UNO (UN=0)
Mahmood Elahi, Iris Street, Ottawa, Canada
A recent Washington Post editorial on the UN rightly points out the crux of the problem facing the United Nations when it says, "Although it had some important successes, it was more often a theatre of Cold War competition than a place where minds met. For one brief moment, during the Persian Gulf War, the Security Council provided cover for a US-led invasion -- but only because Russia was weak, Europe and the Middle East happened to side with the United States and China didn't care. During the invasion of Kosovo and the subsequent bombardment of Serbia, the United Nations stood aside."With many UN member states either pseudo democracies or dictatorships, the UN can hardly be a place where independent minds meet to resolve the world's conflicts. The real actors in the General Assembly and the Security Council are 'sovereign states', a motley crowd that uses the UN to pursue its own interests. The UN, like its failed predecessor the League of Nations, has no power to challenge the world's brutal dictators. As long as most of the world's countries do not respect the rights of ordinary citizens and minority groups, the UN will remain a forum for fruitless debate. Though the UN's specialised agencies have provided valuable humanitarian services, we must ask whether the political UN -- the Security Council and the General Assembly -- is worth the investment. Perhaps the UN should be a consultative body, which provides guidelines, but does not have authority to pass resolutions. When a venue is required for talks between nations, the UN headquarters could be used. The UNO means UN=0.
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