tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1945084719138852021.post5897656721169718702..comments2023-11-03T01:32:45.586-07:00Comments on Israelisms...The Blog: Why Do I BotherJust Ushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05508865742046290296noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1945084719138852021.post-38899669171380952252008-01-26T14:53:00.000-08:002008-01-26T14:53:00.000-08:00If I were you Carol I'd give up relying on the UN,...If I were you Carol I'd give up relying on the UN, not just reading about them. Whatever the motivations were for the creation of that organisation it is long past its use by date.<BR/><BR/>I think we (and by that I mean the entire world) places far too much expectation on this bunch of people. None of them are elected to their positions (not that I think elections are a magic bullet but at least in most instances the very process of having fair elections will weed out some of the bad guys). Many of the UN delegates are ex-politicians or ex-senior bureaucrats in their respective countries who were incompetent and/or corrupt and had to be moved out of the spotlight in their own countries. They are far from being the best or the brightest yet we expect the most from them. Silly us.<BR/><BR/>There's a book called Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures by 3 UN employees (a lawyer, a social worker and a doctor) and it gives a brilliant insight into the workings of the organisation as the three tell of their various postings. It doesn't tackle the Middle East (none of the three were ever posted there) but the stories about UN screw-ups in Cambodia, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, and the heart-wrenching account of what happened in Rwanda were enough to make me realise that if we're looking for solutions to what troubles our world we HAVE to look somewhere other than the bumbling, corrupt mess that is the UN.<BR/><BR/>Cheers, BernadetteBernadettehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07641617609801125707noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1945084719138852021.post-13130067091976140072008-01-26T14:15:00.000-08:002008-01-26T14:15:00.000-08:00I guess that every organization is only as good as...I guess that every organization is only as good as its members, whatever its charter might say. <BR/><BR/>The U.N. is merely a reflection of the governments that belong to the organization, nothing more and nothing less. It's not a magic wand that will make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. It cannot take a collection of regimes that are largely anti-Western in their orientation (or at least not pro-Western), or that have economic and political incentives to lean in a pro-Arab direction, and then expect such a grouping to miraculously coalesce into a sage, balanced and effective force in the world. That's too much to expect.Joannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10459787999698908847noreply@blogger.com