'The United Nations is planning to create a sweeping new set of “sustainable development goals” for the planet that will likely require trillions of dollars of spending on poverty and the environment, a drastic reorganization of economic production and consumption -- especially in rich countries -- and even greater effort in the expensive war on climate change.

It’s an agenda that its prominent boosters have declared will make the next 15 years “some of the most transformative in human history,” although the exact nature of the goals themselves, and how they are to be achieved, is unclear.'

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Algeria demanded new efforts Saturday to limit freedom of expression to prevent denigrating attacks on Islam, appealing to the United Nations to take a lead as nations engaged in new debate on the tensions between free speech and religious tolerance.

In an address to the General Assembly, Algeria's foreign minister Mourad Medelci called for global action under the auspices of the United Nations to respond to violent demonstrations provoked by a U.S.-produced video that mocks Muslims and the Prophet Muhammad.

While Medelci didn't offer precise details of how he believed the U.N. could intervene, his call follows similar demands at the General Assembly from scores of leaders in the Muslim world who want new laws to ban insults against Islam.

~David Stringer, Associated Press

'As it attempts to lead the world toward a more sustainable future, the United Nations has set a policy to move "towards a zero carbon future."

In a report released yesterday, the agency admitted that despite a campaign under way since October 2007, "much still remains to be done." Overall, according to the 30-page document issued by the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), its annual emissions are climbing.

The agency's latest data, from 2010, shows that it emitted 1.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent global warming gases. In 2009, the emissions were 1.7 million metric tons, indicating that its carbon footprint grew larger. The report adds, however, that its measuring system is still evolving, so totals for the two years are "comparable up to a point."

The United Nations, which is inviting world diplomats to a conference on sustainability in Rio de Janeiro in June, reports that its biggest problem is its ballooning air travel budget. It produced 51 percent of total 2010 emissions, up from 48 percent in 2008.

According to the report, the United Nations is trying to create a downward trend by encouraging train journeys over air travel, promoting e-conferencing and even providing bicycles for staff members to ride to work, along with free bike repair workshops and also bike-sharing programs.'

Scientific American, April 25 2012

...in the light of reflected glory to project unmitigated misery.

Up yours moon! I'm turning the lights on to full tonight!

UNITED NATIONS: The UN will observe Earth Hour Saturday by turning off the lights for one hour at its facilities around the world.

The world body, headquartered in New York, will join scores of other landmarks around the globe that are participating in the Earth Hour event.

Earth Hour, launched in 2007 in Australia by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), which is a global conservation group, calls on people, organisations and cities to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour starting at 8.30 p.m. local time.

This is the third year that the UN joins hundreds of millions of people around the world in switching off the lights, Xinhua reported.

UN Secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said the UN was turning off its lights "in solidarity with the men, women and children -- 20 percent of all humankind -- who live with no access to electricity".

http://economictimes.indiatime...

Canada has been a part of every UN mission since 1957.

I would like to see them completely withdraw all UN support as I am sick of seeing our men die only to be veto'd at every turn by a corrupt system supported and fueled by dictators.

The whole system is a bloody sham of carcass carving parasites.

Unfortunately most canadians are bleeding heart pomowankers who are not willing to look at what is really going on.  One would think after getting 2 black eyes in a row for the failed bid to be on the security council would wake Canada up but that wouldn't be politically correct of course.

"Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chávez is seeking a seat on the United Nations’ Human Rights Council, the group U.N. Watch reports. The independent watchdog group also says that Pakistan is additionally “slated to run unopposed for seats on the UN’s 47-nation Human Rights Council this year.”

~Feb 22,2012

UN readies itself for their next shakedown: The Social Protection Floor Initiative

‘This movement for a social protection floor is becoming solidly entrenched in the United Nations' agencies and programs. Some U.N. leaders are calling for the SPF to become the new focus for the U.N., when the Millennium Development Goals are finished — after 2015.’

That means the same slugs continuing to ask for someone else’s money to pour into the same type of hopelessly inefficient schemes. New name though. So get ready to farewell the Millennium Development goals and say hello to the 'Social Protection Floor Initiative.'

And perhaps prepare for a new World Tax: “We will need a modest but long-term way to finance this transformation,” stated Jens Wandel, Deputy Director of the United Nations Development Program during a 'Preparatory Forum' on the flawed Floor initiative. “One idea which we could consider is a minimal financial transaction tax (of .005 percent). This will create $40 billion in revenue.

And in an anti-capitalism speech at the same forum, Ambassador Jirge Valero, the current Chairman of the Commission on Social Development claimed: “It is absolutely essential to establish controls on capital movements and financial speculation,” and called for “progressive policies of taxation" that would require "those who earn more to pay more taxes."

~Feb 3, 2012

...for the introduction of "Obamacare" to raise it back up again. A good dose of socialism cures all.

"The United States falls from its No. 4 perch to 23rd..."

UN adjusts annual living-standards report card to suit Occupy Wall Street protesters

'The United Nations has a terrible record when it comes to the credibility and objectivity of its reports on any number of issues on the globe. Its findings and recommendations tend to follow a heavily politicized, leftist, Third World agenda -- a reflection of the ideological bent of the UN's own bloated bureaucracy.

However, there is one notable exception -- an annual UN report card that ranks countries on the basis of their performance in the areas of health, education and personal income. In UN-speak, the report card is known as the HDI -- the human development index. Health is measured by life expectancy, education by average years of schooling, and income by gross personal income per capita.

For many years, the HDI has been an important treasure trove for statistical research -- a spotlight on how countries treat their people's basic human needs and aspirations. Also, whether their living standards are improving or retrogressing. And most importantly, the UN report card has maintained a high standard of credibility. Its rankings and findings have built an aura of professional credibility.

That's why a statistical twist accompanying this year's HDI causes concern. As in previous years, the UN Development Program, which publishes the report card, starts out by ranking countries -- 186 at the latest count -- on the basis of the usual criteria: health, education and personal income.

Leading this year's rankings is Norway, followed by Australia, Netherlands, the United States, New Zealand, Canada, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Germany and Sweden rounding out the top 10.

A bit farther down is Israel in 17th position, ahead of Belgium, Austria and France. Not a bad achievement for Israel, which unlike most top-rated countries, has to devote an unusually high portion of its budget to meet its security needs.

And this is where things get interesting. There's not a single Arab country that comes close to matching Israel's living standards. The closest are three oil-rich Persian Gulf sheikdoms: United Arab Emirates in 30th position, Qatar 37th, and Bahrain, 42nd. Saudi Arabia, with its enormous wealth, can do no better than 56th on the HDI rankings -- nearly 40 rungs behind Israel.

For someone -- or some countries -- the HDI rankings appear to have been a bit too much to swallow. Envy of the U.S. and resentment of Israel are common in UN halls. Which may explain why this year's report features a new twist -- an addition to the usual HDI rankings.
The authors call it the "HDI inequality-adapted index." And, lo and behold, when it becomes the yardstick for measuring living standards, "some of the wealthiest nations drop out of the top 20," according to the HDI report. The United States falls from its No. 4 perch to 23rd, while Israel gets booted down from 17th to 25th.

While the added index purports to measure inequalities in health, education and income, the rankings' drop of the U.S. and Israel is due mainly to perceived inequalities in income.

Sounds familiar? Income inequality as an echo of Occupy Wall Street slogans? Since income inequality is the leftist flavor of the month, perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that the UN is offering statistical sustenance to the demonstrators. All that's now needed is UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon pitching his own tent in lower Manhattan.

The UN predictably couches its rationale for the supplementary rankings in dense bureaucratese jargon. "The inequality-adapted HDI helps us assess better the levels of development for segments of society," explains MIlvad Kovacevic, chief strategist for the HDI.
Sure it does, but forgive my skepticism.'

~Leo Rennert

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com...

Monday November 14,2011

'UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is urging world leaders to create a multibillion-dollar fund to fight against the worst results of climate change.

He spoke out at the Climate Vulnerable Forum in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, where representatives from around 30 countries are meeting for two days.

The representatives' aim is to design a united stand on the future finance of the climate schemes they desperately need to limit increasing loss of human life and other damage because of global warming.

At the opening of the meeting Mr Ban said the world should make a real move "now".

He urged governments to create a 100 billion dollar (£62bn) "Green Climate Fund" without any delay at the UN-sponsored climate change talks starting on November 28 in Durban, South Africa.'

http://www.express.co.uk/posts...

To destroy distinctions. Leveling.

Your title is perfect. The dominating Discourse of the dialectic destroyed.

But good is not the opposite of evil. Evil is not the opposite of good.

Evil is when no distinction can be made. This is Toohey, and Nietzsche through Rand, who knows this. Toohey is consciously, evilly, employing a strategy for accomplishing this.

In simulated reality there is only credibility. When simulated reality is total then we will be in Virtual Reality. No escape. Toohey knows this, Dominique feels this, Cameron wins, then fights and resists, then succumbs. Roark wins, an individual triumph. Steve Jobs won. I think it helped cost him his life, but he lived, he did not succumb to the strategy of survival.

Toohey is still our danger. Simulated reality. It is here. Do you see it?

An object does not exist until and unless it is observed. - William Burroughs
The hardest thing to explain is the perfectly obvious which everyone has decided to see NOT. - Ayn Rand (my paraphrasing)

For 5 years now I have told the aldermen that if they want this town to even think of becoming more prosperous, they need to usher in broadband.

In the ozarks they are terrified of any change of any sort. But without it the stagnation continues, which is OK with me. I live here, but I don't live here.

I have told them that MIT students have put broadband all over Afghanistan and the plans are on their website for freewifi. Using recycled materials. The only cost is the router.

Fast access here is $65 a month. I tell them that 1000 people are sending their money out of this area to a huge corporate entity when they could have their high school students learn to do it, replicate it all over the area in other towns, and that would mean $65,000 a month would go in the pockets of locals to be spent locally. That's a lot of money.

They listen to me, look at me, and think I am from Mars. I tell them that if MIT students can teach ragheads how to do this, then certainly their high school students could do it. No dice. The govt is needed as it would have to go on the highest point, the water tower. Permission is really all that is required. Nada.

They refuse to hear me.

What would Jesus do?

'The United Nations wants to provide more people across the globe with Internet access. By 2015, the U.N.’s Commission for Digital Development aims to have broadband available to half of the world’s developing countries.

“It is vital that no one be excluded from the new global knowledge societies we are building. “We believe that communication is not just a human need—it is a right.”

Part of the Challenge includes making Internet access affordable. The UN hopes it will cost less than 5 percent of average monthly incomes even in the poorest of places, and it is calling on governments and private firms to help make this possible. “These targets are ambitious but achievable, given the political will and commitment on the part of governments, working in partnership with the private sector,” secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Dr. Hamadoun Toure said in a statement.

The ITU is the body responsible with tracking progress in these places, and it will release an annual report where each county is ranked based on cost, policy, and adoption of broadband.'

The origin of "sustainable development" etc

The forthright intentions of the UN to punish the productive and destroy property rights and individual rights.

http://my.brainshark.com/False...

'[Jamie]Oliver's audience will be greatly expanded later this month when he joins a panel of nutrition and health experts during a United Nations meeting on non-communicable diseases. His aim is to make world leaders, in particular U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, "sit up and take notice" of the devastating effects of obesity around the world.

The 36-year-old chef also said that obesity should be considered a human rights issue, saying that the fight against it “should be as important as the fight against AIDS and climate change."'

http://www.mnn.com/health/fitn...

Te Atatu MP Chris Carter is heading off to become the director of the Governance Unit of the UN mission in Kabul. There he will supposedly battle corruption.

"I will head a team based in the Ministry of the Interior, which advises President Karzai and his ministers on effective ways of improving local governance at the provincial level with the police and the judiciary," he said.

"The UN has a lot of pilot projects in Afghanistan and I will advise New York as to the effectiveness of those."'

Do they take credit cards in Kabul, Carter?

'Five months after United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the world body faced an “emergency situation,” and ordered his top lieutenants to cut their budgets by 3 percent overall, New York City-based staffers have just gotten a 2.2 percent boost to their paychecks.
Among other things, the new income hike means that the highest ranked officials at the U.N. headquarters -- including members of the audience Ban harangued last March -- will get a take-home, tax-free pay package of about $240,000.

The same officials last year would have earned about $235,240. That is about one-fifth higher than the gross pay of the highest level officials of the U.S. government, including federal Cabinet members, who earn a maximum of $199,700 -- before deductions and taxes.
But the U.S. officials still pay taxes, which reduces their pay, on federal taxes alone, by about another 21 percent'

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2...

Suzanne Goldenberg, environmental correspondent for guardian.co.uk, last week reported talk "… of a new environmental peacekeeping force — green helmets — which could step into conflicts caused by shrinking resources." U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to address the Security Council on Wednesday about expanding the United Nations' peacekeeping mission to "keep peace in an era of climate change," she wrote.

ALBANY - 'Governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation that will allow the United Nations to expand its facilities and build on public parkland in Manhattan.'

'Iran has conducted work on a trigger for a nuclear weapon and Syria "very likely" was building a nuclear reactor in 2007, the United Nations' nuclear watchdog formally concluded.

A report on the progress of Iran's nuclear program issued Tuesday by the International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran has conducted work on a sophisticated nuclear triggering device to be used to set off a nuclear weapon, The New York Times reported.

The information about the technology was part of a nine-page report on Iran's nuclear progress. The report did not indicate where the information came from nor provide any details, according to the Times.

The report also indicated that Iran is recovering from the Stuxnet computer worm, said to have been designed and released by Israel and the United States, which stalled Iran's production of nuclear fuel over the last two years.

An IAEA report, also issued Tuesday, said the Syrian project destroyed by an Israeli air raid in September 2007 was a nuclear reactor intended to make material for nuclear bombs, the Washington Post reported.

The findings open up the possibility that Syria will be sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council, since it did not declare the project to international nuclear inspectors as required.

The report cites physical and photographic evidence to back up its claim.

“It is very likely that the building destroyed at the Dair Alzour site was a nuclear reactor which should have been declared to the agency,” the report reads, according to the Post.

The report also criticizes Syria for blocking access to the site and giving false information about the site for much of the last three years.'

~JTA
May 25, 2011

(CNSNews.com) – This year’s election for the U.N. Human Rights Council has, once again, produced a body that has fewer “free” countries – 21 of a total of 47 – and has more than one-third of the seats held by members of the Islamic bloc.
Among the 15 countries to win seats on the Geneva-based HRC on Friday was Congo, which joins 11 other countries ranked “not free” by the democracy advocacy group, Freedom House, based on an annual assessment of political freedoms and civil liberties.

U.N. Admits at Least $600G Lost on Overpriced Boat That Housed Haiti Peacekeepers

George Russell
March 31, 2011
FoxNews.com

The United Nations has admitted that it lost at least $600,000 after it cancelled its controversial rental of a comfortably appointed cruise ship for U.N. staffers in the early stages of rescue operations last year in earthquake-shattered Haiti.
The world organization abruptly backed out of the deal after a Fox News exclusive analysis showed that the boat rental for the 11,000-ton ship called Ola Esmeralda, which cost $72,000 per day, was vastly overpriced compared to going commercial rates.

Overall, the U.N. contracted to spend $13 million on rental of the Esmeralda, and another $3.6 million on a companion vessel, the Sea Voyager—which was known to U.N. staffers as “the Love Boat.”

Even though it discontinued service on the Ola Esmeralda before its contract ended in August 2010, the U.N. apparently was stuck with paying the entire bill. Buried in a summary of U.N. internal auditors’ reports for 2010 is an admission that due to the nature of the contract that the U.N. had signed with the owners, who have close ties to the Venezuelan government of Hugo Chavez, “there was unfortunately no legal basis” for getting back any money for the unused portion of the contract.

Indeed, the loss may have been significantly more than the $600,000 cited in the report, which covered only unused fuel. The carefully worded reference says that the U.N. had paid for “services related to staff accommodations,” including the $600,000 fuel tab, “which were not fully rendered or were discontinued during the contractual period.”
According to the analysis by Fox News, a wide variety of services on the Ola Esmeralda—more than just fuel-- were being paid for at higher-than-market rates. These included hot meals, laundry service and other amenities.

A shipping expert consulted by Fox News estimated that the overall cost of the Esmeralda’s contract with the U.N. was as much as 100 percent more than what normally would be charged in the commercial marketplace. In all, he estimated, the owners of the vessel were getting anywhere from $11,000 to $19,000 a day more than normal rates for the ship.
Using that expert’s figures as a baseline, the auditors’ careful phrasing could mean that much more money—perhaps in the hundreds of thousands of dollars—was also not recoverable.
The auditors’ report says that the U.N.’s department of field support, which provides logistical backup to peacekeeping missions, was chalking the losses up to “lessons learned, to be applied to any future cases involving similar requirements.”

'The World Bank has acknowledged that mismanagement and a lack of monitoring on a land titling project it conducted with the [Cambodian] government has left thousands of Cambodians at Boeung Kak Lake and elsewhere increasingly vulnerable to forced eviction.

The bank's board of executive directors met in Washington on Tuesday to discuss the findings of an internal report that issued a stinging critique of the Cambodia Land Management and Administration project, a US$28.8 million initiative designed and supervised by the bank from 2002 to 2009. The report said that flaws in the project had led to the "arbitrary exclusion of lands from the titling process" and that the bank's management should have detected earlier the "serious problems" associated with the programme.

"We are deeply troubled and frustrated about the people who are being forced from their homes," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a statement.'

~ The Phnom Penh Post March 10, 2011

Troubled? So he bloody should be. The Lake development is being undertaken by a company controlled by a Senator from the ruling Cambodian People's Party. Residents have been told to either accept pitifully low compensation ($8,500 for land with a market value in excess of $150,000, in some cases) or be evicted by force.

4,000 people have left. 10,000 more are holding out- no doubt after the furore has subsided Phnom Penh's police-thugs will push them out, too.

Corruption and government-sponsored thuggery in Cambodia? That would surprise almost nobody except, it would seem, the World Bank.

24 February 2011 – Luminaries from the worlds of politics, entertainment, business, the media, music and film are joining the United Nations today as it celebrates the birth of a powerful new agency giving voice to women and girls worldwide.
UN Women – formally known as the UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women – was established in July 2010 by the General Assembly, merging four previous UN bodies dealing with women’s issues.

“With the birth of UN Women, we welcome a powerful new agent for progress on gender equality and women’s empowerment,” says Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

“The challenges are great, but I believe that with the new energy, the new momentum and the new authority that UN Women brings, these challenges will be met. True gender equality should be our shared legacy in the 21st century.”

UN Women will be working with an annual budget of at least $500 million – double the combined resources of the four agencies it comprises, namely the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Division for the Advancement of Women (DAW), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues, and the UN International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (UN-INSTRAW).

Thursday, February 24, 2011

The joke that is the United Nations could not be on more stark display: Amid the slaughter of civilians in Libya's streets, what pressing business preoccupied the U.N. before declaring an emergency session of its Security Council?

Why, another condemnation of Israel, of course, urged by Palestinians and other Muslims, Fox News reports.

And Libya's crushing retaliation against anti-government protesters didn't draw a response from Turtle Bay's ignominious Human Rights Council -- where Libya's Moammar Gadhafi less than a year ago secured a prized three-year term.

So much for the Obama administration's fatuous intention to reform this putrid panel of reprobates by taking a seat among them.

It wasn't until reports of Libyan warplanes and helicopter gunships firing upon civilians that the U.N. took notice. Oh, its ever-diplomatic chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday telephoned Mr. Gadhafi to urge an end to hostilities. But even then he didn't condemn a brutal crackdown that began a week ago.

Not that this sanctimonious babbling mess is capable of meaningful intervention. "Even if U.N. members could agree on meeting on Libya, it would not have any real-world impact," former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said this week.

That's because Mission One at the United Nations is self-preservation -- and to hell with oppressed people who cry out for freedom

Read more: Useless U.N.: Another joke - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review http://www.pittsburghlive.com/...

18 February 2011 – 'The United Nations human rights chief today denounced the violence by security forces against protesters in Libya, Bahrain and other countries in the Middle East and North Africa as illegal and excessively heavy-handed.

“The nature and scope of the human rights violations taking place in several countries in the region in response to those who are largely demonstrating peacefully for their fundamental human rights and freedoms is alarming,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay stated in a news release.'

Bahrain and Libya? They are both current members of the UN Human Rights Council.

How are you feeling now, you stupid bitch?

17 February 2011 – 'The United Nations agency that promotes the integration of developing countries into the world economy is calling for cheaper ways for migrant workers to send money back home so as to maximize the economic impact.
The costs of sending money from overseas can be high, with the current average fee at some 8.7 per cent, and there is “still a lack of safe, reliable, accessible transfer systems for remittances,” UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Deputy Secretary-General Petko Draganov told a two-day meeting in Geneva this week. “For some countries, excessive margins are charged.”

Still more unproductive intrusion by the UN...

Every single government in the UN is evil. And it's not like it's some important, independent organization; it's a subaltern for the American Empire.

The Viscount Monckton of Brenchley: The Abdication of the West

The 33-page Note (FCCC/AWGLCA/2010/CRP.2) by the Chairman of the “Ad-Hoc Working Group on Long-Term Co-operative Action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change”, entitled Possible elements of the outcome, reveals all. Or, rather, it reveals nothing, unless one understands what the complex, obscure jargon means. All UNFCCC documents at the Cancun conference, specifically including Possible elements of the outcome, are drafted with what is called “transparent impenetrability”. The intention is that the documents should not be understood, but that later we shall be told they were in the public domain all the time, so what are we complaining about?
[..]
The Canute provision: The conference will reaffirm the decision of its predecessor in Copenhagen this time last year “to hold the increase in global average temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels”, just like that. In fact, temperature in central England, and by implication globally, rose 2.2 Celsius in the 40 years 1695-1735, as the Sun began to recover from its 11,400-year activity minimum, and rose again by 0.74 C in the 20th century. There has been no warming in the 21st century, but we are already well over 2 Celsius degrees above pre-industrial levels. The Canute provision, as some delegates have dubbed it (after the Danish king of early England who famously taught his courtiers the limitations of his power and, a fortiori, theirs when he set up his throne on the beach and commanded sea level not to rise, whereupon the tide came in as usual and wet the royal feet), shows the disconnect between The Process and reality.

Omissions: There are several highly-significant omissions, which jointly and severally establish that the central intent of The Process no longer has anything to do with the climate, if it ever had. The objective is greatly to empower and still more greatly to enrich the international classe politique at the expense of the peoples of the West, using the climate as a pretext, so as to copy the European Union by installing in perpetuity what some delegates here are calling “transnational perma-Socialism” beyond the reach or recall of any electorate. Here are the key omissions:

• The science: The question whether any of this vast expansion of supranational power is scientifically necessary is not addressed. Instead, there is merely a pietistic affirmation of superstitious faith in the IPCC, where the conference will “recognize that deep cuts in global [greenhouse-gas] emissions are required according to science, and as documented in the [IPCC’s] Fourth Assessment Report.”

• The economics: There is no assessment of the extent to which any of the proposed actions to mitigate “global warming” by cutting emissions of carbon dioxide or to adapt the world to its consequences will be cost-effective. Nor, tellingly, is there any direct comparison between mitigation and adaptation in their cost-effectiveness: indeed, the IPCC was carefully structured so that mitigation and adaptation are considered by entirely separate bureaucracies producing separate reports, making any meaningful comparison difficult. Though every economic analysis of this central economic question, other than that of the now-discredited Lord Stern, shows that mitigation is a pointless fatuity and that focused adaptation to the consequences of any “global warming” that may occur would be orders of magnitude cheaper and more cost-effective, the Cancun conference outcome will continue to treat mitigation as being of equal economic utility with adaptation.

• Termination: Contracts have termination clauses to say what happens when the agreement ends. Nothing better illustrates the intent to create a permanent world-government structure than the absence of any termination provisions whatsoever in the Cancun outcome. The Process, like diamonds, is forever.

• Democracy: Forget government of the people, by the people, for the people. Forget the principle of “no taxation without representation” that led to the very foundation of the United States. The provisions for the democratic election of the new, all-powerful, legislating, tax-raising world-government Secretariat by the peoples of the world may be summarized in a single word: None.

.........................................

Etc

"The UN General Assembly's human rights committee has expressed "deep concern" about Iran's use of flogging, stoning and amputations as punishment in an annual review of the rights situation in several countries worldwide.

The committee voted 80-44 with 57 abstentions to underscore its worries about continued rights violations in Iran. It was a more resounding vote than last year, when the committee voted 74-48 on a similar resolution, with 59 members abstaining.

The measure is expected to be later approved by the full 192-member body.

The resolution noted continued "torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment" in the Islamic-led country, as well as "the continuing high incidence and dramatic increase in the carrying out of the death penalty in the absence of internationally recognised safeguards, including public executions".

At the start of the meeting, Iran unsuccessfully tried to block the resolution by calling for a vote to take no action. That motion failed 51-91 with 32 abstentions. In 2008, the last time Iran called for a no-action motion on a human rights committee resolution against it, the vote was much closer - 71-81, with 28 abstentions.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, secretary general of Iran's high council of human rights, told the committee that the "shameful" resolution was filled with "fallacies" and "unverifiable accusations". Although Canada was the leading sponsor, said Mr Larijani, "the United States of America is the mastermind and the main provocateur" in the drafting of the resolution "to serve as part of US policy against the Islamic Republic of Iran".

Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the leading opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran, said the "insufficient" resolution addressed "only a small part of the mullahs' egregious crimes against the people of Iran".

In a statement issued from her headquarters outside Paris, Ms Rajavi nevertheless called the vote "an indication of a global consensus against the religious fascism ruling Iran". And she called on countries to suppress trade and relations with Iran until its human rights situation improves.

The committee expressed "particular concern" at the government's failure to conduct a comprehensive investigation into alleged rights violations after the June 12, 2009 presidential elections. It called for an end to impunity for those who attacked demonstrators after the vote, and called on the government to no longer use its security forces and pro-government militias to break up peaceful protests."

UN CONCERNED OVER IRAN HUMAN RIGHTS

AP - Spain's flamenco dance, the Mediterranean diet and Chinese acupuncture were all given U.N. protection Tuesday as cultural treasures worth preserving.

'Croatia’s Ojkanje singing has been put on a United Nations list of cultural traditions in urgent need of protection.

Found in the Croatian regions of the Dalmatian hinterland, the Ojkanje is performed by two or more singers using a distinctive voice-shaking technique created by the throat. Each song lasts as long as the lead singer can hold his or her breath, the UN News Service said.

The decision was taken at the fifth meeting of Unesco's inter-governmental committee on Safeguarding the Intangible Cultural Heritage.'

... that'll larn 'em!

Wankers!

Nov. 15--HONG KONG -- Fourteen people were treated for scalded feet after walking barefoot over burning charcoal in a United Nations-organized workshop in Hong Kong, a news report said Monday.

The injured were among 34 people taking part in a "fire-walking experience empowerment workshop" run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Eight men and six women went to hospital for treatment after walking across a 2.5-metre long bed of hot coals on Sunday evening, the South China Morning Post newspaper said.

The UNHCR's Hong Kong head of fundraising and public education, Lum Kwok-choi, told the newspaper the workshop was aimed at career people who wanted "to turn fear into power."

The event was led by a hedge fund manager who claims to be a certified fire-walking instructor and to have run similar workshops since 1992, according to the Post

5 November 2010 – A high-level advisory group convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on mobilizing financing to help developing nations deal with climate change said today that, while challenging, the goal of providing $100 billion annually in support by 2020 is feasible.

Today’s report by the High-Level Advisory Group on Climate Change Financing (AGF) said the money must come from a wide range of sources – public and private, bilateral and multilateral. It said grants and highly concessional loans were essential for adapting to climate change in the world’s most vulnerable countries, including small island developing States.

“It will need sustained political will, appropriate public policy signals for the markets, and financial ingenuity,” Mr. Ban told reporters today at a press conference in New York.

~UN News Centre

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has completed his visit to Cambodia. It was anything but a success, although you wouldn't know that if you were to visit the UN News Centre.

Here is part of their report on the issue of further prosecutions of Khmer Rouge cadres:

27 October 2010 – The United Nations-backed tribunal in Cambodia dealing with mass killings and other crimes committed under the Khmer Rouge three decades ago is crucial in the world’s fight against impunity, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in the South-East Asian nation today.

Under an agreement signed by the UN and the Government, the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) was set up as an independent court using a mixture of Cambodian staff and judges and foreign personnel. It is designated to try those deemed most responsible for crimes and serious violations of Cambodian and international law between 17 April 1975 and 6 January 1979.

Earlier today in the capital, Phnom Penh, he discussed the need for the Government’s full cooperation and respect for the Court and its independence with Prime Minister Hun Sen, stressing that this is vital to enable the body to enjoy international support and to leave a strong legacy in Cambodia.

The ECCC, he stressed, was set up to be fully independent and that even the Secretary-General should not seek to influence its decisions in any way.
~The UN News Centre

Here’s what really happened:

‘Prime Minister Hun Sen told United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon yesterday that he would not allow prosecution at the Khmer Rouge tribunal beyond its second case, a move critics called a blatant example of political interference in the work of the court.’
~The Phnom Penh Post

The UN report continued:

‘Human rights were also a focus of their talks, with Mr. Ban expressing appreciation for the Cambodian Government’s cooperation with all human rights mechanisms. He also emphasized the importance of creating political space for public debate, including on human rights.’

Here’s what really happened:

Immediately upon Ban’s arrival, Police used force to shut down any protests targeting human right abuses. Later, more protestors, representing 4,000 families facing eviction from land needed for a ruling-party senator’s development, were beaten by the police. One protestor who was beaten unconscious was only set free after signing a document stating that he wouldn’t lead anymore protests. So far, there has been no word from the UN if they will investigate claims than other impending evictions to allow UNESCO to build its offices in Preah Vihear are legally justified.

‘The Secretary-General underlined the essential public advocacy role of the UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), stressing the notable role and value of its Phnom Penh office,’ continued the UN report.

Here’s what really happened:

‘Hun Sen has ordered United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to remove the head of the local UN human rights office, who he accused of acting as a ‘spokesman’ for opposition groups.’

Later a government minister clarified that the office would be closed regardless of whether the official was removed or not.

Let the U.N. help in the planning of your next holiday...

19 October 2010 – 'Planning your next ecological holiday has just become that much easier, with both the most famed and the least known of 150,000 world conservation sites now a mere mouse click away, thanks to a new United Nations-backed interactive social media-based website launched today.

Using the latest satellite images, users can pinpoint individual protected areas, such as national parks or marine reserves, from the breathtaking fjords of western Norway to Australia’s only active volcanoes, and zoom in for information on endangered species, native plant life or types of terrain on ProtectedPlanet.net.

Created by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the site provides in-depth information on both the leading lights and hidden gems of the conservation world, allowing visitors to upload photographs of their trips to protected areas, write travelogues for Wikipedia and recommend places of interest nearby, data that can be shared through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Flickr.'

October 2010 – African leaders gathered in a United Nations-backed meeting today urged the international community to support a fund intended to help poor countries adapt to the consequences of climate change and mitigate its effects of their economies and the environment.
“Finances are critical,” Abdoulie Janneh, UN Under Secretary General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), told UN Radio at the end of the five-day Seventh African Development Forum in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

“We must mobilize our own resources to really again underpin the importance we attach to climate change. But this is the challenge that was imposed on Africa.

“We are not contributing much to this phenomenon of climate change and therefore what we are saying is that those countries that have created this should really come up with the resources necessary,” Mr. Janneh said.

More dollars for despots...

Canada lost its recent bid to become a temporary member of the Security Council.

‘Instead,’ noted the National Post, ‘...the seat went to Portugal, a lovely little country that also happens to be dead broke. In coming months, the international community may have to save Portugal's floundering economy with a bailout. Maybe Greece and Iceland should get UN Security Council seats, too.’

And in a rare case of the media getting in right about the UN, the Post went on ‘The best way for Canada to have guaranteed itself a Security Council seat, diplomatic insiders say, would have been to bash Israel, align more closely with China, sign on to fashionable climate-change initiatives and spread aid money thinner in order to bribe the largest possible number of countries.’

And better still: ‘That Canada refused to ingratiate itself to the OIC -- a club of dictators and theocrats who treat the UN as a non-stop sounding board for Zionist conspiracy theories -- is commendable. Getting rejected by this lot is no embarrassment. Indeed, it arguably should be treated as a source of pride.’

Read more: http://www.nationalpost.com/ne...

More UN crap. Look how the UN involves itself in everything- right down to trying to get kids to collect bloody stamps.
And the 9th is World Post Day. It has its own special poster and all.

'UN Stamps are the Messengers of Peace'

'Human rights, the environment, endangered species and peace are all subjects of universal concern to the peoples of the world. They are also subjects which the United Nations Postal Administration (UNPA) has promoted on its stamps.
Because United Nations stamps reflect the work of the world Organization, the stamps extend beyond the boundaries of philately to draw attention to significant world problems and to serve as a reminder of the UN's commitment to its goals.

The United Nations is the only organization in the world which is neither a country nor a territory that is permitted to issue postage stamps. It is also the only postal authority to issue stamps in three different currencies, namely U.S. dollars, Swiss francs and Euro.

Although philately is one of the most popular hobbies in the world, the average age of collectors is increasing, and the future of philately rests with today's youth. UNPA is encouraging children to enjoy the hobby of philately, with the introduction of collectors' Fun Packs.'

Maybe you missed it, but yesterday was 'World Teacher's Day.' UNESCO has been pushing the big day since 1994. Had you remembered you could have gone to their "Teacher's Day' website and downloaded a dull 'Recovery Begins With Teachers' poster or arranged to send your teacher a lame e-card. For the really sad, it was possible to follow the day on twitter.

I expect there is other useless crap you could do if you visit the site.

“Chad hails the UN focus on the challenges of development, currently on achieving the Millennium Development Goals and their funding,” Foreign Minister Moussa Faki Mahamat told the General Assembly at its annual session. “But we fear once again that the pertinent recommendations of this meeting will remain without effect.”

'He stressed that Chad’s own financial resources are way behind its needs and appealed for additional resources.'

More resources?

For a country that sits in 175th place on the world corruption index and is headed by that freak, the world's 17th worst dictator, Idriss Deby.

Why aren't such fuckers and their representatives booed of the stage?

GENEVA, Sept. 28 - The U.N. commission into Israel’s May 31 flotilla clash declared during a U.N. Human Rights Council debate today that “even if Bin Laden himself were on the Mavi Maramara, Israel’s blockade would still be illegal.”

The statement was made by commissioner Desmond de Silva in response to questions posed in the council plenary by the Geneva-based UN Watch as to why the probe ignored voluminous evidence it submitted regarding the stated intentions of the Islamist flotilla members to physically confront Israel and become “Shahids,” or martyrs.

27 September 2010 – An Ecuadorian decision to leave vast amounts of oil in the ground to protect the biodiversity of a national park represents a model of the kind of innovative international partnership that benefits everyone, a senior United Nations official said today.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Associate Administrator Rebeca Grynspan told journalists that the plan would leave 20 per cent of national oil reserves in the ground, thus preserving the Yasuni National Park, a biosphere of enormous value for the world.

It would also protect the life and culture of indigenous peoples living in the park, and avert the emission of 400 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, she said.

The value of the reserve is conservatively estimated at $7.2 billion. Under the proposal, Ecuador would forgo its development in exchange for contributions totalling half that amount from the international community over a period of 13 years.

Paying people for not producing. Yep, that always turns out well.

It allways blows me away how the U.N. "that Contemptible citadel of global hypocrisy" as Ayn Rand called it, is not spoken of in the same hushed toes of disgust reserved for the KKK for example.

Now consider the collaboration of the semi-free countries with the communist dictatorships, in the United Nations. To identify that institution is to damn it, so that any criticism is superfluous. It is an institution allegedly dedicated to peace, freedom, and human rights, which includes Soviet Russia—the most brutal aggressor, the bloodiest dictatorship, the largest-scale mass-murderer and mass-enslaver in all history—among its charter members. Nothing can be added to that fact and nothing can mitigate it. It is so grotesquely evil an affront to reason, morality, and civilization that no further discussion is necessary, except for a glance at the consequences.
Psychologically, the U.N. has contributed a great deal to the gray swamp of demoralization—of cynicism, bitterness, hopelessness, fear and nameless guilt—which is swallowing the Western world. But the communist world has gained a moral sanction, a stamp of civilized respectability from the Western world—it has gained the West's assistance in deceiving its victims—it has gained the status and prestige of an equal partner, thus establishing the notion that the difference between human rights and mass slaughter is merely a difference of political opinion.

"Why is Qaddafi on the Human Rights Council?"
UN Human Rights Council, 15th Session
Testimony by Mohamed Eljahmi on behalf of Freedom House
Organized by UN Watch
Geneva, 20 September 2010

Mr. President,

This Council was created with the promise to elect countries that promote and protect human rights.

We ask: Does the UN’s election of Libya live up to this promise?

For me, this question is not academic. My late brother, Fathi Eljahmi, was a heroic dissident in Libya.

Under the rule of Mr. Qadhafi, membership in political parties or independent labor unions are crimes punishable by death. The fulfillment of citizens’ needs is tied to their absolute loyalty to Mr. Qadhafi.

Ordinary Libyans are accountable to a vast security apparatus. Their actions are scrutinized by Orwellian institutions, punishable by ruthless death squads.

Despite the danger, my brother Fathi chose to speak out for free speech and human rights. He was a courageous man. He was also my mentor and a father figure. He was an unconditionally loving and generous husband, son, and brother. Fathi was blessed with a great mind and a passion for equality and justice.

In 2002, he publicly set out his vision for a constitution, free speech, free enterprise, and an investigation into the massacre of 1200 prisoners at Abu Slim.

As a result, the government imprisoned Fathi for 17 months, until then-Senator Biden, who is now the US Vice President, interceded on his behalf. As soon as he was released, Fathi again spoke out for freedom and human rights. Two weeks later, he was sent back to prison, and subjected to five years of intense torture and isolation, leading to his death on May 21, 2009.

My family asks: When will this council establish an international investigation into my brother’s imprisonment, torture and death?

Why is the government of Mr. Qadhafi, which tortured and killed my brother—and which is one of the world’s worst violators of human rights—now an elected member of the UN Human Rights Council?

When will this council do the right thing, and stand with the Libyan people, to defend their human rights?

Thank you, Mr. President.

Human Rights Council, 15th Session

Agenda Item 3: Promotion and protection of all human rights, civil,
political, economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to development

Delivered by Kristyana Valcheva

16 September 2010

Mr. President,

I would first like to thank you for your commitment to hearing the voices of victims.

Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees that “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.”

Yet around the world, we see these crimes being committed with impunity.

For example, the UN General Assembly has expressed very serious concern about torture in North Korea.

Another example is Iran, where political prisoners are subjected to mistreatment, including those in the notorious Evin prison.

Finally, there is the example of my own suffering—from a government that now takes a seat on this Council.

I am a nurse from Bulgaria. In 1999, I was working in Benghazi, Libya. On February 9 of that year I and five others were abducted, framed on false charges, imprisoned, and brutally tortured.

For the first fourteen months they kept us at a school for police dogs. We were subjected to barbaric torture, humiliation and mockery.

They stretched me at a window frame and beat me with sticks and cables. Night after night, they forced us to stand on one leg with our hands raised. If anyone tried to put her second leg on the floor out of exhaustion, she would be beaten mercilessly.

They beat us over the soles of our feet, and then made us run with our feet swollen and black of beating, with blood flowing from them. They injected me with drugs, undressed me totally naked, and tied me to a metal bed. And then the worst started —inquisition by electrical shock. The pain was devastating.

They tried to destroy us physically, mentally and morally. We were hostages for eight and a half years. We have never received an apology or compensation for our suffering.

Mr. President, I ask: When will this Council take action to end impunity?

Thank you, Mr. President.

By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press

Sunday, 1 August 2010

The swift entry into force of a new international convention banning cluster bombs today highlights "the world's collective revulsion at these abhorrent weapons," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.

Having the treaty become international law just over two years after its adoption also highlights "the power of collaboration among governments, civil society and the United Nations to change attitudes and policies on a threat faced by all humankind," he said in a statement.

"Such cooperation will be crucial as we seek now to implement the convention, including through assistance to victims," the UN chief said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

The UN has put a lot of other people’s money into the World Expo being held in Shanghai, China. It has also built a 32,000 square-foot pavilion with a theme of “One Earth, One United Nations,” to showcase ‘…the positive image of the UN family, and allow visitors to know our objectives, missions and activities.’

And the UN has nothing but praise for the Chinese government’s efforts in hosting the event:
‘I would now like to conclude with a special word of appreciation to the Government of the People’s Republic of China, and the city of Shanghai, for accommodating the UN system here, and for making the dream of a wonderful Expo a reality that just takes the breath away!’ said Dr. Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka an Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Human Settlements Programme.

Meanwhile, a coalition of 38 human rights groups are claiming that the Chinese government pushed 18,000 families from their homes to gain the land required for the expo. ‘Many of the evicted have since been detained by the Chinese government. Others are kept under close surveillance and intimidated into silence,’ they say.

The World exposition, whose motto is “Better Cities, Better Life,” ends in October.

The damaging and highly personal charges were made by Inga-Britt Ahlenius, a Swedish auditor who until last week served as the UN undersecretary general of the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which is meant to keep the fight against internal fraud and corruption alive. They appeared in an end-of-assignment report to Mr Ban...

Poisoned pen

Extracts from Inga-Britt Ahlenius's 50-page memo to Ban Ki-moon:

* Is the United Nations now on the right path, more transparent, more accountable?... In spite of all your good intentions pronounced in these respects, my answer to this question is regrettably: No

* There is no transparency, there is lack of accountability. Rather than supporting the internal oversight which is the sign of strong leadership and good governance, you have strived to control it which is to undermine its position. I do not see any signs of reform in the organisation.

* I regret to say that the Secretariat now is in a process of decay. It is not only falling apart into silos – the Secretariat is drifting, to use the words of one of my senior colleagues. It is drifting into irrelevance.

* The weakening of the Secretariat and its position in the eyes of Member States also translates into a weakening of the overall position of the United Nations, a reduced relevance of the organisation.

* Is there any improvement in general of our capacity to protect the civilians in conflict and distress? What relevance do we have in disarmament, in Myanmar, Darfur, Afghanistan, Cyprus, G20....?

* I am concerned that we are in a process of decline and reduced relevance of the organisation. In short - we seem to be seen less and less as a relevant partner in the resolution of world problems.

* This inevitably risks weakening the United Nations' possibilities to fulfil its mandate. Ultimately that is to the detriment of peace and stability in the world. This is sad as it is serious.

http://www.independent.co.uk/n...

"Let me quote a song that a group of children on a school bus in Israel sing merrily as they go to school: `With my teeth I will rip your flesh, with my mouth I will suck your blood,' said Syrian diplomat Rania Al Rifaiy, when addressing the UN Huma Rights Council.

"Hatred is widespread, taught to even small children, who are taught to use weapons, and who are taught to sign missiles that will be fired at Arabs," Al Rifaiy said

She also accused Israel of being a state "built on hatred, discrimination, oppression and a paranoid feeling of superiority."
That statement wasn’t challenged by the representative of any country. Yet, the council’s president rebuked Canada for the use of the word ‘regime’ during their condemnation of human rights abuses in Iran, Myanmar and North Korea.

Council members were told "not to use such language" when referring to UN member states.

3 June 2010 – 'Philanthropists and private foundations are playing an increasing role in providing development aid to poor countries, a senior United Nations official said today.'

Sha Zukang, Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, told a high-level symposium in Helsinki, Finland, that philanthropists, foundations and other types of non-profit organizations are clearly “serious players that can help us achieve our goals, including the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals).”

Sha Zukang, ignoring the fact that the bloated UN is going to fail to achieve almost all of its Millennium Development Goals, isn't prepared to let private foundations just get on with it, though. Rather he seeks UN control over this new aid.

Newer participants need to be “better integrated into the overall development cooperation architecture to enhance coherence,” he waffled.

Democracy comprised of scoundrels results in scoundrels running the show.

We should have no part in the con game.

Libya has just won a seat on the United Nations' Human Rights Council. They required 97 votes to be elected. They received 155.

The US refused to say how it voted although their Ambassador to the UN, Susan Rice, did manage the piss-weak comment that the council 'remains flawed.'

And before voting in the secret ballot she also said: "It's fair to say that this year, there is a small number of countries whose human rights records is problematic that are likely to be elected and we regret that. I'm not going to sit here and name names. I don't think it's particularly constructive at this point. But it's obvious which countries that are on the ballot have more problematic human rights records than others."

Joining Libya as new council members are Angola, Mauritania, Qatar, Malaysia, Uganda, Thailand, Ecuador, Moldova, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, Maldives and Guatemala.

11 May 2010 – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) launched a major online drive today to spur action to eliminate hunger and highlight the fact that one in six people worldwide go hungry everyday.

Through the “1billionhungry project” people can voice their outrage about world hunger by adding their names to an online petition. The campaign uses a yellow whistle as an icon encouraging people to blow the whistle against this global scourge.
“We should be extremely angry for the outrageous fact that that our fellow human beings continue to suffer from hunger,” said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf.

“If you feel the same way, I want you to voice that anger. All of you, rich and poor, young and old, in developing and developed countries, express your anger about world hunger by adding your names to the global 1billion hungry petition” Mr. Diouf said.

“We who support the petition find it unacceptable that one in six people are chronically hungry. Through the United Nations, we call upon governments to make the elimination of hunger their top priority until the goal is reached,” the message reads.

In just one day nearly sixty thousand people have signed the online petition. That’s 60,000 whiners seeking to convince incompetent governments to flog more of other-people’s-money, so that it can be given to the even more incompetent and corrupt UN, for distribution to still more incompetent and corrupt despots of the Third World. That this scheme doesn’t and won’t work seemingly bothers none of them; they’d prefer to just keep asking for more cash.

Those dirty, rotten UN bastards. Just when you thought that they couldn’t possibly stoop any lower, along comes the news that Libya (officially, the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya) is set to represent Africa on the Human Rights Council.

"At a time when the ranks of African democracies are growing, it sends a terrible message to the world that a notorious human rights abuser such as Libya appears uncontested on the ballot," says Thomas Melia, deputy executive director of Freedom House. Libya is, according to Freedom House, one of the world’s nine most repressive countries.

The barbarians of Qatar, Angola, Malaysia and Mauritania, also seem certain to receive the support of the UN General Assembly and join Libya on the council when elections are held next week.

Iran quietly dropped its bid to represent Asia at the United Nations Human Rights Council a few days ago. It seems that despite the mongrels of the UN having already allowed entry to the likes of Cuba, China and Saudi Arabia, even they could see that Iran would be one evil step too far.

Tehran’s foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast was unfazed, however. Iran will seek a place at the table of a major international women’s rights organization, and “... all Asian countries will support our membership,” he said. That just had to be face-saving talk, surely?

After all, a recent report noted ‘that Iranian women face discrimination even in the administration of some of the most controversial shari’a punishments, such as stoning for adultery. The law provides that a victim of stoning is allowed to go free if he or she escapes,’ the report said. ‘It is much harder for women to escape, as they are buried to their necks, whereas men are buried only to their waists.’

Ramin Mehmanparast’s claim wasn’t idle talk, though. This from Fox News:

NEW YORK — Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged "immodest."
Just days after Iran abandoned a high-profile bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, it began a covert campaign to claim a seat on the Commission on the Status of Women, which is "dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women," according to its website.
Buried 2,000 words deep in a U.N. press release distributed Wednesday on the filling of "vacancies in subsidiary bodies," was the stark announcement: Iran, along with representatives from 10 other nations, was "elected by acclamation," meaning that no open vote was requested or required by any member states — including the United States.

In response to a plea by the United Nations Special Envoy for Malaria, World Bank President Robert Zoellick has promised $200 million dollars to buy mosquito nets for the people of sub-Saharan Africa.

“Bed nets are vital to protect people from this terrible disease. We know they work. All that is needed is more money,” said Zoellick.

That’s bullshit; if money is all that is needed then why haven’t the billions-of-dollars already spent done so little to knock out malaria? The UN, though, would have you believe that progress has been dramatic: based on mathematical modelling, more than 10 million children were saved from malaria thanks to bed nets, they claim.

That’s bogus. The UN’s modelling is based on the numbers of nets and the amount of medicine that the UN buys rather than on how many people eventually end up using the supplies.

"These are meaningless input measures that tell us only (the UN) is effective at spending other people's money," said Philip Stevens, a health-policy expert at the London think tank International Policy Network.

The truth is that the United Nations continues to spend truckloads of money for supplies but simply has no idea- or doesn’t care- what happens to the nets and medicine once they reach their destination. Often in Uganda the central warehouse has plenty of malaria drugs but clinics throughout the country have none. "They had no trucks to deliver anything," said one aid worker. And if they are not sitting gathering dust, often they are simply stolen; three officials who headed the Ugandan’s malaria programme were recently arrested for thieving drugs and embezzlement.

William Easterly who spent 16 years as a research economist at the World Bank agrees that far too few people in need receive the bed nets because of theft and distribution problems. And even if they do get them, often they either don’t use them- 40% of Zambians who received free bed nets don’t - or sometimes they are used for other purposes such as wedding veils or fishing nets, Easterly said.

Contrast that to a scheme set up by an organisation called Population Services International (PSI) which saw the rate of under-fives and pregnant women sleeping under bed nets rise from 8% to 55% in just 4 years. PSI doesn’t give nets away; it sells them (at a subsidized price) through antenatal clinics in Malawi. Of course the women who part with their own cash value the nets and use them and the clinics are always ‘in stock’ because the nurses receive a cut of every sale. And to pay for the subsidized nets PSI sells to wealthy Malawians using the free market.

It’s also worth noting that many people working on malaria control believe that too much emphasis is placed on bed nets and that what is really needed is a return to those proven tools- pesticides. That’s unlikely to happen, though:

‘... convincing donors to pay for pesticide spraying is a harder sell than bed nets, especially with strong lobbying from environmentalists calling for reduced pesticide use,’ said Richard Tren, director of Africa Fighting Malaria, an Africa and US-based advocacy group.

The UN has proudly announced that. ‘…35 qualifying countries have received, or are expected to receive, debt relief totaling $57 billion under the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) initiative and $23 billion in additional debt relief under the MDR initiative.’

That’s $80 billion of dodgy loans made by the World Bank and the IMF that have to be written off because they couldn’t correctly assess whether they would ever get the money back. The debt forgiveness is supposed to be a one-time solution but of course it doesn’t end up that way. Instead, forgiving the debt wipes the slate clean, and new, still-more ridiculous loans are made. That’s partly because both organizations have shown a complete inability to forecast what the debt forgiveness would do for the HIPCs GDP growth; the 2% average growth actually achieved falls far short of their wildly optimistic forecasts of 4%. (In fact, if population increases are included, growth per person is pretty much zero)

Quite why the World Bank and the IMF keep making that mistake is odd; if the original loan didn’t deliver growth returns that allowed the money to be paid back then why do they expect debt relief and then new loans to help? Of course the recipients of loans become less and less fussed about paying back them back- they can squander the cash and then be forgiven.

‘The UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Cambodia today unveiled a training course seeking to boost the Southeast Asians ability to harness ICT to promote development. The four-day workshop opened today in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, and drew 50 top policy-makers to examine ways to enhance awareness and bolster knowledge of the effective use of ICTs for sustainable socio-economic development.’

What a load of nonsense! The best way to promote ICT development is to increase access. And that requires little more than government getting the hell out of the way and allowing private enterprise to get on with it. And private enterprise has been doing just that; a flood of Internet and cell phone service providers have entered the Cambodian market and increased access whilst driving down prices.

Problem is though, just as things are starting to look promising, the Cambodian government is stepping in. Just a few weeks ago, for example, Hun Sen demanded that cell phone companies increase their prices. Intense competition and low call-rates per minute were likely to drive some companies to the wall, claimed the PM. No prizes for guessing that those at risk companies are owned by senior government figures.

More sinister is the Cambodian government’s plan to control all local Internet providers by implementing a state-run exchange point operated by the state-owned company, Telecom Cambodia. The exchange point would allow the government to censor any material critical of them.

“If any Web site attacks the government, or any Web site displays inappropriate images such as pornography, or it’s against the principle of the government, we can block all of them. If TC plays the role of the exchange point, it will benefit Cambodian society because the government has trust in us, and we can control Internet consumption,” said Chin Daro, TC's deputy director.

Cambodian authorities are refusing to say how much the UN is paying for the four-day workshop. And the UN has been silent on government meddling despite knowing it will achieve the exact opposite results that they claim to be seeking.

“The UNHRC failed to adopt any resolution, special session or investigative mandate for Belarus, China, Cuba, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Laos, Libya, Morocco, North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan or Zimbabwe—all on Freedom House’s list of the 20 world’s worst abusers,’ reported UN Watch recently.

That is, not a single resolution came forth from the council to protest human right breaches by the governments of the countries above. Governments that were clearly carrying out political arrests and arbitrary detentions, torture, extra judicial killings, suppression of the media and freedom of speech, repression of religious minorities, conscription of child-soldiers and forced labour and forced prostitution. Not one resolution.

They did, however, manage a ‘why bother’ crack at Burma when they ‘…strongly urged the Government of Myanmar to desist from further politically motivated arrests, to release without delay and without conditions all political prisoners.’ Concerned though, that the butchers of Burma may have taken offense at such language the Council also ‘…noted with appreciation the cooperation of the Government of Myanmar with the international community including the United Nations…’

The Sudanese received the same limp-wristed response to its appalling human rights record; the Council expressed its ‘deep concern at the overall situation of human rights in Sudan,’ whilst simultaneously acknowledging some sort of invisible ‘progress,’ by the Sudanese government.

The UNHRC isn’t completely inactive though: since 2006, it has doled out 27 resolutions criticizing Israel.

None of this should be any great surprise I guess, despite a United Nations General Assembly resolution that says countries should be elected to the Human Rights Council on the basis of their human rights records. In fact of the 47 countries that make up the Council, the 24 countries named by Freedom House as either 'not free' or 'partly free' outnumber the 23 countries considered 'free.'

And don’t look for guidance from the UN’s Human Rights High Commissioner, either. Navi Pillay has occupied that position since 2008 and she has directly criticized 25 countries considered ‘free’ by Freedom House. Yet in that time she has managed to rebuke just 14 countries with a Freedom House rating of ‘not free’ and only 9 with a ‘partly free’ rating. Pillay hasn’t said a word against the governments of another 34 ‘not free’ and 50 'partly free' countries.

* So Lindsay, who won the competition.

The UN describes the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as its ‘leading agency for information and communication technology issues.’

And what an organization the ITU appears to be if its two latest ‘no kidding’ press releases reflect its work.

‘Communications prices falling worldwide, UN reports.’
‘Robust demand for mobile services will continue, UN agency predicts.’

Christ, does anyone at all think that there is a trend of rising communication prices? And is anyone at all shocked by the news that demand for mobile services will continue?

What was the cost of this ITU report is anyone’s guess and certainly they’re not telling. And, while it’s too much to expect your average UN bozo to understand that telecommunication research is best left to private enterprise, surely we could expect that even UN idiots could see the ridiculousness of such releases? Obviously not.

Unfortunately there is much more to the ITU than such nonsense. They too are part of the UN’s campaign for a range of ‘fundamental rights.’ In this case it’s everyone’s ‘fundamental right to communicate.’
‘It is our task to ensure that people around the world can communicate with each other in an efficient, safe, easy and affordable manner,’ says the agency.

The ITU is, naturally, paying particular attention to technology and its role in climate change and to the rights of the disabled and the poor to communication tools. So expect some sort of new scheme to deliver reduced carbon footprint laptops with wireless capability to cripples in Chad, sometime soon.

“We should be able to learn from lessons past so that things will be better in the future,” said the Secretary-General of UNCTAD, Supachai Panitchpakdi at yet another conference on the economic development of the so-called Least Developed Countries. (LDCs)

Learning from the past seems unlikely; these UN folk are either stubbornly close-minded on the issue of foreign aid, or retarded. Probably they are both. After all the UN began naming LDCs in 1971 and since that time the category has almost doubled to 49 countries. All that time, all those countries and all that money- you would think that the UN would have learnt a thing or two about economic development, wouldn’t you?

But it’s just not so. After nearly 40 years of receiving UN policy analysis, research, ‘expertise’ and cash by the truckload, just two countries have managed to pull themselves up and away from LDC status. Just two! What a rort.

The UN’s final report on the Human Right’s situation in Iran will be released shortly. Expect nothing more than faint tut-tutting.

Meanwhile the UN’s Special Rapporteur, Raquel Rolnik, is preparing a report on where the most odious breaches of human rights can be found; within the US housing market.

Rapporteur Rolnik’s role is to investigate whether people are adequately housed. She’s due to present her report on the US housing situation to the Human Rights Council next month.

Rolnik reports that ‘…the number of homeless continues to rise,’ in the US although she is ‘pleased to note that the new US administration is thinking critically and broadly to confront and solve the affordable housing crisis in the country, reversing years of budget cuts and proposing large additional budgetary resources to housing.’ However, ‘a wider range of permanent options for affordable housing, particularly for the most vulnerable, is required,’ she said.

How damning her report is remains to be seen, but no matter what, expect it to create more heat at the Human Rights Council than the upcoming statement on Iran will.

Yesterday the 47-nation UN Human Rights council conducted a review of Iran’s human right’s record. Here’s a brief summary from 'UN Watch' that shows just how fucked-up the UN really is.

Pakistan, Cuba, and Lebanon spoke out to commend Iran’s commitment to Human Rights. Pakistan noted, “We should acknowledge that no country in the world can claim a blemish-free human rights record.”

Libya also praised Iran and the ‘impartiality’ of its judiciary.

China claimed that the Iranian government clearly “places great importance and commitment to human rights that led to great progress in health, education and the protection of economic, social and cultural rights.”

Nicaragua expressed solidarity with Iran as “a victim of the same oppressors.”

Kazakhstan said, “Iran has always been a model of a free society.”

Algeria criticized politicization of the UN review procedure, saying that Western nations demanded “development that took the West decades.”

The Iranians sent Mohammad Javad Ardashir Larijani to defend their record. He’s the Secretary General of Iran’s High Council for Human Rights and the same man that called Obama a ‘Ka Ka Siah’ ( Farsi for nigger) in a recent speech.

Among Larijani’s claims were that, ‘ All Iranian citizens enjoy equal rights, and color and race constitute no immunity,” and that “Iran is becoming one of the prominent democratic countries in the region.”

At the conclusion of Larijani’s speech the room applauded.

The bitch is back.

“The crisis presents an opportunity either to initiate or to broaden existing social protection programmes. Measures which could be considered include school feeding programmes cash and in-kind transfers to the most vulnerable and cash-for-work programmes,” said UN Development Programme (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark in her keynote address to the Human Face of the Global Economic Crisis Pacific Conference, held in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

Miss Clark said that while such measures were not cost free, the evidence suggested that they can have results which go beyond the temporary alleviation of suffering.

What evidence would that be?

Jean Ziegler was elected to the UN’s Human Rights Council Advisory Committee in March 2008. Ziegler was by far the highest-polling candidate; he was approved by 40 of the 47 members eligible to vote.

Ziegler joined the United Nation's gravy train soon after being dumped as a Socialist M.P. in the Swiss Parliament. His first UN job, in the year 2000, was that of ‘Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food,’ a newly created, Cuban-sponsored position. Undoubtedly the Cubans favoured Ziegler taking the role because of his long-expressed admiration for Castro, and for Che Guevara, who he personally chauffeured around Geneva back in 1964.

Ziegler wasn’t much interested in the mundane world of food though; rather he used his position within the UN to attack the US, Israel and the West in general. Most of the world’s problems could be laid at the feet of ‘American imperialism and its guilty arrogance,’ Ziegler said. In 2005 Ziegler claimed that the US was guilty of committing ‘genocide’ against Cuba and, again in 2005, he likened Israeli soldiers to ‘concentration camp guards.’

Robert Mugabe, however was treated more kindly: ‘He has history and morality with him,’ said Ziegler. He also backed Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy; he sent Garaudy a signed letter of support in 1996; and he backed Saddam Hussein who Ziegler believed should have been offered asylum in Switzerland.

Muammar Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi and Jean Ziegler are also friends from a long way back. ‘I visited Gaddafi once or twice a year just to have discussions, personal discussions,’ the UN’s Human Rights Council Advisory Committee member said. The strength of this relationship was demonstrated when Ziegler announced to the world the launching of the sick joke that is the ‘Gaddafi International Prize for Human Rights.’ A Gaddafi gong was seen as a counterweight to the Nobel Peace Prize which was, said Ziegler, ‘a perpetual humiliation to the third world.’ Previous Gaddafi Prize winners include such human right luminaries as Hugo Chavez, Mahathir bin Mohamad, Fidel Castro and Ziegler himself.

Jean Ziegler’s term on the Human Rights Advisory Committee expires in 2012.

(So no one up for the $50 then?)

The United Nations General Assembly has proclaimed 2010 the ‘International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures.”

UNESCO and its Director-General Irina Bokova have been charged with the task of overseeing a plethora of events as the UN strives to ‘…help dissipate any confusion stemming from ignorance, prejudice and exclusion that create tension, insecurity, violence and conflict,’ Nothing less that a ‘new humanism’ is required, says Bokova.

During the year UNESCO hopes to propel us all towards this ‘new humanism’ through a series of galas, festivals, forums and talk fests.This special year began with the exciting news that UNESCO was holding a ‘Culture Counts: Poster competition.’ Meanwhile the official launch of the ‘Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures’ is set for February 18 when a ‘expert panel’ convenes for a roundtable discussion on “The Dialogue of Cultures: New Avenues for Peace.” Barf.

Other highlights should include the presentation of the Sharjah Arab Culture Prize and the gala evening to celebrate the ‘Rapprochement of Cultures through the Performing Arts.’ The ‘Presentation of an African-American/American dance performance dealing with issues of memory, history and contemporary African and diasporic African identity,’ is also sure to bring about a tiptoeing towards everlasting peace and an outpouring of ‘new humanism.’ As will the ‘Festival of Cultural Diversity,’ the ‘Annual International Youth Creative Summer Camp’ and the Drum Café’s ‘2010 Peace Festival/Conference.’ And surely ‘Art camp 2010’ a gathering of artists from across the globe who seek to ‘encourage cooperation and mutual understanding amongst people through painting, gastronomy and music,’ is not to be missed. Or, if needlework is more your thing, then consider the ‘International Handicraft Festival on Dialogue of Cultures.’

For ‘new humanists’ and fans of film there is a showing of the UNESCO documentary on its ‘contribution to the dialogue between cultures,’ and Tunisia is hosting the 5th edition of the International Documentary Film Festival. And any ‘new humanists’ worthy of that name, will surely have an interest in nomads. For those folk there is the International conference on “Cultural Heritage & Diversity of the Nomads” and a presentation from the International Institute for the Study of Nomadic Civilizations.

More weighty and wordy affairs should be found at the Forum of Religious Leaders International Conference on ‘History, Memory and the Rapprochement of Cultures,’ and the International Conference on ‘Music as a Factor in the Rapprochement of Cultures.’ Consider, too, the Third Forum of the Alliance of Civilizations which proposes to invite UNESCO to organize an activity to be included in the programme of the Forum showcasing its “acquis” in the field of promotion of intercultural dialogue.’ Or something.

This 'Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures' deserves serious consideration. After all the UN seeks nothing less than to correct your '...flawed cultural representations, values and stereotypes.'

Ali Hassan al-Majid, the "Butcher of Kurdistan" or “Chemical Ali”-take your pick- was finally hanged on 25 January 2010. Just a week later, a woman who had earlier protected Al-Majid from UN scrutiny, presided over the UN’s Advisory Committee on Human Rights.

Back in 1987 the Butcher ordered his forces to "…kill any human being or animal present ..." in Kurdish-populated areas of Iraq. A year later more than 180,000 Kurds had been murdered, mostly by the use of chemical weapons, and 1.5 million more had been deported.

The '1st September 1988 Session of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights' met to discuss the situation in Iraq and drafted a resolution.
Part of that resolution read as follows:

‘Deeply concerned also by persistent and reliable reports of the use of prohibited chemical weapons by the Government of Iraq against civilian populations, including their use against the population of the Iraqi town of Halabja on 16 and 17 March 1988…[The UN] Urges the Government of Iraq to ensure full respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and to immediately halt the use of prohibited chemical weapons.’

Mrs. Halima Warzazi (Morocco) moved that no decision be taken on that draft resolution. She won; the decision to make no decision was successful by 11 votes to 8. It is Warzazi who has just taken her turn as chair of the UN’s Human Rights Advisory Committee. The previous chair was Mr. Miguel Alfonso Martinez of Cuba- Martinez voted with Warzazi in 1988 to ignore the actions of the Butcher of Kurdistan

Despite having proven itself as hopelessly incompetent, corrupt and impotent, one would surely have expected that even the UN would have roused itself into some sort of strong response to September 11. Or, if a strong response was too much to expect then wouldn’t UN members at least pay lip service to the idea that coordinated action against terrorism was required?

Well no. While its true the UN did establish a special Al Qaeda committee, just 93 of the 191 UN members could be bothered sending reports that required no more than basic information about what they were currently doing to fight terrorism. That pitiful result was despite the begging of the committee chairman: “We need member states to deliver appropriate information to our committee,” and we need them to "…improve the quality of information," he said.

On February 18, 2004 this UN committee invited members to a briefing on how they believed Al Qaeda could best be tackled; just 70 nations could muster a representative. The UN committee pushed on and offered members a chance to attend individual meetings, ‘for more in-depth discussions.’ How many took that opportunity? Not one.

And three years after the Security Council’s travel ban on anyone associated with the Taliban or Al Qaeda had been implemented, not one country reported a breach of that ban. That not one person from the Taliban or Al Qaeda had crossed an international border is, of course, ridiculous.

The UN also set up the Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC); it took more than two years to be ready to tackle its task and for its full complement of just 41 employees to arrive. That’s because, claimed the United Nations Association of the United States of America (UNA-USA), it ‘was established with no funding line, and the zero growth cap on UN budgets make it doubtful that it will have much staffing.’ So despite a multitude of ineffective, cumbersome committees, forums, working groups, commissions, funds and agencies, the UN refused to provide the CTC with the resources that it needed.

Not that too much could have been expected from the CTC even if it was fully-funded. “The Counter-Terrorism Committee emphatically insists it is not an enforcement body. It doesn’t threaten states for non-compliance and it doesn’t sanction them,” said UNA-USA. The CTC is then, little more than a monitoring group.

The UN also created the 1540 Committee following the UN’s adoption in April 2004 of Resolution 1540 which obliged States to ‘refrain from supporting by any means non-State actors from developing, acquiring, manufacturing, possessing, transporting, transferring or using nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their delivery systems.’ Two years later 62 nations had failed to respond in any way to the 1540 committee’s request for information and another 83 countries had provided responses that were incomplete.

Hat Tip: “The U.N. Exposed,” Eric Shawn, 2006

31 January 2010 – 'The top United Nations political official is set to kick off a four-nation visit to East Asia in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), according to a statement attributable to the spokesperson for the Secretary-General released today. The DPRK will be the first stop for Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs B. Lynn Pascoe on the tour, which will also take him to China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK).'

Likely Pascoe will say of Kim Jong-il: "He's a man I can do business with."

The 3-day, 14th African Union Summit kicked off yesterday. And with member countries ravaged by poverty, disease, violence, corruption, dictators, stupidity and superstition; and with states such as Zimbabwe, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Sudan and Somalia within the Union’s ranks you would think that they would have any number of vital matters to discuss.

No chance. In fact, with two days still to go, you can bet that all we need to know about this crap-continent conference and the intentions of its attendees for real change can be found in the Union’s first Summit press release:

‘The African Union today unveiled its new flag at its 14th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government taking place in Addis Ababa. To tunes of the AU anthem, the new flag was hoisted by the outgoing Chairperson of the African Union, Brother Leader Muammar El Gaddafi, leader of the Libyan Revolution, Great Socialist People’s Libyan Jamahiriya.’

Oh and Ban Ki-moon promised Africa another $100 billion or so, for something or other…

Sadly, despite this example and many others, most of the world still believes that bowing and scraping to madmen is admirable.

Including the anarcho-Saddamite wing of libertarianism.

It's worth remembering Kofi Annan's February 1998 trip to Iraq to grovel at the feet of Saddam Hussein and plead for a resumption of UN weapon inspections.

Kofi Annan to the Yale UN Oral History Project:
"About an hour into the meeting President Saddam Hussein excused himself and said he had to go outside and pray. And so he left and went and prayed and came back, and that was the first time I've been in a meeting where someone has left me to go and pray and then come back, so that was unusual... He did come back in to continue the discussion, and then as things calmed down and as the talks continued and they began to be more relaxed- a bit more relaxed, he offered me a cigar. He took one. So we continued our discussions in a very direct and professional manner."

"Like a peace pipe?" asked the interviewer.
"A peace pipe, yes," said Annan.

And with that an agreement was reached for the resumption of weapon inspections.
Annan then shook Saddam's hand and proclaimed:

"He's a man I can do business with."

The Secretary-General was greeted as a hero by UN staff upon his return.
Just six months later, perhaps to the surprise of no one except UN staffers, Saddam reneged on the deal and mocked the UN by kicking the UN's inspectors out of Iraq.

Sadly, despite this example and many others, most of the world still believes that bowing and scraping to madmen is admirable.

'The situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran'
~Report of the Secretary-General to The UN General Assembly, September 2009.

'I note that the authorities have taken some positive steps, for instance to prevent stonings or limit the application of the death penalty to juveniles. I am concerned, however, that they have not been enforced.'

Eh?

'A LOCAL rights group [Human Rights Watch] says it has proof that UNICEF resources have been used to transport illegally detained children to a controversial drug rehabilitation centre accused of human rights abuses.'

~Phnom Penh Post 28 January 2010

That proof seems solid- the group has photos- but UNICEF is so far refusing to comment. Human Rights Watch also claim that they met with UNICEF in September 2009 to express concerns that the government run, so-called rehabilitation centre, that UNICEF supports, was beating and illegally detaining kids with drug addictions. UNICEF failed to act. The van used to transport the kids is sign written 'Provided with the support of UNICEF and the EC,' and 'Child-friendly justice system.'

‘Psychologically, the U.N. has contributed a great deal to the gray swamp of demoralization- of cynicism, bitterness, hopelessness, fear and nameless guilt- which is swallowing the Western world. But the communist world has gained a moral sanction, a stamp of civilized respectability from the Western world- it has gained the West’s assistance in deceiving it victims- it has gained the status and prestige of an equal partner, thus establishing the notion that the difference between human rights and mass slaughter is merely a difference of political opinion.’

‘The declared goal of the communist countries is the conquest of the world. What they stand to gain from a collaboration with the (relatively) free countries is the latter’s material, financial, scientific, and intellectual resources; the free countries have nothing to gain from the communist countries. Therefore, the only form of common policy or compromise possible between two such parties is the policy of property owners who make piecemeal concessions to an armed thug in exchange for his promise not to rob them.’

~Ayn Rand
“The Anatomy of Compromise,” Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal

"Your sole mission there is to go with a knife between your teeth and get anything and everything that you can get your hands on. That's how they send them. With a knife between their teeth. Go and get everything! Rape, pillage and plunder. I'm still disappointed."

An unnamed foreign diplomat speaking to UN correspondent, Eric Shawn.

The World Health Organization through, its ‘Expert Working Group on Research and Development Financing,’ is exploring new ways of grabbing more cash. WHO, untroubled that their frequent billion-dollar spends have achieved bugger-all, are asking for more money rather than analyzing where it has all gone wrong.

Among the recommendations of the ‘Expert Group’ is for a 10% tax on weapon trading. That, they estimate would haul in about $5 billion per-year. The group also hopes that more governments will legislate for the so-called ‘Solidarity Contribution’ levy; that’s a tax on airline tickets that has so far been introduced into 13 countries including Britain and France. WHO has raised $1 billion from ‘Solidarity Contributions.’

That’s all small beer to WHO, though. Another of their proposals is for a world-wide digital tax- how this would be implemented isn’t clear- but because “Internet traffic is huge and likely to increase rapidly; this tax could yield tens of billions of US dollars from a broad range of users,” said the group.

The working group also salivated over the idea of a financial transaction tax and noted that a levy on online bill payments and major withdrawals had- until the legislation was voted out- raised $20 billion per-year for the Brazilian government.

Should any of these proposals be implemented you can bet there will be plenty of opposition. But that's unlikely to worry the UN. After all it will be individual, guilt-ridden governments that will have to bring in any new taxes- the UN stands apart from that process and the media and most citizens seem happy to allow that.

'The east side of midtown Manhattan, where a decent slum once stood, is blighted by the United Nations headquarters.'
~P.J. O'Rourke

UN News Centre
27 January 2010

“We need the same policy decisiveness that saved banks now applied to save and create jobs and livelihoods of people,” said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia, ahead of the annual World Economic Forum gathering in Davos, Switzerland.

Just ran into this quote and couldn't resist putting it here where it belongs.

The observers had a logbook recording the assaults, bombings, and artillery attacks on the area. Each page was ruled in vertical columns: DATE, TIME, LOCATION, DAMAGE, CASUALTIES. The columns headed ACTION TAKEN BY THE UN were completely empty.

From All the Trouble in the World. The Lighter Side of Overpopulation, Famine, Ecological Disaster, Ethnic Hatred, Plague and Poverty by PJ O'Rourke

Microfilm scanner

The Human Rights Council Advisory Committee continued their scintillating discussion on a draft declaration of human rights education and training on Tuesday afternoon.

JORGE M. DIAS FERREIRA, of New Humanity, lectured attendees on the importance of duty:
‘The principle of brotherhood created a duty, and its implementation was an essential element in dealing with human rights education. In the educational field, rights and duties were part and parcel of the same thing - even at a very early age it was necessary to teach responsibilities and duties that were necessary in living in society.’

LAZARO PARY, of the World Peace Council whined about the evil of private enterprise:
‘ The privatization of education could not be ignored. It was afflicting the most vulnerable groups including indigenous groups, pushing them towards poverty, exodus and widening the gap between the rich and the poor.’

KAZUNARI FUJII, of Soka Gakkai International, in a joint statement with International Organization for the Right to Education and Freedom of Education (OIDEL), undoubtedly with a lump in his throat and a tremor to his voice, hoped that:
‘Each individual young person upholding human rights and joining with others could create a line of networks protecting and promoting human rights that would eventually permeate the entire globe. Fujii then pulled himself together and made a strident call for the draft to have ‘…more orderly paragraphs and they should be better clustered to follow similar topics.’

ALFRED FERNANDEZ, of International Organization for the Right to Education and Freedom of Education (OIDEL), in a joint statement with Soka Gakkai International, informed the meeting that:
‘Common values like freedom and equality were fundamental and came under the tolerance umbrella.’

ESTEBAN TROMEL, of European Disability Forum, speaking on behalf of the European Disability Alliance, spoke for the need for the draft to include the rights of people with disabilities.

And finally, EMMANUEL DECAUX, Committee Member and Rapporteur of the Drafting Group, expressed his great pleasure that so many people had involved themselves in the drafting process and in true UN style said:
‘He had noted all proposals, and had been very encouraged by everything said.

The Human Rights Council has announced that it will hold a Special Session on “The Support of the Human Rights Council to the Recovery Process in Haiti after the Earthquake of January 12, 2010: a Human Rights Approach."

This special session won't help Haiti one bit; the Human Rights Council hasn't the budget or ability to deliver one single dollar of aid to Haiti.

“The session will neither feed nor heal a single Haitian victim. On the contrary, it will waste up to $200,000 in conference and translation costs that could have been used for vital aid,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch.

And while this Special Session could be seen as another hopeless, yet ultimately harmless UN exercise, Haiti is being used by some countries to take the focus off their own appalling human rights records.

“Unlike other UN bodies, the Human Rights Council has neither the power of the purse nor of the sword — only the power to turn a spotlight on the worst abusers,” said Neuer. “Yet instead of answering pleas for special sessions to try and stop Iran from massacring student protesters, China from arresting bloggers, or Cuba from beating dissidents, it will now convene to condemn the earth for quaking.”

Sadly, the United Kingdom and the United States were among the co-sponsors of the Special Session.

Egypt’s President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak was named the world’s 20th worst dictator of 2009. In 2008, he finally succumbed to international demands for local elections but made registration all-but impossible; voter turnout was 3%. Torture is common police practice in Egypt.

Yet Egypt was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) by the UN’s General Assembly in 2006.

In Saudi Arabia, study, travel, work and marriage are impossible for women unless they gain permission from a male. The Saudi king, King Abdullah was named the world’s 5th worst dictator of 2009.

That matters little to the UN; Saudi Arabia also sits on the UNHRC.

In China political opponents are often sent to “ Re-education Through Labor” camps without trial. Chinese President Hu Jintao took 6th place on the 2009 dictator list.

No problem to the UN; China was voted onto the council as one of the thirteen representatives of Asia.

According to Human Rights Watch, The Cuban government takes to International Human Rights Days with great gusto; it’s seen as a day for beating and arresting political opponents. Cuba’s President, Raul Castro makes the list of top 20 dictators- he sits in 13th place.

Cuba is one of the representatives of Latin America and the Caribbean states on the United Nations Human Right’s Council.

These countries sit alongside other great luminaries of Human Rights such as Cameroon - they boast the world’s 19th worst dictator- Russia, Brazil and Pakistan.

This happened a year ago, would be interesting to see if they ever addressed the problem...

Human rights worker with United Nations ties, Clarence Dias, caught with child pornography

"A high-ranking human rights worker with ties to the United Nations was nabbed at Kennedy Airport Tuesday with kiddie porn in his suitcase, officials said."

Clarence Dias, 65, president of the International Center for Law in Development, whose offices are located at the UN, had the smut in his carry-on bag as he passed through security on his way to a flight bound for Bangkok, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.

"Transportation Security Administration officials doing a random bag check around 8:20a.m. allegedly found a DVD whose cover featured an apparently underage nude boy and an adult male in Dias' handbag, prosecutors said.

"Dias...claimed the porn was for research, authorities said.

"He admitted it was his - but tried to play it off. He said he was doing research on how to better make sure kids' rights were not abused," a police source said. "Yeah, sure. It's always research."

"This is the latest sex scandal to roil the UN.

"The agency came under fire in 2002 for turning a blind eye to wide-scale sexual abuse of West African refugee children by its own aid workers and peacekeepers.

"UN workers from nine countries - including Britain and India - were accused of sexually exploiting children in dozens of refugee camps in war-torn Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the internal report found.

Dias was expected to be arraigned last night at Queens Criminal Court on felony charges of possessing an obscene sexual performance by a child. He could face up to four years in prison if convicted.

agendar@nydailynews.com

I think that the UN IPCC sponsored gravy train to these countries is going to be massive.

They've just decided they want the first £10bn promised at Copenhagen by the end of the year! It will exclude any oversight of where the money goes to either!

This fusion of socialism mixed in with comprador capitalism of so-called green companies under the auspices of a grand UN carbon trading scheme will make the current international aid corruption look like small potatoes!

Be very afraid!