The United Nations is giving the City of Toronto stiff competition as the place where most stupid ideas originate.
Toronto is a city whose politicians spend hours debating the banning of the common leaf blower and whose mayor is photographed shaking hands with members of the Hell’s Angels. Toronto is also home to Greenpeace Canada Executive Director Peter Tabuns, who, when he was a local councillor, tried to ban Harvey’s Hamburgers, all for contributing to a political party.
The UN, which seems to be on a world-wide mission to find itself, and which boasts an in-house spiritual leader who says he was Thomas Jefferson in another life, is about to launch itself in the scratch-and-win business.
Seriously cash challenged, the UN is launching an international lottery that could have a first prize that makes payments from even the "mega" lotteries look like so much chump change.
One estimate suggests prize money of up to US$250-million could be offered on one draw, with an equal amount guaranteed for the UN and governments participating in the game.
An instant lottery with scratch cards would be the easiest to kick-start and market, but a pick-six type game with terminals worldwide is also being considered.
How this fits in with the UN’s claims to be protectors of the world’s poor is unknown. As apart from being a form of gambling, lotteries are frequently criticized as being a hidden "tax" on people with low incomes, who make up the bulk of lottery ticket consumers.
A lot of rent money is bound to be squandered on the UN’s scratch-and-win.
Although the UN says it has not yet officially endorsed the idea, Martti Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president who has close ties to the world body, is promoting it. Martti is often called its "trouble shooter" because of the nature of the assignments doled out to him by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary General.
UN special advisor, Canadian Maurice Strong is also on the record for supporting UN lotteries.
"It would be a very good way of making millions for the UN, and for lottery winners and for the governments," said Yvonne Schnyder, secretary-general of the World Lottery Association.
The money given to the UN would have strings attached.
"It would be for humanitarian operations, such as food distribution, but also to promote human rights, for children and women, for example," said Antti Pentikiemen, who heads the project on Martti Ahtisaari’s staff.
Some believe the lottery might be a step toward an international UN tax. The number of UN supporters who believe one is necessary is legion.
Ahtisaari says the lottery could be operational by the end of 2003.
The UN, which issues press releases on an almost daily basis, may have discovered free advertising with lottery terminals in every corner of the globe.
The United Nations, in the limelight with this week’s Johannesburg "Earth Summit, is going to face a hard time in wiping out the perception that its gatherings are just so many junkets. Aware that its international conferences are increasingly viewed as ideal opportunities for delegates to indulge in lavish receptions while having put up in posh hotels, the UN has asked delegates to go easy on wining and dining while on South African soil.
According to Canada’s National Post, a leaked memo reminds delegates they will be in southern Africa at a time when food shortages are affecting 13 million people in the region.
One wouldn’t think that given the situation in Africa, those delegates would need reminding.
Some 65,000 people--the population of towns and villages--will descend on Johannesburg between Aug. 26 and Sept. 4. Some hade already holed up in hotels weeks in advance of the event.
Included among the visitors will be Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and two of his Cabinet ministers. This group is used to Perrier, prime rib and lobster.
Although snubbed by American President George W. Bush, who will send U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell in his stead, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, is being billed as the largest-ever gathering organized by the UN.
"We must keep in mind this conference is taking place in the midst of a major food crisis," said the leaked memo. "It would be wise to refrain from excessive levels of hospitality, and any event sponsored by the United Nations should be of modest, even frugal dimensions."
Sounds sensible, unless you realize that many of the 65,000 UN delegates are politicians and the new breed of NGO (Non Government Organization) members used to living it up and splurging when abroad.
UN officials, who dispatched the memo, may be edgy, now that it’s been discovered that delegates attending a recent world hunger conference in Rome were spotted out on the town on shopping sprees.
Sensitive to criticism in other areas, UN officials have parried complaints the summit will cause more pollution than it prevents. Because of this, the UN Development Program plans to ask delegates to personally each contribute US$10 to a fund called the Johannesburg Climate Legacy to offset environmental damage caused by vehicles delivering them to the city.
Participating businesses will be asked to pony up between US$1000 to US$100,000.
Studies for the Climate Legacy estimate the delegates’ journeys and activities at the conference will generate 289,619 tons of carbon dioxide, one of the so-called greenhouse gases that are said to be contributing to global warming.
And that’s not counting the smoking of cigarettes and cigars, or the hot air emanated by the hundreds or thousands of politicians in attendance.
UNDP said money collected for the Climate Legacy would be used for "long-term, carbon reducing, renewable energy and energy-efficient projects in schools, hospitals and communities in South Africa.
Nothing much has changed since the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, however the Johannesburg conference is being touted as an opportunity for governments to live up to literally hundreds of promises over the years to fight world poverty while protecting the environment.
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