Robert Burns at the United Nations

2005 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the end of the second World War and the signing of the charter of the "United Nations". The name itself, first officially used in 1942, was suggested by a United States president with strong Scottish roots. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was very aware of his Scottish connection (to the Murrays: see Roosevelt) and had been influenced by the ideas of a previous president, also with strong Scottish roots, Woodrow Wilson. Wilson won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1919 and had been the driving force for the first international attempt to establish a permanent system of general security, the League of Nations (see Wilson).

With these connections, it was appropriate, therefore, that the British agency BESO should think of the United Nations Building in New York as the venue for its inaugural Robert Burns memorial lecture. In January 2004 this was delivered by the Secretary General of the United Nations himself, Kofi Annan. Although he shares a name with a Scottish town, Mr Annan did not, however, claim any Scottish roots (we are still working on that), but did acknowledge the enduring and international relevance of Burns' works.

As we approach Burns Night 2005, we reproduce below some of the Secretary General's remarks. The full speech can be found at UN Burns speech.

"It is a great pleasure indeed to be here with you to celebrate the great Scottish poet Robert Burns and to help you inaugurate what I hope will become an important series of lectures. But then, you might well ask why a United Nations Secretary-General was eager to take part in this event. At first glance, one might think there is an ocean of distance between the hard-nosed give-and-take of international diplomacy as it is practised here in New York, and the lyrical verse that emanated from rural Scotland two centuries ago. But look closer and I think you will see why I am here.

"To take just one example, Burns was born into poverty, and spent his youth working on a farm. Burns's poems dignify and illuminate the struggle faced by the vast majority of the world's population today. Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that Burns had, and I quote, 'given voice to all the experiences of common life; he has endeared the farmhouse and cottages, patches and poverty, beans and barley; ... hardship, the fear of debt ...'.

"Burns has also been described as a poet of the poor, an advocate for political and social change, and an opponent of slavery, pomposity and greed – all causes very much supported by the United Nations. He was even, as a tax collector, a civil servant of sorts, though I should stress the United Nations has no interest in that line of work.

"But it is one of Burns's most famous lines – 'a Man's a Man for a' That' – that I should like to serve as the touchstone for my remarks tonight. And in particular his prayer, in the same poem, that 'Man to Man, the world o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that'.

"Living together is the fundamental human project – not just in towns and villages from Scotland to South Africa, but also as a single human family facing common threats and opportunities.

"The enterprise of living together is not easy. Including all people in one's circle of concern requires us to go beyond our immediate family and friends, and to accept wider notions of kinship and connection. Even then, things will happen that will strain our capacity for dialogue and understanding. Burns himself was no stranger to dark turns of events. As he wrote, 'man was made to mourn'.

"But we have just begun a new year, at least according to the Gregorian calendar. One can almost, still, hear the echo of millions of people singing 'Auld Lang Syne', Burns's great ode to friendship. So let us allow hope to be renewed. Let us admire the enduring resonance of the work of Robert Burns. And let us dream, as he did, of a true brotherhood – and sisterhood – that embraces and encompasses all humankind, and allows all people a chance to enjoy their inalienable rights, dignity and freedom.

"I would like to express my great appreciation to the Scottish Operations of British Executive Services Overseas for the invaluable work they carry out in pursuit of that goal, and for their strong support of the United Nations."