I stole the cartoon below from a Sudanese blog I recently discovered.
More later.
Aljazeera. Ask a typical Arab guy what he thinks of it and he’ll tell you, he loves it. Ask a typical American right winger and he’ll tell you, he hates it. Two different people judging an entity from their own perspective results in different views. No problem. It seems natural. Strangely when it comes to the UN, something different happens. Ask the typical Arab guy and he’ll tell you the UN is corrupt, controlled by Jews and the evil USA. Ask the American right winger dude and he’ll tell you the UN is a corrupt organization that’s an annoying headache for the great USA. A lot of people don’t seem to like the UN and for good reasons. Hell, I myself don’t like the UN but I must admit and say that something is better than nothing. I appreciate and support all the humanitarian work done by the them and all the other educational/health efforts but I am no fan whatsoever of the joke called the Human Rights Council. It stinks. It stinks really bad. Reform and restructuring is required.
SudaneseThinker
SudaneseThinker
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It doesn’t take a genius to compare a list of the UN Human Rights Council members, a list of the countries with the most human rights violations, and realize that far too many countries are in both lists.
Something’s fishy here, and it isn’t my mother’s gefilte-fish. Even Kofi Annan admitted it, and that says a great deal.
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I really wish this wasn’t true. Then again looking at the structure of how the UN works it’s not really like they can come in to Darfur with an army now can they? They have to get a freaking invitation from Khartoum.
Well, what’dya expect ? The United Nations is made of nations, and nations are made of people, and people are far from perfect. It’s not like it’s some angelic police keeping us humans from tearing each other apart. It’s us. UN is far from perfect, but what’s the alternative ?
Sadly it is far too true, but funny.
halalhippie,
The alternative is that people get serious about restructuring certain parts of how the UN works so it can actually do something in these situations. As you mentioned the UN is far from perfect and it’s not like changing the way that it operates will be a sin or unreasonable thing to do. It’s not the Ten Commandments.
I had a meeting with some UN higher ups that mentioned that this is what is happening on certain levels right now. Although I’m not exactly optimistic that it will change anything.
Aaron
Aaron, I agree. Many of the UN’s practical institutes need to be torn down and built up again, and most importantly they have to be made seperate from the general assembly.
The criteria for being a member of the Human Rights Council have to be much stricter, for example, so that it becomes a constructive part of the UN rather than an example of letting the cats guard the cream.
There’s is a view around that the UN should be a forum for diplomats. It should be, but not to the exclusion of other functions.
Or take the UN peacekeepers. Member states don’t contribute troops to actually take risks. More often than not they are sent to be seen. To show what fine countries the member states are.
And such games are fatal, which is why the practical aspects of the UN *have* to be seperated from the diplomatic game. Else all we have is a bunch of corrupt bastards sipping their martinis and pretending to care.
You got some really nice stuff here buddy. Love your writing and reasoning.
Kalamashaka
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