The United Nations

Very few things bother me more than governments and their organizations’ disrespect for the people who are actually footing the bills that’d be us, the taxpayers.

Which brings me to the United Nations. Even though there are about 192 members nations of the UN, over 75% of its annual budget of billions of dollars is paid by only 10 nations. In fact, over FIFTY per cent of its annual budget is paid by only THREE countries. And yet, the UN has become a refuge for third world bureaucrats and is rife with corruption and waste.

You want to talk bureaucratic incompetence? Here’s one for you. Recently, the UN Under-Secretary General for Oversight Services and that title alone speaks volumes about the bureaucracy - tried to have Robert Appleton appointed her chief investigator to review inefficiency and worse. Appleton is a former US Federal Prosecutor, and was lead counsel on the oil-for-food scandal that sent billions of dollars to Saddam Hussein. So, he’s no rookie. But, the current UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon, intervened to prevent this appointment. His reasoning? Mr. Appleton did not meet the UN’s gender or geographical requirements. You get that! The US is expected to pay 22% of their operating costs but a highly-qualified American male is not acceptable in a position to investigate waste and corruption in this Organization headquartered in New York City.

I won’t deny the good that some UN entities do. And no, I don’t follow the playground mentality that “it’s my ball so I get to be captain and quarterback”. But you have to admit that is Mr. Ban’s decision is the very definition of political correctness run amok. It’s clear that the UN Secretariat is a joke. I didn’t like Kofi Annan, and I don’t like Mr. Ban. And that’s not just my opinion.

Here is a part of a letter from Inga-Britt Ahlenius, the Under Secretary General of Oversight Services who tried to hire Mr. Appleton as investigator, to Secretary General Ban.

Quote “There is no transparency, there is a lack of accountability. Rather than supporting internal oversight… 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 Organization. This is as sad as it is serious.” End of quote.

So what are you and I getting for our money? I am tired of my country running huge deficits, and having to raise taxes to finance them, while financially supporting corrupt, wasteful politicians and bureaucrats. I am tired of my foreign aid money going into Swiss bank accounts instead of helping the people for whom it was intended. The UN will not clean house. Heck they won’t even appoint an investigator to look into the dirt. So let’s stop giving them money and cushy jobs until they do.