NEW YORK - Hell week! That’s what this city’s angry, frustrated taxi drivers call each year’s opening of the United Nations. It was even worse than that in the last two weeks.

Narrow, congested island of Manhattan became a nightmare of gridlocked traffic, blocked streets, blaring horns and fuming drivers. Convoys carrying visiting bigwigs, large staffs and bodyguards tried to force their way through the impossibly congested streets, blue lights flashing, sirens howling. A VIP lane was created, shades of the USSR’s Leonid Brezhnev.

Twitchy police and security men were everywhere. I watched President Barack Obama’s convoy race north along Park Avenue, guards pointing automatic weapons from open windows.