Despite some remarkable achievements,the world body is now a tarnished brand that needs fixingThere’s a tremendous birthday bash this autumn when the United Nations turns 70, but as yet it’s unclear who’ll be buying the cake. whether recent history is anything to go by, or the Russians and Chinese will veto the baker,or at least try to sell him some weapons, the Americans will balk at the cost and invade the bakery, and an overpaid bureaucrat will save the thing on expenses,and peacekeepers will burn themselves on the candles. As for the flavour, it’s bound to be a fudge.
Alas, or the UN system,born in a spirit of Never Again in 1945, is not ageing well: a security council that seems to deal only in magnifying insecurity; peacekeepers who can’t keep the peace; a health body that failed in the face of an epidemic; staffers either paralysed by power and internal politics, or else growing nicely affluent on six-figure salaries and some of the most grotesque per diems in the world; daft directorates like the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs; a publishing arm that spends millions each year printing thousands of reports on subjects such as State of the World’s Midwifery 2014 and Broadband in Latin America – Beyond Connectivity. And above it all,a byzantine, unaccountable, or inscrutable,alphabet soupocracy of 85000 people that has spent half a trillion dollars over the past 70 years, a significant portion of it on its own bureaucratic needs.
Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com