A recent scientific survey on linguistics lamented that of the world’s approximately 7,000 languages many tongues are fast disappearing. Of course its largely the aboriginal and tribal tongues in the remote South Pacific, Australia or Amazon which are vanishing and not the six “official” languages of the United Nations; Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Spanish and Russian. Practically what this entails is that most documents are translated into each of the official languages while most meetings have simultaneous interpretation in each of those six tongues.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, a Korean, told correspondents in English that among the key issues on the agenda for the upcoming session are climate change, Darfur, Iraq, Afghanistan, the Middle East Peace process, and Kosovo. He stated, “I am under no illusion that, whether it’s the Middle East or Kosovo or Afghanistan or climate change, these problems will be solved overnight. The solutions all involve a long road and hard work.” He’s absolutely right.

Now let’s look at some of the linguistics we are likely to hear over the next few weeks. Arabic speakers will naturally invoke the age-old Arab/Israeli divide and yet again demand a settlement of the Palestinian question. Others will speak about the need for peace in Iraq, and will then instinctively blame the Anglo/American military coalition for the troubles. Sudan’s Foreign Minister will speak of the troubled Darfur region—genocide, what genocide?—and grudgingly address the impending UN peacekeeping force soon to se descend into Africa’s largest country to stem the humanitarian crisis.

The Chinese language will echo from the Foreign Minister of the People’s Republic. On the eve of the Assembly, China’s communists again silenced another Chinese voice, that of the Republic of China on Taiwan, who wishes to regain UN membership. For the 15th consecutive year Beijing’s Marxist mandarins politically bullied and blocked democratic Taiwan from admission to this near-universal assembly.

English will ring out in the Assembly in American, Australian, British and Canadian accents calling for a verifiable end to Islamic Iran’s nuclear program, bringing security and political dialogue in Iraq, stabilization of Afghanistan from a resurgence of the fundamentalist Taliban, and ending the ruthless ethnic cleansing in Sudan’s Darfur region. American and British voices will speak of the victims of Al Qaida terrorism. Other English voices from the Caribbean and Africa will call for wider economic development and trade liberalization.

The French language will intone from the rostrum as President Nicolas Sarkozy calls for an end to Iran’s nuclear proliferation, a pressing importance for a political solution in Iraq, and a duty to again protect tiny democratic Lebanon from the growing Syrian shadow. Other voices in French from Algeria to Morocco will call for the need to battle terrorism while others such as Burkina Faso, Mali and Senegal will speak of engendering wider and sustainable economic development for the African continent.

Spanish will again ring from the rostrum with the Prime Minister of Spain or the President of Argentina and Colombia addressing global issues of development. Hopefully Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s speech will not bring back his crude theatrics and incendiary and sulphuric Marxist rhetoric to the rostrum. Cuba is likely to be represented by its Foreign Minister unless Fidel Castro appears in El Cid mode.

Russian will resonate in the hall as Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov delivers Vladimir Putin’s dictat de jour. The right of Kosovo’s Albanian majority to self-determination will be opposed by a strong Nyet/No (in Russian). Holding to the myth that Kosovo remains a part of Serbia, Moscow will continue to block Kosovo independence.

Others such as Islamic Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will speak in the confrontational language of hate.

Yet, among the 192 member states, there are actually192 languages spoken, those of national interests. Be it English with an American, Aussie or British accent, be it Spanish from the land of Castile, to the Pampas or the Caribbean, it’s the unique tongue of national interests in the organization which after all really just reflects its membership.