“Our world is on fire again.” Prince Harry spoke with these words before the United Nations General Assembly, citing global warming, the war in Ukraine and the Covid-19 pandemic as examples. During a ceremony dedicated to Nelson Mandela, the grandson of Queen Elizabeth – who came to the United Nations with his wife Meghan Markle sitting in the front row – told how a photo of the former South African leader with his mother Diana taken in 1997 marked the life of him. “When I looked at the photo for the first time, what struck me immediately was the joy on my mother’s face,” Prince Harry said in his speech.
“From the horrific war in Ukraine, to the backward step in the field of constitutional rights here in the United States, we are witnessing a worldwide attack on democracy and freedom, the battles of Mandela’s life,” he continued. “The consequences of the decisions made by some of the most powerful people in some of the richest countries are felt even more deeply across the African continent,” she added. “The pandemic, war and inflation have plunged Africa into an energy and food crisis”, commented the prince, also judging the continent’s drought “a reflection of the extreme weather conditions observed around the world“.
The 37-year-old Duke of Sussex appealed to adopt Nelson Mandela’s spirit of hope in today’s divided world to reclaim democracies and leave a better future for children, citing the inspiration the anti-apartheid leader had in his life and his memories linked to his late mother, Princess Diana. People, Harry pointed out, have a choice: to become apathetic, angry and desperate or to do what Mandela did every day during his 27 years in prison and the rest of his life, “to find meaning and purpose in battle” .
“We have an obligation to give as much – if not more – than what we take – he added -. Let’s look for what we have in common, empower all people to reclaim our democracies and use the light of Mandela’s memory to illuminate the way. to follow”. Harry also talked about his first visit to Africa at age 13 and how the continent has not only given him hope, but has become “my lifeline, a place where I have found peace and healing over and over”. “It is where I felt closest to my mother and sought solace after her death, and where I knew I had found my soul mate in my wife,” Harry said in front of the vast General Assembly hall, filled with diplomats. from many of the 193 member countries of the United Nations.