UN: Get Out of NY
Tue, Jan 27, 2004 at 9:17:53 am PST
In Forbes Magazine, British historian Paul Johnson has a message for the United Nations: Get Out of New York! (Hat tip: Kae.)
When America was the leader of a successful wartime coalition—and the world wished it to continue in that role—it made excellent sense to place UN headquarters in New York. But those days have long passed. America has accepted its world-policeman destiny, and the UN is merely a minor obstacle to the successful performance of that task. The place has become a mere theater of empty rhetoric and shameless deals supporting a growing tide of anti-Semitism and racism and—let us not be mealymouthed—state crime. It is a place where near-bankrupt dictatorships can sell their votes to the highest bidder.It is also a place where well-connected playboy diplomats from the Third World can indulge in an expense-account lifestyle in one of the richest cities on earth, ignoring the pitiful poverty of their home countries and often using their diplomatic immunity to break the law. This is an insult to the dignity of the human race.
As the UN is now constituted, a far better location for it would be in a city near the gravitational center of the Afro-Eurasian landmass. There it would be close to the realities of the problems it ought to be tackling—poverty; bad, cruel and corrupt governments; international lawlessness; civil wars. The place I’d suggest is Dar es Salaam (though I can think of a half-dozen other equally suitable venues). Having UN headquarters there would hugely reduce the cost of running it and its associated activities from New York. It would also deter the playboy element that is one of the curses of the organization and help persuade both staff and delegations to take their jobs seriously.
