EclectEcon

Economics and the mid-life crisis have much in common: Both dwell on foregone opportunities

C'est la vie; c'est la guerre; c'est la pomme de terre . . . . . . . . . . . . . email: jpalmer at uwo dot ca


. . . . . . . . . . .Richard Posner should be awarded the next Nobel Prize in Economics . . . . . . . . . . . .

Wednesday, December 29, 2004

Canadian Gubmnt Should
Challenge the U.N.

The Canadian gubmnt has often held itself out as highly moral and principled. So why have Canadian gubmnt leaders not spoken out against the corruption and terror fostered by the recent and extreme wave of U.N. scandals? This is a question asked by my colleague, Salim Mansur, writing in the Trono Sun:

The UN for a long time has been the last refuge providing a semblance of legitimacy to the world's worst scoundrels. This was not in the scheme of things when the founding assembly first met in San Fransciso nearly 60 years ago.

In time, however, the UN became what it is, a huge bureaucracy unaccountable to any authority but itself. And the iron law of any bureaucracy is to self-perpetuate.

Apalling record

Annan by any measure is hugely discredited. His record is appalling. He has been at the centre of failed UN missions from Somalia and Bosnia to the criminal tragedies of Rwanda and Darfur, has shown no leadership on the most compelling post-Cold War security issue of global terrorism, and presides over a scandal in which his son, Kojo Annan, allegedly profited because of connections.

But as the head of the UN bureaucracy, Annan knows he is protected.

Now if only a Canadian prime minister would insist on restoring the good name of the UN by speaking out against those who have sullied it.

[Thanks to Ben for the pointer. ]
 
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