The 9th month has flashed by. The year is getting short.
I sit on this fine Sunday morning with the sky clear and bright, the air very nippy, the dogs all quiet, watching Blood Sports.
I feel like I need to have a rant about the past week of narcissistic activity in NYC…
I have not been a big fan of the United Nations for a long, long time. Not sure I ever was.
I have worked with and for the UN. It has always been a “high-class-con” in my mind. I dont wish to be too harsh but my experience with the UN, its programs, its people, its systems has pretty much always been one of wastefulness. The UN staffers were elites that traveled first class and wore lots of gold. The UN programs I worked on were well funded and poorly managed. Being in and around the UN meant lots of meetings, lots of per diems and reimbursement forms. In the UN you get paid to do a job then get paid extra to travel and attend meetings. In the UN one travels and attends lots and lots of meetings.
What does the UN cost? Grok says:
* This is the figure that includes the Secretariat plus funds and programmes such as WFP, UNICEF, UNHCR, UNDP, WHO, and specialized agencies.
* 2024 revenue: $68.3 billion
* 2024 expenses: $66 billion
* 2023 expenses: $68.5 billion
My next basic question is “what does the UN do”? Grok tells us:
* The United Nations is an intergovernmental organization of 193 member states. Its core job, set out in the 1945 Charter, is to keep peace, develop friendly relations among nations, and cooperate on economic, social, cultural, and humanitarian problems. In practice that work splits into two main pillars:
* Peace and security: The Security Council can authorize peacekeeping missions, sanctions, or (rarely) collective military action. * The UN also does mediation, special political missions, and support for ceasefires. Peacekeeping is the most visible piece: tens of thousands of troops and police in field missions, paid from a separate assessed budget.
* Sustainable development: Through the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, the UN system tries to reduce poverty, improve health and education, and address climate and inequality. A lot of this is done by funds and programmes (UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA, UNEP, and others), mostly with voluntary money rather than the core Secretariat budget.
Hmmm… considering that the UN has been around for a long, long time… Just looking at this: “tries to reduce poverty, improve health and education, and address climate and inequality.” I would quickly suggest the UN is not doing its job well, if at all.
And what the hell is “Climate In equality”?
Rant done.
Puppy porn time…
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