Time to hold UN accountable for world’s poor

The living horror of Haiti could someday be turned around as a showcase for real hope and change for poverty stricken nations everywhere. The dignity and courage of the people of Haiti is coming through in the very worst of circumstances. Haiti could be the first nation to shake off the devastation of a 7-magnitude earthquake to live on in human memory as the country that spread a message the world needed to hear.

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It is the little people and their first responders who live the reality of a waking nightmare when disaster strikes and not the politicians and bureaucrats safe at their desks and in their beds at home. People who live through it know that grinding poverty will never be eradicated by politicians and UN delegates convening at summits and contemplating from afar how poor people live. Sending out YouTubes, primped with pearls (here); arriving on the scene of disaster by government jet when it is safe to do so and declaring presidents as Honorary Chairman as the Red Cross did by welcoming Barack Obama as theirs Jan. 20 2009 “on the historic occasion of his inauguration as our Nation’s 44th President”, saves face not lives. That’s politics. And it’s not politics but real life rescue workers clawing through the debris as they are today in Haiti that truly matters. It’s time to recognize that the UN arranged chinwags attended by presidents and world leaders in settings like Copenhagen two weeks before Christmas do ZERO for poor people whose only crime was being born in poverty-stricken countries. When some of the 193 UN member state leaders turned up for this year’s poverty summit, the only thing they proved was that sitting around flicking the ashes off their cigars with diamonded pinky fingers between meetings does diddly squat for the world’s poor. While unlike environmental activists the poor do not get to wave placards at the Pooh-bahs inside UN poverty summits, UN brass talk about only what they want to talk about. This year it was Global Warming and Environmental Protection Agency head Lisa Jackson’s formal announcement that carbon dioxide will be classified as a dangerous pollutant, a move destined to result in sweeping new regulatory authority for the EPA. Delegate dining was the kingly food fest washed down by fine wines it always is, and summit delegates were informed the same as last time that local prostitutes were there should any wish to avail themselves of this laid on extra. Since 2004, there has been a 9,000 strong UN “Peacekeeping Force” on the ground in Haiti. Not only have they been unable to have implemented the building codes that left Haiti as an earthquake waiting to happen, they have failed in six long years to wrest power from the few elite who hold it and divert needed funds to the local level. There must be scores of sincere UN peacekeepers in poor countries but they are dominated by the brass calling the shots. News reports indicate that in Haiti, the UN lost the most personnel in its history; that like everyone else the UN was trying to dig out the 36 still missing from the rubble of the earthquake and that’s why there wasn’t much of a UN presence to help out in the earthquake aftermath. Yet Hillary Clinton somehow got through today. This is what was going on at UN headquarters one day before the earthquake hit. “Wielding giant scissors, Secretary-General ban Ki-moon cut a ribbon Monday officially opening the $140 million temporary building that will house his office and host conferences during the renovation of the landmark UN headquarters complex.” (Associated Press, Jan. 11, 2010). Several hundred UN diplomats and staff were on hand for the opening, which the UN chief called “another milestone” in the five-year, $1.9 billion project to modernize the home of the world’s largest bureaucracy. “This is our down payment to ensuring a modern, energy efficient, and possibly the greenest 21st century Secretariat building for generations to come,” Ban said. For years average Haitians have needed a down payment on decent infrastructure that never came. How many Haitians were spending their last day alive when these words were spoken by Ban? Boasting how the temporary building on the north lawn including five large conference rooms, five smaller ones, four meeting rooms and offices for 272 U.N. staff under the administration of his top team, the UN’s head honcho emphasized “There are no escalators. The windows are limited. We have simple concrete floors. No carpets.” Haitians getting by in huts and hovels had none either and for six long years no help that could be counted from the UN in Port au Prince. If there is anything that Haiti proves it’s that the UN is an abysmal failure. While they sit around in the comfortable offices in their vast empire worldwide, the sound of incessant talking can be heard. In Haiti, the screams for help of people still buried under rubble four days after the Earthquake can be heard everywhere other than inside the UN. Donations to the ‘Latin America Disaster Fund’ can be made online by clicking on the button below: