he attempted to applaud British Prime Minister Edward Heath. He informed the assembly that Heath was similar to Adolf Hitler– previously rapidly insisting he suggested Winston Churchill.

And back in October 2006, the civilian federal government in Thailand was ousted when Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra remained in New York to resolve the General Assembly. Rather of returning home, where he was most likely to deal with charges of corruption, Thaksin chose to fly to London, where he remained in virtual political exile.

The bloodless military coup versus a democratically chosen federal government in Thailand required the United States to evaluate its military relations and suspend help to among Washington’s enduring political allies in Southeast Asia.

The administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, which was looking for UN sanctions versus the military federal government in surrounding Myanmar, stated the Thai military coup was a “U-turn” for democracy because politically steady area.

Still, the very best assurance for survival– for checking out world leaders throughout the General Assembly sessions– was to consist of all their military leaders, consisting of the chiefs of the militaries, the navy and the flying force, in the nation’s UN delegation so that they will be within sight at the General Assembly Hall– and not back home taking control of the management of the nation in military coups.

Throughout the General Assembly sessions, the IPS workplace on the UN’s 4th flooring was a periodic meeting point for agents of freedom motions certified to the UN, consisting of the PLO and FRETILIN.

One routine visitor was Jose Ramos-Horta, designated as foreign minister in the government-in-exile established by the freedom motion FRETILIN (Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor). Winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize and later president of East Timor (2007-2012). Ramos-Horta, according to an extensively distributed anecdote, was at a supper in a dining establishment often visited by delegates, in the UN area, where waiters pleasantly asked visitors from what nation they were from.

When asked, he happily declared he was from East Timor, (a previous Portuguese belongings that was under Indonesian control from 1975 to 1999). “So, you are an Eskimo?”, stated the waiter showing his geographical lack of knowledge. “‘No, no, no,” responded Ramos-Horta: “I am not an Eskimo, I am from a nation called East Timor.”

After he finished his very first presidency in 2012, he was selected as the United NationsUnique Representative and Head of the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Guinea-Bissau (UNIOGBIS) in January 2013. When I satisfied him outside the UN on First Avenue, I checked the anecdote– and he verified it did take place. And we chuckled.

A security officer as soon as remembered an occurrence where the prime minister from an African nation, attending to the General Assembly, was heckled by a group of African trainees. As is typical with hecklers, the lively group was removed the visitor’s gallery, grilled, professional photographer and prohibited from getting in the UN facility. About 5 years later on, one of the hecklers returned to the UN– this time, as foreign minister of his nation, and attended to the world body.

Qaddafi, some of the military leaders who attended to the UN consisted of Fidel Castro of Cuba, Amadou Toure of Mali (who presumed power following a coup in 1991 however later on served as a democratically chosen President), and Jerry Rawlings of Ghana (who took power in 1979, carried out previous heads of state however later on served as a civilian president voted into power in democratic elections).

PLO leader Yasser Arafat made it to the UN, some of the world’s most questionable leaders, consisting of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, Syria’s Hafez al-Assad and his boy Bashar al-Assad, and North Korea’s Kim il Sung and his grand son Kim Jong-un never ever made it to the UN.

When the politically-charismatic Ernesto Che Guevara, when second-in-command to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, was at the United Nations to resolve the General Assembly sessions back in 1964, the U.N. head office came under attack– actually. The speech by the Argentine-born Marxist revolutionary was for a little while drowned by the noise of a surge.

The anti-Castro forces in the United States, backed by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), had actually installed a perilous project to stop Che Guevara from speaking. A 3.5-inch bazooka was fired at the 39-storeyed Secretariat structure by the East River while a vociferous CIA-inspired anti-Castro, anti-Che Guevara presentation was happening outside the U.N. structure on New York’s First Avenue and 42nd street.

The rocket launcher– which was obviously not as advanced as today’s shoulder-fired rockets and rocket-propelled grenades– missed its target, rattled windows, and fell into the river about 200 backyards from the structure. One paper report explained it as “among the wildest episodes because the United Nations moved into its East River head office in 1952.”

As long time U.N. staffers would remember, the stopped working 1964 battle of the U.N. structure happened when Che Guevara released a blistering attack on U.S. diplomacy and knocked a proposed de-nuclearization pact for the Western hemisphere.

It was among the very first recognized politically determined terrorist attacks on the United Nations. After his Assembly speech, Che Guevara was inquired about the attack focused on him. “The surge has actually offered the entire thing more taste,” he joked, as he munched on his Cuban stogie.

When he was informed by a press reporter that the New York City cops had actually snatched a female, referred to as an anti-Castro Cuban exile, who had actually taken out a searching knife and leapt over the UN wall, meaning to eliminate him, Che Guevara stated: “It is much better to be eliminated by a female with a knife than by a male with a weapon.”

This post includes excerpts from a book on the United Nations entitled “No Comment– and Don’t Quote Me on That,” authored by Thalif Deen, Senior Editor at Inter Press Service news firm. A previous member of the Sri Lanka delegation to the General Assembly sessions, he is a Fulbright scholar with a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Columbia University, New York, and two times (2012-2013) shared the gold medal for quality in UN reporting granted each year by the UN Correspondents Association (UNCA). The book is readily available on Amazon. The link to Amazon through the author’s site follows: https://www.amazon.com/No-Comment-dont-quote-that/dp/064811838X

IPS UN Bureau Report