After Ban Ki-moon, the outgoing Secretary General of the United Nations announced that he was standing for Korea’s presidency, based on his performance at the UN, I wrote an article giving prospective voters an insight into the reality of that performance[1]UNacceptable. Nothing to do with the article, but he stood down pretty soon afterwards.
The UN is accomplished at separating donors from their money, as I’d experienced with the handling of both the 2009 and 2010 elections in Afghanistan[2]Why America lost the war in Afghanistan. Those are your tax dollars they have been wasting!
You can be sure that whenever there is a catastrophe somewhere in the world, in a matter of hours the UN will come up with an estimate of how much it will cost to fix. And of course, they’ll do the repair job.
Winston Churchill and FDR were determined that the Second World War should also be the last World War[3]No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II. The United Nations was their brainchild.
Both were absent during the final negotiations of the UN charter with Stalin at Potsdam[4]The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World. FDR had died of hypertension and Churchill had been ousted by the British electorate. The UN was crippled from the start, with each of the five permanent members having veto powers.
The World Bank, and the World Health Organisation fall under the umbrella of the UN, and the recent past confirms their collective incompetence.
The WHO should have co-ordinated the strategy dealing with COVID-19. Instead they took a backseat, as countries adopted contradictory strategies on how to deal with the virus[5]Are we being lied to again?.
Among World Bank’s responsibilities is the task of publishing the world’s economic data. The health data are four years out of date[6]Current health expenditure (% of GDP). When we asked them when the figures would be updated, they referred us to the WHO.
Going back to the reason for founding the UN, the prevention of another World War.
Looking at the war in Ukraine provides clear perspective of the extent of the UN’s failure to fulfil its purpose. When the Secretary General succeeded in negotiating an agreement releasing grain from Ukraine, he announced it as probably the most important thing he had done in his time heading the international body[7]Ukraine war: Deal signed to allow grain exports to resume by sea. Really?
I have lived and worked in some of the world’s poorest countries, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Mozambique. In the midst of this frightening poverty, the UN vehicles stand out as some of the most expensive on the roads.
The UN is way past its sell by date, and should be disposed of as soon as possible.
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