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2006-06-10 International-UN-NGOs

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Posted by ryuge 2006-06-10 07:00|| || Front Page|| [11126 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Linky

[Ryuge - learn how to embed links. Any more and they'll get deleted. - Your Used-to-be-Friendly Weekend Moderator].

Posted by ryuge 2006-06-10 07:04|| 2006-06-10 07:04|| Front Page Top

#2 Wow..what an amazing amount of bullshit in one article. What I fail to understand is why the US is expected to subordinate its interests and policys to a bunch of unelected beaurocratic vampires who produce nothing and bloviate about things that they lack the will to do anything about.
I see no downside to telling the UN to fuck off. I guess that's why I'll never be an ambassador.

Posted by JerseyMike 2006-06-10 07:40|| 2006-06-10 07:40|| Front Page Top

#3 Wow, the tranzis in full blown bull shit mode.

Posted by Captain America 2006-06-10 07:50|| 2006-06-10 07:50|| Front Page Top

#4 Traub's toeing the line quite well.

Posted by Robert Crawford">Robert Crawford 2006-06-10 08:08|| http://www.kloognome.com/]">[http://www.kloognome.com/] 2006-06-10 08:08|| Front Page Top

#5 The United Nations is at death's door. . . . it's our very own ambassador, John R. Bolton, who's preparing to unplug the respirator.

That's not a bug, it's a feature!

Posted by Mike 2006-06-10 08:30|| 2006-06-10 08:30|| Front Page Top

#6 James Traub's latest book, "The Best Intentions...

Dear Mr. Traub - wise man say: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. The Best Intentions is an eight lane interstate highway.

Posted by Raj 2006-06-10 08:37|| 2006-06-10 08:37|| Front Page Top

#7 I'm sure they can dig up some hacks with academic credentials to rationalize the reintroduction of the monarchy and slavery too. You know there are some institutions that should remain dead and some that should just die.

Posted by Spang Fleger3829 2006-06-10 10:03|| 2006-06-10 10:03|| Front Page Top

#8 Hilarious: our government keeps our people in the dark about the day-to-day utility of the UN?

What's the press for, again? To inform people? Oh, right.

It's not the job of the government to tell people what to think.

Posted by Steve White">Steve White 2006-06-10 11:36|| 2006-06-10 11:36|| Front Page Top

#9 "The United Nations is at death's door. . . . it's our very own ambassador, John R. Bolton, who's preparing to unplug the respirator."

Go for it, John! Pull that sucker.

In fact, just to be sure, kill the electricity to the whole building so no one can plug it into another receptacle. ;-p

Posted by Barbara Skolaut">Barbara Skolaut 2006-06-10 12:56|| http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/page/15bk1/Home_Page.html]">[http://ariellestjohndesigns.com/page/15bk1/Home_Page.html] 2006-06-10 12:56|| Front Page Top

#10 The Guardian article on this topic had the following as the last post in it's comment section. It's worth posting here in its complete form:

VoicesOfTheUN

June 9, 2006 11:56 PM

Dear Middle America,

Recently Mark Malloch Brown, the eloquent speaking number two at the United Nations, said that "Middle America" did not know or understand how the US is constructively engaged with the UN because of UN detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News, and that the UN's role is "a secret" in Middle America.

And he complains that the US is not supporting even non-controversial issues such as renovating the dilapidated UN Headquarters in New York due to too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping over too many years.

Friends in Middle America, the UN deserves to be bashed and bashed hard. Please allow us, a cross-section of Americans and others who work/ed for the United Nations, to give you a glimpse into how the United Nations is run:

Hirings and promotions routinely violate UN rules and revolve almost entirely around patronage and whom one knows rather than professional qualifications. Poorly performing managers are simply moved into different management slots while others are placed in senior positions only because of his nationality.

The generous salaries for UN employees are free of federal, state and local taxes and come with six weeks vacation, 11 holidays, 10 sick days that are used as vacation, plus 4 weeks of "home leave", rental and housing grants to supplement an already generous salary, and educational subsidies for the children of UN employees. Many also participate in an "alternative work schedule" in which they get every other Friday off.

Several of us have advanced degrees in administration, budgeting, finance, personnel, and other relevant areas of management, and we have been trained to manage large public organizations, and yet we are blocked from advancing by men in the 50s with no management training, education, or experience - only sitting in their chairs because they are friends with someone a higher position. We threaten nearly every
person we meet because they know they are there based only on their connections.

And there is a profound lack of accountability within the UN regarding resource allocation. Simple procurement that would normally take five minutes using modern technology systems takes 2-3 months in the UN. And many United Nations Development Program country offices pay "local
experts" outrageously high sums of money for products of dubious quality. Such contracts would never be made by other international aid agencies such as USAID that have much stronger internal controls and oversight.

We have witnessed several outrageous examples of graft and corruption within the UN system and yet time and again the scandal is covered up because internal UN financial audits are simply comedy. Forms are from the 1950s, and auditors are most interested in inventorying furniture. In fact, a recent article on internal management in the Financial Times cited a UN-commissioned report released in 1994 that was remarkably damning. Yet nothing changed, leading to this crisis in
credibility of the UN.

Despite its dysfunctionality, if the UN were actually making a difference in the lives of others, many would grumble or mutter to themselves but the UN deserves its strongest bashing because of its profound inability to respond to genocide, war, famine, natural disaster emergencies, and other tragedies.

Kofi Annan, current head of the United Nations who ironically lives in a mansion in New York on the shore of the East River that is worth about $10 million, was head of peacekeeping operations in 1994 in Rwanda when 800,000 people died. He said in 2004 that "I believed at that time that I was doing my best" despite that he held back UN troops from intervening to settle the conflict and from providing more logistic and material support to stop the slaughter.

Kofi Annan was unable to stop mismanagement of the Oil-for-Food Program that allowed Saddam Hussein's regime to embezzle millions of dollars through under-priced oil contracts and overcharging in contracts for goods Iraq purchased under the program. According to a Government Accountability Office report, Saddam Hussein embezzled $4.4 billion through pricing irregularities. It is also estimated that Saddam acquired an additional $5.7 billion through illegal oil smuggling. Kofi's son Kojo received payments from the Swiss company Cotecna Inspection SA, which won a lucrative contract under the UN Oil for Food program.

Kofi Annan protected Ruud Lubbers, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, against a report that found him guilty of sexual harassment and misconduct by declaring him innocent by Kofi Annan. This created a global protest against Annan which resulted in Lubbers being forced to resign.

Kofi Annan remains in power while genocide continues in Darfur, while Zimbabwe tailspin into despotism, while up to a third of the population of some African countries will die from AIDS, and while corruption keeps the poorest countries in the starkest poverty.

And Kofi Annan arrogantly ignores the fact that the quality of life of several of us has come close to being destroyed by the many bitter experiences we have experienced over the past decades. Most who work for the UN are so used to its dysfunctionality that they have NO idea how sick the organization is or they are unable to come forward vecause most who work for the UN come from countries where the labor laws and protections are abysmal and where speaking out will land yourself in jail or worse.

And to add insult to injury, the newly created IOIS (the new
"independet" internal oversight panel established to "reform" the UN) has been strong-armed by Malloch Brown and is not independent because its budget comes directly from the UN, thus dissuading anyone from within the UN from coming forward.

Unfortunately, as the walls literally crumble down around them, those who work for the UN and citizens who believe in the founding principles of the UN have no understanding how bad it really is.

Unfortunately, we encourage young people who are seeking a career in international affairs or development to avoid the United Nations at all costs. We wish there would come a day when we would no longer make this recommendation.

Of course the senior leadership of the UN try to hide the profound problems of the UN but shame on them for saying that Americans don't know or understand how the US is engaged with the UN.

If Middle America truly understood what ails the UN, the US, who funds nearly 25% of the entire UN budget, would shut off the money spigot. In sum, the UN should be shuttered, allowing a brand new organization to emerge because the current UN is broken beyond repair.

For more information, please contact Edward Patrick Flaherty who represents UN employees including our views here. flaherty@sfhc.ch

Sincerely,
A concerned group of current and former UN employees

Posted by 3dc 2006-06-10 13:47|| 2006-06-10 13:47|| Front Page Top

#11 The reform process has dissolved into an unsightly mess owing in part to deep differences among members over what the U.N. is for

If they can't figure it out inside the building, how the hell can they expect anyone esle to figure it out on their own?

The fact is that "middle America", the great unwashed mass that most of the UN membership seems to think cannot understand what the UN is for and what it does, simply doesn't give a rat's ass about the UN!

Most of us out here would rather see those billions of dollars flushed down the UN rathole or thrown away providing foreign aid to some third world hellhole spent here in this country or given back to the citizens that earned the money in the first friggin' place!

Ambassador Bolton, don't pull the plug - pull the trigger and blow these blowhards to hell.

Posted by FOTSGreg">FOTSGreg 2006-06-10 13:51|| www.fire-on-the-suns.com]">[www.fire-on-the-suns.com] 2006-06-10 13:51|| Front Page Top

#12 Fanastic comment there, 3dc. It's worth a blogpost somewhere on its own.

Posted by JSU 2006-06-10 14:18|| 2006-06-10 14:18|| Front Page Top

#13 The only downside with UN bashing is that, by releasing steam, it substitutes for real action.

Posted by gromgoru 2006-06-10 15:10|| 2006-06-10 15:10|| Front Page Top

#14 Unplug the respirator? Shit, sit on it's chest...

Posted by mojo">mojo 2006-06-10 15:46|| 2006-06-10 15:46|| Front Page Top

#15 JSU - being its a comment somewhere ... it is not an "offical like story" and therefore always must be of questionable pedigree. However, if some enterprising journalist was to contact that e-mail address, verify the guy/gal's bonifides and do a real interview... then it would rate a posting of it's own.

Posted by 3dc 2006-06-10 16:45|| 2006-06-10 16:45|| Front Page Top

#16 The United Nations is at death's door. . . . it's our very own ambassador, John R. Bolton, who's preparing to unplug the respirator.

Finally! The left and the right can agree on something! The right hates the UN and the left loves euthanasia.

Posted by DMFD 2006-06-10 18:11|| 2006-06-10 18:11|| Front Page Top

#17 "Some ~~folks~~ things just need killin.'"

Posted by mac 2006-06-10 19:46|| 2006-06-10 19:46|| Front Page Top

#18 I've been in situations where I had to sit down with others, many of them hostile, and help negotiate a way forward. It's not difficult with five or fewer people, harder with 15 or more, and impossible if the numbers are 25 or greater, or more than three groups are represented. The UN has no chance in Hades of ever being anything but a toothless debating society. It should not be a portion of US foreign policy in any way. Cut back funding, keep John Bolton as permanent UN Ambassador, and keep hammering it until it finally succumbs to the pressure. We (nor any of our true allies) don't need it anywhere near as much as it needs us - look at the tsunami in Indonesia, the destruction of the Taliban in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq. Look at how poorly the UN has managed crices in Darfur, Congo, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, and a dozen places around the world. Limited coalitions of the willing" do a far better job, do it faster and at less cost, and achieve more lasting results than anything the UN touches. Keep it around, but only for the chance to laugh at it - and through it, at the dictators that try to run it.

Posted by Old Patriot">Old Patriot 2006-06-10 22:41|| http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/]">[http://oldpatriot.blogspot.com/] 2006-06-10 22:41|| Front Page Top

23:58 Whavish Thrineper6405
23:55 3dc
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