Global chat

WHAT better place to erect a modern Tower of Babel than skyscrapered Manhattan? The biggest-ever gathering of world leaders this week in New York may be a vote of confidence in the United Nations, whose millennium summit it was. But it is also an illustration of the UN's weakness when it comes to turning talk into action. The traffic gridlock outside UN headquarters—where cab driver shouts unto cab driver—was matched by the buzz of multilingual talk, and minimal movement, within.