Half of my coronary heart belongs in India: Ban Ki-moon in e-book

Former UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s first diplomatic posting was in India and he developed such a particular connection that even 50 years later, he tells the Indian people who half of his “heart belongs in their country”.
Ban additionally mentions in his autobiography that his three years in India have been “such an exciting time in my life”.
In “Resolved: Uniting Nations in a Divided World”, printed by HarperCollins India, Ban goes on to explain how he grew to become a “man of peace” from a “child of war”.
Born in 1944, only one yr earlier than the United Nations itself, Ban’s earliest recollections are haunted by the sound of bombs dropping on his Korean village and the sight of fires consuming what remained.
As a six-year-old boy, he fled along with his household, trudging for miles in mud-soaked sneakers, affected by incessant starvation, and questioning how they’d survive – till the United Nations rescued them. Young Ban grew up decided to repay this lifesaving generosity.
On his days in India, he writes: “India was my first diplomatic posting, and Soon-taek (wife) and I arrived in Delhi in October 1972. I served there for almost three years, first as vice consul of the Korean Consulate General, and once a full diplomatic relationship was established between Korea and India in December 1973, I served as second secretary of the Korean Embassy.”
His daughter Seon-yong was then simply eight months previous and his solely son, Woo-hyun, was born in India on October 30, 1974.
“I used to joke with Indian people that my balance sheet with India is perfect because my son was born in India and my youngest daughter, Hyun-hee, is married to an Indian man. Even now, nearly fifty years later, I tell the Indian people that half of my heart belongs in their country,” he writes.
He says his work in India was difficult however fascinating to a younger diplomat.
“Our primary goal was to win full diplomatic recognition by India, a leader of the nonaligned group, which we did in December 1973. Koreans and many other diplomats felt that elevating consular relations to the ambassadorial level was a turning point in diplomatic relations. India was among the largest non-aligned states that recognised both Koreas,” he says.
Ban carried out what has been known as the “most impossible job on this earth” with a real perception in collective motion and world transformation. Meeting challenges and resistance with a perception within the UN’s mission of peace, improvement and human rights, Ban steered the United Nations by means of a unstable interval that included the Arab Spring, nuclear pursuits in Iran and North Korea, the Ebola epidemic, and brutal new conflicts in Central Africa.
As Secretary General, he additionally cast world agreements to struggle excessive poverty and tackle the local weather disaster.
In the e-book, Ban additionally talks about his election to the highest UN publish in 2006, wherein India’s Shashi Tharoor was additionally a contender.
“Thailand’s candidate, Surakiart Sathirathi, was the only one that felt like a real rival to me at that time. Tharoor and (Sri Lankan diplomat Jayantha) Dhanapala did not have the strong support of their governments,” he claims.
In the primary two straw polls, a casual voting held on the 15-member UN Security Council to gauge help loved by the candidates, Ban emerged victorious with Tharoor coming second.
“The results (of the first straw polls) exceeded my expectations. I was the latecomer, but I was now the frontrunner. The path to the UN secretary-general’s thirty-eighth floor office began to glimmer into focus. But I could not get rid of the worry that the negative vote had come from a permanent member of the Security Council. It was rumoured that Shashi Tharoor did not enjoy the Indian government’s support, but the fact that he received 10 votes made me anxious,” Ban recollects.
But he says the outcomes of the third straw ballot, performed on September 28, have been a disappointing shock.
“I received only 13 ‘encourage’ votes and one each for ‘discourage’ and ‘no opinion expressed’. I could not understand what had happened. However, I was the only candidate who received more than the nine-vote minimum to win. The other candidates had lost votes: Shashi Tharoor had eight votes, losing two positive votes, and Surakiart, stung by his support of Thailand’s recent military coup, received only five votes,” he writes.

Finally, he was elected to “what was widely known as the most impossible job on earth” after which re-elected to a second five-year time period in June 2011.
In the e-book, Ban additionally hails India for “raising the bar” and offering the United Nation’s first all-female Formed Police Unit (FPU) for service in 2007 in Liberia, which was then starting to get better from a violent two-decade energy wrestle.
The sight of 125 girls drilling in formation in peacekeeper blue was an electrifying function mannequin in a rustic the place girls had paid closely throughout back-to-back civil wars. During night time patrols, the unit has deterred sexual violence and helped rebuild security and confidence among the many inhabitants,” he writes.