What is your opinion of the United Nations?

Where do you suppose or why do you suppose something better will come along and where do you suppose it will come from

I made no such prediction
 

Chris P Bacon said:
They're only semi-rhetorical. I'm a humble postman, now retired. But with all the tools and technology we have and 8 billion (or so) minds to consider what can be done, if this is the best we can come up with, then yes, maybe our world is doomed, united or not. If there are to be any solutions to the problems of our world, it will have to be the people living in this world who solve or fail to resolve them.

Some folks say that god is going to fix everything but he's had plenty of time and doesn't seem to have done much so far. What happens if there is no god, no matter what the faithful believe? And the devil, well, as bad as I've heard he is, he hasn't destroyed us yet. It seems more like person against person is what's making the world so hard to get along in. What if there's no devil either? What if all the people of all the nations are both god and devil combined? Is there hope? Maybe but maybe not.
Click to expand...
Remember the story of Pandora's box?
Remember the last thing that flew out of the box after all the troubles were unleashed?

It was Hope. Even the Ancient Greeks had their share of troubles and conflict but the story teller knew that when all else has failed, hope is what keeps us from giving up. We are only truly lost when we lose hope.
 

Warrigal said:
Remember the story of Pandora's box?
Remember the last thing that flew out of the box after all the troubles were unleashed?

It was Hope. Even the Ancient Greeks had their share of troubles and conflict but the story teller knew that when all else has failed, hope is what keeps us from giving up. We are only truly lost when we lose hope.
Click to expand...
Was that a true story? I hope so!
 
Alligatorob said:
A necessary but inefficient and ineffective organization...

I did some work for the UN a few years back, mostly in Geneva. The only thing that impressed me positively were the translators, by far the best I have ever experienced. The organization itself struck me as a hugely ineffective bureaucracy... makes the US Government look like a well oiled machine. Lots of wasted money and corruption.

That said I do think we need something like it where the countries of the world can try to talk and work with at least some degree of cooperation.
Click to expand...
Alligatorob, do you think if the UN had teeth, - armed forces, It might be better for peace?
 
fuzzybuddy said:
Alligatorob, do you think if the UN had teeth, - armed forces, It might be better for peace?
Click to expand...
No, unfortunately the problem would be creating and using them effectively. I just don't see it happening, so far when tried it has not gone well, think of the Srebrenica Massacre (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srebrenica_massacre) or the Korean War (https://www.unc.mil/History/1950-1953-Korean-War-Active-Conflict/#:~:text=June 27, 1950: United Nations,peace on the Korean Peninsula.). There are other examples.

And I would hate to think of how bureaucratic and inefficient it would be, worse than our military already is...

What I believe the UN does best is to provide a place for communications and some cooperation between nations. They need to stick to that, it is the one thing no one else can do. Not in the way they do it.

My experience with the UN was the UN Compensation Commission (https://uncc.ch/home). The UNCC was created to compensate victims of the Iraqi war, the 1991 invasion of Kuwait. It was relatively effective for, what I believe, a few reasons. It was under the Security Council and so did not require all UN members approval, it was created at a time when US/Russian/Chinese relations were better, and under the UN Oil for Food program had a source of funds. Iraqi oil sales were controlled and taxed by the UN. I think this was a rather unique set of conditions. Neither the UNCC nor the Oil for Food programs were particularly efficient, but they did play an important role, and did do some good. My involvement was quite minor in trying to help value some of the damages. However, it gave me some limited insight into how the UN works.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top