“New Zealand Prime Minister Supports 'Me Too' Movement at U.N.”
On Thursday, September 27, 2018, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern addressed a sparsely attended audience of diplomats at the U.N. General Assembly. Ardern’s debut on the World stage received a lackluster turnout and sharply contrasted with the audience that gathered two-days earlier when President Trump addressed the assembly.
Ardern espoused a pro-globalist agenda and embraced such progressive talking points as climate change, rising sea levels, and gender inequality. Ardern opened her roughly 23-minute speech with a greeting in Maori, the native language of New Zealand’s indigenous people. Ardern described her island-nation as “remote,” “at the bottom of the South Pacific,” “geographically isolated,” and described herself as “a child of the 80’s.”
Ardern is in favor of a globalized economy and cited New Zealand’s history as a “trading nation.” She denounced economic protectionism as a gateway to isolation, a clear jab at Trump’s recent use of tariffs on many imports. Ardern said that the younger, millennial generation is connected as never before and is borderless, “at least in a virtual sense,” and “increasingly sees themselves as global citizens.”
As part of its climate change initiative, New Zealand has ceased issuing offshore oil & gas drilling permits and has set a target date of 2035 to become 100% driven by renewable energy. Some of New Zealand’s other initiatives include a goal to plant 1 billion trees over the next 10-years and to become the best place in the World to be a child.
In 2018, New Zealand celebrated 125-years of women having been “granted the right to vote” and was “the first in the World to do so,” Ardern said. She proudly noted that she is in fact the third, not the first, female prime minister of New Zealand. Despite these gains, Ardern pointed-out that New Zealand still has “a gender pay-gap, an over-representation of women in low-pay work, and domestic violence.” Ardern then proclaimed, “Me Too must become We Too, we are all in this together.”
She followed that sentiment by taking more jabs at Trump when she said, “In the face of isolationism, protectionism, racism, the simple concept of looking outwardly and beyond ourselves, of kindness and collectivism might just be as good a starting point as any.”
Ardern then concluded her remarks by reaffirming New Zealand’s commitment to international peace and security.
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