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Introduction to the UN Canada and Global Governance | Erika Simpson | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Introduction to the UN Canada and Global Governance
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Summary
Core Theme
This lecture serves as an introduction to the United Nations, its structure, and its role in global governance, with a particular focus on Canada's involvement and the functions of UN ambassadors.
Welcome to the lecture which is an
introduction to the United Nations,
Canada and global governance. We're
covering some basic facts I've covered
in previous years. But if you buy
previous years questions, first of all,
the exam banks are enormous. And second
of all, I change the questions and the
facts. For example, Palestine, is
Palestine an observer or is it uh part
of the United Nations? How much does
Canada contribute every year? Who is the
ambassador to the UN? All this changes.
Uh there's a picture of the UN Security
Council and the empty hallways of the
United Nations with diplomats carrying
briefcases full of their ideas. Let's proceed.
proceed.
So we're going to be learning about the
different components of the United
Nations. But as a UN ambassador, I know
you are very familiar with all this. You
have been to the United Nations Rose
Garden many times. You have gazed out at
the Hudson River. You have been to the
United Nations, I'm sure.
And why is that? You wrote a foreign
service exam when you were young and now
you are the ambassador to the United
Nations back then. Maybe it was an exam
that you wrote with a pencil and not
with a computer. Maybe you're really old
now. Anyway, what is the title of your
posting? The correct answer here is
ambassador. You are no longer the coffee
fetcher. You are no longer the liaison
officer. You are no longer the dep. You
are the ambassador.
Welcome to the United Nations
ambassadors. Here you can see the view
of the Hudson River, New York City in
all its splendor and all I'm going to
show you, but you've seen this all
before, the beautiful inside of the
United Nations.
So when you uh wrote this exam uh the
foreign service exam uh you were perhaps
just a coffee fetcher but now you are
the ambassador.
This exam that you're doing today the
new UN secretary general Erica Simpson
wrote this exam and I have succeeded for
one day the current UN secretary
general. What is his name? What is his
name that I have succeeded him? His name
Antonio Gutierrez. Who wrote this exam?
Me, Erica Simpson, and I am the UN
Secretary General for one day.
Here I am at the United Nations at the
front. You can see me sitting there in
my normal chair. It's called a day at
the United Nations.
And here I am preciding over for one day
the go notions and debates at the United Nations.
Nations.
Okay. I who who is the real secretary
general? It's Antonio Gutierz. There he
is. That's the right answer. Those are
some of the other ones in the past.
There's my inauguration guards. I'm
thrilled. They're right outside the
United Nations. They're being inaugurated.
inaugurated.
There's the peacekeepers wearing their
symbolic blue berets. The army, the air
force in white, the navy in blue. I'm
very proud.
Okay. So, I will rule for one day only.
Who is the longest serving UN Secretary
General? Who's served the longest?
Utant. He served for 10 years. His name
is pronounced Yutant. The other ones are
Dag Hammersold, Havier Perez Dquailar,
Who is the shortest serving UN Secretary
General? Well, me. I will only be there
for one day. And there you can see me
standing in front of the very symbolic
uh uh pistol that has been converted
away from being a violent uh pistol.
Let's test your back. I know you know
all this, but let's just go through it.
Which five countries are in the
permanent five, the P5? Which are the
five? So when you look through this,
eliminate the ones you know Canada is
not in it. You know that when the USR is
the wrong name
going through it, you eliminate in your
mind and the right answer is E. So, the
five P5 countries are China, France, the
United Kingdom, the United States, and
Russia. Five.
I put the flags there, too. How can you
find a P5 diplomat? Well, they all have
their embassies outside of the UN
building where they consult and they uh
they process information. But you can
also meet a P5 diplomat in the quarters
of the United Nations. Here's the new
stairs. And often you'll see them
standing there in front of the tiger.
They're just waiting for somebody to
talk to them. Maybe they have something
important to divulge.
You can see the corridors of the UN are
pretty empty. I'm always startled. So if
you do come towards somebody, you can
always stride over there and say,
"Hello, I'm here from Canada and uh I'm
just visiting the United Nations."
Here's the cafeteria. And there you can
see the entire United States delegation.
1 2 3 4 five people all talking in the cafeteria
cafeteria
surrounded by everyone else. Fascinating.
Fascinating.
Should you go up to diplomats and
introduce yourself as a Canadian? No. It
Anyway, let's just keep going. So, the
United Nations has we we learned this.
China, the five P5 countries
and each of the P5 has a veto. They can
veto any substantive resolution or
matter that comes before the council. So
the Russian Federation has uh recently
vetoed resolutions that uh under take it
to task for its invasion of Ukraine.
They veto it because they're on the
Russian security council and they can do that
that
on the on the UN Security Council,
excuse me, on the UN Security Council,
not the Russian Security Council. So
each of the P5 has a veto over any
substantive matter. And is that a
problem? Well, we could discuss that
certainly from the perspective of many
countries that are not on the Security
Council. It's a huge problem.
There's also a rotating UN Security
Council. Countries rotate in and out of
it and they're non-permanent members of
the Security Council. They're elected by
the UN assembly in accordance with an
agreed upon geographical formula which
countries can run and they're elected
for 2year terms. So there's 10 of them.
10 of them. So the 10 non-permanent
rotating security council members and
the P5 make 15. So there's 15 on the UN
Security Council. These are some
sculptures at the UN. There's some
amazing sculptures there.
Okay. What languages do you need to work
and understand at the United Nations?
The United Nations itself operates in
six official languages. This is very
interesting. All the resolutions are
available. There's simultaneous
translation. When you sit there on the
third floor, you can listen in six
So the simultaneous translation as you
can see is in uh six languages Arabic
what's called Chinese, Mandarin and
Cantonese but a form of it, English,
French, Spanish and Russian. Russian as
well. Okay. So, those are the languages
that you can listen to everything in
So, the languages that you need to work
at the UN could be your language,
whatever language that it is, and then
the ability to understand one of those
six languages. I'm ending this part of
the video or the lesson with a picture
of the quiet room in the United Nations,
which is a non-denominational room that
is a quiet space for diplomats to
contemplate peace. And outside the quiet
room, there's a a picture by a famous
artist called Shagal. It's a stained
glass window, and this is one of my
favorite places in the world. Uh, and
you can see me po posed in front of it.
I try to take a picture every time that
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