UN on the job - NOT
I thought this quote from the New York Times was especially precious:
"This is a setback in our efforts to ensure security here," Mr. Ladjouzi [head of the United Nations mission] said. "We are trying to find out who did this."
Quite so! They need that information, of course, in order to draft a properly-aimed resolution of condemnation to be read over the mass graves. In the spirit of cleaning up one's own messes, there really should be a UN mass burial site somewhere for this general purpose. Somewhere in Sudan might be good, as there is lots of grave-digging going on there anyway. (NB: Email quick note to Kofi)
The insight does not seem to have penetrated the UN fantasyland that holding hands around the campfire will not maintain the peace. You have to be bigger and meaner than the aggressors, permitting them no illusions about your ability to stomp them into the ground if they try anything.
The reason this insight can remain elusive is that the UN is not accountable for its blindness and mistakes. Nation that fail to recognize reality in that way go out of business through extermination or absorbtion. Not so the UN, which doesn't even suffer a reduction in its income. It just calls "overs" and moves on.
It's high time for another V.S. Naipaul satire, perhaps recounting the career of a Mr. Ladjouzi as he travels from place to place. His job is everywhere the same: to bring relief supplies to some bereft and threatened refugee population, disarm them of any weapons they might have, gather them into handy and lightly-guarded UN enclaves, and then stand by helpless as they are slaughtered by their enemies. After each such incident, Mr. Ladjouzi wards off despair by reviewing the certificates from his superiors in NY attesting to his tireless and selfless efforts. Thus restored, he proceeds to his next assignment. Discouragement, after all, can only be a selfish indulgence when there are so many who need the UN's help.
It writes itself.
Byron
"This is a setback in our efforts to ensure security here," Mr. Ladjouzi [head of the United Nations mission] said. "We are trying to find out who did this."
Quite so! They need that information, of course, in order to draft a properly-aimed resolution of condemnation to be read over the mass graves. In the spirit of cleaning up one's own messes, there really should be a UN mass burial site somewhere for this general purpose. Somewhere in Sudan might be good, as there is lots of grave-digging going on there anyway. (NB: Email quick note to Kofi)
The insight does not seem to have penetrated the UN fantasyland that holding hands around the campfire will not maintain the peace. You have to be bigger and meaner than the aggressors, permitting them no illusions about your ability to stomp them into the ground if they try anything.
The reason this insight can remain elusive is that the UN is not accountable for its blindness and mistakes. Nation that fail to recognize reality in that way go out of business through extermination or absorbtion. Not so the UN, which doesn't even suffer a reduction in its income. It just calls "overs" and moves on.
It's high time for another V.S. Naipaul satire, perhaps recounting the career of a Mr. Ladjouzi as he travels from place to place. His job is everywhere the same: to bring relief supplies to some bereft and threatened refugee population, disarm them of any weapons they might have, gather them into handy and lightly-guarded UN enclaves, and then stand by helpless as they are slaughtered by their enemies. After each such incident, Mr. Ladjouzi wards off despair by reviewing the certificates from his superiors in NY attesting to his tireless and selfless efforts. Thus restored, he proceeds to his next assignment. Discouragement, after all, can only be a selfish indulgence when there are so many who need the UN's help.
It writes itself.
Byron
posted by Byron | Sunday, August 15, 2004
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