When Will Non-Americans Chant "UN Out of US"? (Part 2)
I've talked about the United Nations before, and was curious to see if anyone was so disgusted with our fascist regime that they wanted to remove the United Nations from this polluted country. Other than Pravda, no one is chanting "Get the UN out of the US" - except for some in-country baby seal clubbers who are completely disgusted with the organization.
I suggested the following:
Here's my suggestion: put the bureaucracy in Geneva or some other city, and have the General Assembly and Security Council hold their meetings in the Secretary General's home country. That should make everybody happy, right?
Well, I found a bolder suggestion:
There is however a medium-term argument with respect to the relocation of the UN Secretariat itself -- an operation that...is relevant to current [2003] issues of renovating the existing UN Secretariat building already constrained for space.
The following points would appear to strongly justify active planning for such a move to Baghdad at this time:
- It would constitute a concrete manifestation of the vital role that the UN could in future perform in relation to the Iraqi economy, if only through the external resources associated with maintaining the Secretariat and the benefits to the local economy from visiting delegates
- In a time of great stress, suspicion and uncertainty, it would constitute a visible manifestation of the concrete commitment to the challenges of the Middle East and the regional peace process
- It would shift the centre of gravity of the international community from the North and help to provide a bridging function to the impoverished populations of Africa and Asia....
- It would help focus the reconstruction of Iraq and prevent the conflict from becoming a long-lasting symbol of the failures of the international community and the UN itself....
- It would reduce the infrastructure costs of a UN administration already faced with budgetary challenges at its current location in New York....
- It would shift the UN from a country whose government has publicly expressed little regard for it, and has no need of it, to a region where its potential can be more effectively explored through other cultural frameworks
- The possibilities of participation in UN processes from the South, and from transition countries, would be increased by the shift in geographic location, which would also reduce the travel expenses for many....
- It would increase the representativity at UN meetings, notably of civil society bodies from the South, especially by reducing the air travel security constraints requiring invasive body searching of suspects on entry to the USA
- It would offer a construction opportunity to multinational corporations desiring to contribute prestigiously to participation in the Iraqi nation-building process, and perhaps frustrated by the priority given to contractors from countries more closely associated with the USA....
- It would reduce the security threat to UN delegates and personel, given the authoritative indications of US intelligence agencies, that the USA (and New York in particular) is under increasing threat of terrorist attack....
Any more arguments....?
And if the UN doesn't want to go to Baghdad for some strange reason, there's always Russia:
Russia may call for moving the United Nations headquarters
from New York to St Petersburg, Dmitriy Rogozin, chairman of the State Duma's
Foreign Affairs Committee, told Interfax [in May 2001].
Americans sometimes take actions harmful to the organization, Rogozin said.
In particular, they have decided not to pay 224m to the United Nations to
protest the organization's refusal to include a US representative in the
human rights commission, he said.
"If the Americans do not change their position and if the international
personnel does not feel comfortable in New York as a result, we may suggest
that the UN headquarters be transferred to the Venice of the North, St
Petersburg," Rogozin said.
The city will provide all the conditions for the headquarters to function
and, "most importantly, Russia has the goodwill to host that important
international organization", he said.
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