Rich bashed at united nations summit for poor

Turkish and other world leaders participating at a high-level U.N. conference in Istanbul slammed developed nations yesterday for their indifference to – and responsibility for – the conditions of the world’s least developed countries. “This conference aims to establish a vision on how the world will struggle against poverty and hunger. But I am sorry to say that the developed, rich countries have not shown satisfactory interest in this important conference,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech at the 4th U.N. Conference on the Least Developed Countries, or LDC-IV. “There are problems that have no borders today, including environmental issues, climate change, poverty, terror and migration, which threaten not only certain countries or regions, but the whole world,” Erdogan said. He added that those who were ignoring or neglecting such global concerns were being seriously unfair to both their countries’ peoples and to all people in the world. The world’s wealthy nations must empathize with those in poverty, Erdogan said, adding that the problems of those who have no expectations or hope for their future are not only their own, but a concern for all of humanity. Twelve heads of states and 12 prime ministers participated in the opening ceremony of the conference, which is being held until May 13.