UN General Assembly president puts climate change at top of agendaAmbassador John Ashe of Antigua and Barbuda, the newly elected president of the U.N. General Assembly, is familiar with overcoming barriers to opportunity, and is determined to make a difference for those growing up in in poverty.
He was one of seven children born to parents who hadn't completed high school. He grew up the grandchild of a man who signed his name with an X and the son of a woman who was the descendent of slave plantation owners on the island of Barbados.
Speaking at the opening of the General Assembly on Sept. 24, Ashe, perhaps reflecting on his own experience, told delegates: "It is not our limitations that define us; rather, it is what we do to overcome them."
And there is a lot to overcome. The international community's eyes have been glued to diplomatic breakthroughs in regards to Iran and Syria these past weeks, with President Barack Obama speaking on the phone to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the first time a U.S. president has done so in more than 30 years, and the U.N. Security Council passing a resolution on Syria for the first time in the two-and-a-half-year conflict.
But for the twin islands of Antigua and Barbuda, home to fewer than 90,000 people and its neighbors in the Caribbean, climate change is the urgent threat to their security.
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