UN

UN
By Daniel G. Jennings
The unfolding “Oil for Food” scandal at the United Nations, gives us a unique opportunity to clean up and reform that important entity.
Oil for Food was a program the UN set up to help the people of Iraq when that nation was ruled by Saddam Hussein and under embargo because it was violating UN orders on weapons of mass destruction. Under oil for food, Iraq was allowed to sell limited amounts of oil which was used to buy food and medicine for the nation’s people. Recent press revelations indicate that much if not most of the money raised by oil for food was siphoned off by corrupt UN officials, Saddam and European companies. UN Secretary General Kofi Anan is up to his neck in this scandal his son is an executive at a Swiss company that had a UN oil for food contract.
This scandal unfolded largely because the United States and other major powers ignored the United Nations. They paid the body lip service, wrote minimal checks to it and allowed it to fall under the control of corrupt and incompetent third world bureaucrats and politicians like Mr. Anan. They operate the UN like the government of a banana republic that is they steal as much as they can and ignore their jobs. Anan has done such a bad job that the UN staff voted to recommend his removal.
Oil For Food gives us a great opportunity to clean up the UN and make some needed reforms. The first step in these reforms would be to appoint a distinguished American, Japanese or European politician as Secretary General someone like Bill Clinton, Paul Volker or Colin Powell. This individual could then reform the bureaucracy while other reforms are made. One needed reform, restructure the UN so that the world’s major powers have more votes than smaller countries. Instead of one nation vote, allocate UN votes on the basis of population or economic power. That way the major powers would be making the decisions and not the third world thugs. Finally restructure the Security Council so that the Islamic World and India, the world’s second most populous nation and possibly second most powerful military will be represented.
Another thought here notice how the mainstream media has ignored the scandal unfolding at one of their sacred cows the United Nations. This corruption has been going on for years perhaps decades and the media has ignored it or deliberately downplayed the scandal. Obviously the existence of such a scandal contradicts the rosy view the educated elite has of the world and places the naïve and simplistic idea that bodies like the UN can lead to peace and a better world. The media doesn’t want the scandal exposed because it threatens their world view. Imagine the coverage had this corruption been going on in an American presidential administration or large corporation?
It is time we adopted a realistic view of the UN and started reforming that body or trying to replace it with something better. For if we don’t we’ll have a world that’s even more war-torn and dangerous than the one we have today.