NEW YORK, USA — She may not have got a standing ovation after delivering Jamaica's policy statement to the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly here last week, but Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller received an enthusiastic and positive response to her speech.

Inside the assembly hall, there was prolonged applause at the end of the prime minister's address. But even before that, scores of diplomats and journalists from other countries reacted positively — though mutedly because of UN protocol — to a line in her speech which referred to Reggae Icon Bob Marley.

But, it was outside the General Assembly Hall that the prime minister received the most enthusiastic responses to her address. For close to half an hour, leaders, heads of delegations and diplomats mainly from Caricom countries, Europe and Africa, lined up to greet, congratulate and praise the prime minister on her address.

Also in the line were several leaders among the Jamaican community in the United States as well as many ordinary nationals here among whom the prime minister's speech generally found favour.

Jamaica's delegation to the 67th General Assembly at the UN included Ambassador Raymond Wolfe, Jamaica's permanent representative to the UN, Foreign Minister AJ Nicholson and the permanent secretaries in the Office of the Prime Minister and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade.

Jamaica's Ambassador to Washington Stephen Vasciannie was also in attendance for the prime minister's speech, which was her first before the world body.