What Really Is The Piont Of The UN?

Being in Switzerland, 'sans SkyTV' and speaking ropey French is the perfect storm to create an addiction to news programs. Yes we get English movies and programs but the constant is CNBC, CNN and BBC News 24.

Don't get me wrong, I am a news junky, have been since I was a kid when my brother convinced me that when the news talked about 'Guerillas' they were, in fact, Gorillas trained to use weapons. That Brian Ferry was actually Prince Charles and the 'Kid Catcher' from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang lived in France.

Needless to say my view of the news was slightly skewed by my brothers 'spin'. I expected 'Comical Ali' to whip off his mask and have my brother beaming out of the TV. When I think about it he could have made a lucrative career out of spinning the news for dictators. He would be in high demand in Sudan and Zimbabwe where the deluded governments are spinning lies all day long. The words 'free', 'fair' and 'election' spring to mind in Zimbabwe and don't get me started on those nutters in Sudan.

This brings me, by way of cathartically dissing my brother, to the point of this article and that is the UN.

Watching the news from Zimbabwe and Darfur is a heart breaking experience everyday, and what have we seen from the UN?

Fifty two years ago this autumn, the UN provided the textbook example of effective action. Within five days of the Anglo-French attack on Suez at the end of October 1956, the UN had begun to construct a force which took the place of the invaders, cleared the canal which our action had blocked, and gradually levered the Israelis out of the Egyptian territory that they had occupied.

This prompt action was the work of two outstanding international statesmen - Dag Hammarskjold, the Secretary General of the United Nations, and Mike Pearson, the Foreign Secretary of Canada. It was made possible by the determination of the United States that the Anglo-French enterprise should fail, and by the acceptance of this fact by the British Cabinet. Those UN resolutions were built on solid ground' it was the Anglo-French enterprise which had not been thought through and lacked foundations.

This decisiveness seems to have all but disappeared from the UN these days, recent Russian and Chinese veto's of sanctions against Zimbabwe have bolstered the regime with one crazed Mugabe hanger-on saying that he 'thanked the Russians and the Chinese' for seeing 'reason' and supporting 'Zimbabwe against the bullying by the United States and United Kingdom'.

Nice one China and Russia.

Is it really the time to hold off and watch more people be killed and more woman in Darfur get raped? How will you be able to negotiate with these genocidal maniacs?

How would that go?

Ban Ki-moon -"OK Mr Mugabe, what do you want?"

Mugabe - "To be in power for ever, to live for ever, TO RULE THE WORLD......"

BKM - "Well that’s not going to happen is it?"

Mugabe - "We'll see"

BKM - "Now come on, Rob, my old buddy. If you slip out the back door, we'll put you up in a nice warm country, with a big house, a fat bank account and as many girls as you can handle.. you old rascal"

Mugabe - "ER... Have you looked around you?"

BKM - "OK, good point. Can you just stop killing people then?"

Mugabe - "That's not me, it's Morgan and his bad boy crowd... wrong 'uns they are"

BKM - "Liar, liar, pants on fire"

This is my point. All the billions of dollars that it, no doubt, costs to fund the UN, the endless meeting and the endless arguing, all comes down to the 'liar, liar, pants on fire' resolution... and then we start bombing.

I have read a lot of blogs that ridicule the UN, and so they should. The UN's inaction in Darfur and Zimbabwe is blood on their hands and the politicians who fly first class to these events and then spout political rhetoric, but create no hard and fast solutions to stop the mass killings, should be ashamed.

It is not as if this situation is new, Rwanda, Somalia, Liberia, Sierra Leon, The Congo.. all over Africa people have been slaughtered in their millions by power hungry politicians while other power hungry politicians in the UN just stood by and watched or should I say - sent a bunch of brave guys dressed in blue.. to drive around a war zone in white vehicles with guns they were not allowed to shoot..

What is the point of the UN if it cannot intervene?

I agree the solution is a complex one, but one that can be sorted. After the tragedy of 9/11 terror organizations around the world started to 'negotiate'.

The IRA disappeared, not because they suddenly came on the side of peace, but because they would not be funded by the US NORAID or shielded by the US. I guess they were also worried about the change in attitude by the US and the world’s powers on terrorism. The US could hardly have a 'war on terror' and call the IRA 'Freedom Fighters' any more, could they?

Other groups such as the Tamils and ETA, either went very quiet or negotiated, worried about the coming storm of retribution against terror. The worlds military, intelligence and power stood shoulder to shoulder to wipe out terrorism forever.

The dictators of the world held their collective breath, some like Colonel Gadaffi saw the writing on the wall and supposedly turned away from the dark side in a flurry of handshakes and tents.

Then it happened....exactly nothing. Yes Afghanistan was invaded and yes Iraq was invaded but that was th US. The blow to terrorism didn't come. Dictators stood by and watched as conflict after conflict could not be solved by the UN and no forceful action was taken.

Idiots like Mugabe became emboldened and it all kicked off again. The message the UN sent was much like a teacher to a bully... don't do it again or you will be suspended.

'Big wow'. As one who bullied me at school said when he was told the same by a teacher who caught him punching me.

That bully ended up flying down some stairs in front of the entire class with my foot firmly behind him. Bruised, battered and crying he skulked off. He never came near me or my friends ever again and I never had another occasion to deal out such retribution.

I learned that, in the playground, bullies only respond to violence, negotiations are not in their nature, negotiations will just get you another beating. Maybe those in the UN Ivory Tower should go back to school, if only to learn that simply 'talking' to bullies like Mugabe is a 'Big WOW'...

The artwork in the image above outside the UN is supposed to symbolise peace, but it is more a representation that the possibilities of the UN have been nutured by the power hungry politicians who care only for more power...