Notes of
Concern…
…Jackson Blair
New York’s Longest Running Show
(No Rave Reviews)
Woodrow Wilson wanted a League of Nations.
That was the beginning of discussions about a world body
where problems could be discussed and solutions found through the combined
intellect and concerns of ambassadors from every member nation.
That didn’t work out.
Finally, The United Nations was born.
Now there is a misnomer!
The UNITED Nations?
Not for one day of their existence have they been united.
All sorts of major and minor, petty, and insignificant individual needs, requirements, hopes, and desires have driven
that group of countries. And as one would suspect, skullduggery, espionage,
politics, personal ambitions, and geographic and cultural differences have made compromise on
almost anything elusive.
The Rockefeller family gave the land-prime real estate on
the East River of New York City-for the UN Buildings. The United States
welcomed the nations of the world and, over the years, has borne about 25% of
the total cost of running the organization.
The cost of running the United Nations is $1.9 billion per
year.
In schoolrooms across the world the import of The United
Nations is regularly discussed. While we instill in our students a respect for
such international dialogue, we fail to highlight what a failure the UN has
been. With the veto power of members of the Security Council solidly in place, no
real difference has been made anywhere in the world.
UN Ambassadors drive New York City crazy. They have
diplomatic plates on their cars and park anywhere they wish. They have
diplomatic immunity and avoid prosecution and imprisonment for crimes. Every
time a world leader arrives in NYC for a UN presentation, it costs New York residents and
America a ton of money for protection, not to mention crowd and traffic
control.
If any reasonable manager were to look at the
cost-effectiveness of The United Nations, he would dissolve it immediately.
So it is a matter of idealism. Solely a matter of idealism.
Billions of dollars spent in pursuit of an illusive dream:
world peace. Who can argue against world peace? Who can argue that talking
about world problems is wrong? Everyone wants peace to prevail.
So let us agree that pragmatism has nothing to do with the
United Nations. It is the idea that people around the world would get together
and talk about their differences that makes hearts soar.
I cannot think of any way The United Nations has made a real
difference in the world during my lifetime. The acts of charity could be
handled in any number of less expensive ways. The outreach to the poor and
hungry can be done more effectively and more efficiently. With reference to the
matter of stopping wars or preventing real terror the UN is a dismal failure.
The United Nations has its own set of political rules. They
cannot really favor any member nation. They must abide by the decisions of the
Security Council, decisions that are rarely unanimous and can be erased by one
veto.
The UN was set up to encourage the participation of the
super powers. In order to do this, they were given the “veto” over anything the
rest of the membership might wish to do.
In other words, unproductive, irresponsible, and costly devotion to an
unworkable concept is the rule of the day at the UN.
When I think of the billions of dollars spent on this
organization, I have
to remind myself that the money is spent in support of an ideal, not a reality.
There are no pragmatic arguments for the continuance of The
United Nations.
There is little popular support in our country for the
United States paying such a huge percentage of the cost of the UN operation. There
certainly is a recognition we pay a seriously disproportionate share.
There are no winning argument as to why New York City
should have to shoulder the burden of hosting The United Nations.
For many impoverished nations around the world, sending a representative
to live in the “chi-chi” environs of NYC is an incredibly expensive
proposition. For the men and women who get to come to NYC and live in such a
center of wealth, it
is a heady experience.
Frankly, it makes no sense.
If the UN were to be located in Bangladesh, or Somalia, or Liberia, I wonder how many
representatives would be so keen on being assigned there. And in such parts of
the world the host country could not absorb the costs associated with
protection. Each member nation would have to assume responsibility for its own
representative.
My wife and I befriended a couple many years ago. The husband was his
nation’s Ambassador to The United Nations. He came from a very poor nation. In
order to survive, his wife cleaned houses. On a number of occasions the
Ambassador told me that his government was shaky. He worried all the time.
Within the halls of the UN it was clear he was a respected man and he
represented his government's current regime very well.
Eventually, the opposition in his country prevailed. The
Ambassador was not only “out,”
but if he returned home, he would be executed. You can imagine the life he and
his wife and children then had to live.
From “Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary to The
United Nations” to impoverished outcast this man now had a price on his head.
This is the real United Nations story. Far more nations fit
this pattern than that of the super powers. What their countries want one day
can be very different a week later.
At the end of the day, the big nations remain the “big
shots” and make the calls. The nations with the “big sticks” make sure their
interests are served.
Not so much has changed since the days of Attila the Hun!
Send all the limousine-riding, law ignoring, high living
ambassadors back to their home countries!
Use the almost $2 billion budget of the United Nations to
ease hunger and disease in the world.
If the big guys on the Security Council want to get together
once or twice a year,
let them do it in a nation that can show them what real despair looks like.
Hold that meeting in Haiti,
and see how many of them choose to attend.
Let New York City police and fireman, as well as the United
States State Department personnel and Secret Service, get back to serving the
American people.
It did not take the Ford Motor Company long to realize that
the “Edsel” wasn’t going to cut it no matter how much they had hoped otherwise.
They stopped production and cut their losses.
Time for the producers of the long running “Broadway” show we
call The United Nations to
read the reviews and bring down the curtain. The United States is the biggest
backer of the “show” and we are getting no return on our investment.
Let’s cut our losses.
