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International-UN-NGOs
UN axes cocktail soirees amid $1.3B cash crisis
2019-10-12
[AA.TR] Faced with its worst cash flow crisis in a decade, the UN will start axing fancy cocktail soirees for ambassadors, an official told news hounds Friday.
Oh no! Whatever will the staff do with themselves now?
The UN will also switch off its iconic fountain, elevators and heating beginning Monday in a bid to cut costs.
Uck! Restaurants with only four stars?
Under-Secretary-General for Management Strategy, Policy and Compliance, Catherine Pollard, told news hounds of "very dire" cash shortages because of $1.3 billion that member states owe in 2019 dues.

"For the second successive year, we’ve exhausted all the regular budget liquidity reserves despite several measures we already put in place to try and reduce expenditures and to align them with available cash reserves," said Pollard.

Tightening their belts ever-further, the suites that UN ambassadors use to wine and dine fellow diplomats, politicians and policy wonks will be closed for cocktail parties and other events scheduled after 6 p.m. (1000GMT), said Pollard.
Oh, the humanity!
"I know that many of you also go to some of the functions that are hosted by delegations in the delegates’ rooms. Those functions are going to be curtailed from next Monday," Pollard said.

"We had several events that were in the pipeline, and we are currently reviewing all of those with the sponsors to see how we can accommodate them."

UN staff will only be allowed "essential travel," said Pollard. There will be cutbacks on interpreters, translators and the issuing of documents, while radiators and escalators will be switched off to save power.

Even the landmark fountain in the plaza in front of the UN secretariat building, a 100-foot (30-meter) illuminated circular pool that was donated by American schoolchildren in 1952 , will be switched off in the economy drive.

Although most of the UN’s 193 members have paid their 2019 dues in full, more than 60 countries still owe cash, including its top contributor, the United States. This has left the world body with a 30 percent hole in its budget.

Posted by:Fred

#14  Done - but that's the only option I have, CF. No problem
Posted by: Frank G   2019-10-12 22:37  

#13  
Posted by: CrazyFool   2019-10-12 21:48  

#12  Whoo hoo triple post! Mods please fit. Thank you!
Posted by: CrazyFool   2019-10-12 21:48  

#11  
Posted by: CrazyFool   2019-10-12 21:46  

#10  
Posted by: CrazyFool   2019-10-12 21:46  

#9  Not to worry, Biden will be president in 2021 and he'll restore full finding as long as we give Hunter a big fat salary. Or so they keep telling themselves.
Posted by: CrazyFool   2019-10-12 21:46  

#8  Why are they even physically there in New York? If you ask any of them, GlobalWarmingClimateChangeFossilFuel is the biggest problem humanity faces. Save the Planet, reduce your big-ass air travel carbon footprint, and teleconference. You do have electricity in your countries, don't you?

(if not, you better get some! You're going to need it to run your electric cars)
Posted by: SteveS   2019-10-12 21:18  

#7  Trump cut off U.N. money and they start to fold. We must have providing most of the money that kept them afloat. Good for our taxpayers that they fold. The U.N. was a tool for the globalists to take power and sovereignty from the U.S. Another good reason to re-elect Trump for doing work for the U.S.
Posted by: JohnQC   2019-10-12 18:22  

#6  OK. It's not the Babylon Bee but this is some other satire site, right? Right? I mean, they wouldn't really cancel the cocktail parties, would they? And all those high falutin' diplomats have to buy their own liquor? And what about the girls? Tell me this is satire.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2019-10-12 12:27  

#5  The top contributor should simply renege. Why must any nation be a 'top contributor' to what is effectively just an unaccountable nuisance to sovereign states tying to run their own shit ?
Posted by: Dron66046   2019-10-12 08:59  

#4  1) Let me do the audit. Please...

2) Will they have enough $ for sternly worded letters?
Posted by: Raj   2019-10-12 07:31  

#3  Hardly makes life worth living in NYC. Well, it's off to Vermont to watch the leaves change into fall colors!
Posted by: Whavimp Grath4899   2019-10-12 06:52  

#2  I hear Ulan Bator is a lot cheaper than NY.
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2019-10-12 05:08  

#1  They could audit the "personal expenses" of the last five UN Secretary-Generals and would probably find enough corruption to pay for a month or two.

Independent Audit... Now that is a phrase that causes the UN bureaucracy to run screaming away like a vampire shown a holy cross!
Posted by: magpie   2019-10-12 00:18  

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