A sampling of United Nations related blog commentarySuburban Guerrilla: "Case Study: How the right-wing media methodically exaggerated and distorted the oil-for-food scandal."
Rob's Blog: "Trimming the fat could do with a start in Iraq, where we've wasted hundreds of billions. Some examples: On 12 April 2004, the Coalition Provisional Authority in Erbil in northern Iraq handed over $1.5 billion in cash to a local courier. The money, fresh $100 bills shrink-wrapped on pallets, which filled three Blackhawk helicopters, came from oil sales under the UN's Oil for Food Programme, and had been entrusted by the UN Security Council to the Americans to be spent on behalf of the Iraqi people."
King of Zembla: "At last the people of Afghanistan know what it's like to live in, say, Florida. Or Ohio: "Election officials and observers said Sunday that with 80 percent of the ballots counted in Afghanistan's national and provincial elections, they had found significant incidents of fraud. Whole districts have come under suspicion for ballot box stuffing and proxy voting, said Peter Erben, the chief of the United Nations-assisted Joint Election Management Board. He said ballot boxes from 4 percent of the 26,000 polling places - about 1,000 stations - had been set aside for investigation on suspicion of fraud and other irregularities."
Protein Wisdom: "From BBC News: Former South African President Nelson Mandela has topped a BBC poll to find the person most people would like to lead a fantasy world government. More than 15,000 people worldwide took part in the interactive Power Play game, in which players were invited to choose a team of 11 to run the world from a list of around 100 of the most powerful leaders, thinkers and other high-profile people on the planet... And UN General-Secretary Kofi Annan just made the fantasy world elite in 11th place."
Terrorism News: "This is an interesting read By Luciana Bohne from online journal: "Most Americans like to believe they live in the best country in the world. They don't. According to the United Nations Human Development Report for 2005, Norway is number one. Why? It's a welfare state. There is a pleasant economic equality enjoyed by the Norwegian polity. No one is too poor; no one is too rich. In fact, great wealth is regarded as some sort of social disease. Third oil exporter after Saudi Arabia and Russia, Norway is tucking away a national fund of over $180 billion for when the oil runs out, guaranteeing each family the quaint sum of $22,000 per year-in addition to guaranteed health care, education, pensions, and paid maternity leaves and vacations to die for! True, a glass of beer will cost you $8, but the waiter makes a good salary."
"Obstetric Fistula is a childbearing injury, caused by long, obstructed labors without recourse to Caesarean sections. The consequences, left untreated, can be devastating, usually including both the death of the child and the incontinence of the mother. And women in the developing world, particularly Africa, rarely get the treatment they need.... Here, then, is a classic opportunity for worldchanging action: an entrenched problem, which could be largely addressed by more funding for medical care and education, largely ignored by big international NGOs and development agencies. In short, this is a place where a small group of people could make a big impact."
One By One is just such a group. [Read more]
"Typhoon Damrey, which came ashore on the eastern coast of Viet Nam one week ago, prompted the evacuation of some 600,000 persons and caused extensive damage throughout the country. At least 59 individuals in the country were killed as a result of the typhoon, and 13 others were injured.
Storm surges broke several sea dykes in Nam Dinh and Thanh Hoa provinces, and seawater penetrated inland some three to four kilometres in coastal provinces. Flash floods damaged more than 11,000 dwellings, destroying more than 1,000. More than 130,000 hectares of rice fields due for harvest have been submerged. Damage to roads, bridges and telephone lines has left several villages inaccessible. Including damage to transport, power supply, education and health infrastructure, the total destruction has been estimated at approximately $5.3 million." [More]
"Facing dire warnings of an impending global pandemic of avian influenza, Secretary-General Kofi Annan today announced the appointment of a United Nations system coordinator for the virus, which is presently decimating poultry stocks in Asia and could cross over to humans to deadly effect.
"We expect the next great influenza pandemic to come at any time now," David Nabarro, a senior public health expert in the UN World Health Organization (WHO), told a news briefing, recalling that the 1918 flu pandemic had killed over 40 million people." [Full story]
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentaryOutside the Beltway: "The UN is warning that the Asian bird flu could spread to humans and kill up to 150 million people."
Fed Blog: "John Bolton made clear Wednesday that he believes the United Nations has systematic management problems, but the new U.S. ambassador to the world body said he held out hope that those problems could be fixed."
American Future: "Reassuring words from Tony Blair's speech at the Labour Party Conference: "British troops whose bravery and dedication we salute, along with those of 27 other nations, have been in Iraq with full United Nations authority and in support of the Iraqi Government."
Balloon Juice: "I am a little fuzzy on the science of this: "Capturing and storing the carbon dioxide generated by power plants and factories could play an important role in limiting global warming caused by humans, says an international climate research group associated with the United Nations. In a new report the group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, says doing so could cut the cost of stabilizing carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere as much as 30 percent compared with other options, like switching to cleaner technologies." So they will capture it, pipe it somewhere, and store it in big tanks and wells forever?"
Centerfield: "Reuters: With Katrina and Rita dominating the news recently, there's a good deal of talk out there about the relationship between hurricanes and climate change (or global warming). And it comes down to this: Are these larger, more powerful hurricanes related to climate change, or not? Reuters: "Scientists say it's not easy to tell if global warming caused hurricanes Katrina and Rita but on Monday they forecast more unpredictable weather as Earth gets hotter. 'Global warming, I think, is playing a role in the hurricanes,' said Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. 'But a lot of what is going on is natural. What global warming may be doing is making them somewhat more intense,' said Trenberth, a member of the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.'"
Informed Comment: "The United Nations is urging member states not to send Iraqi asylum seekers back to Iraq, since it is too dangerous."
Nuno Macedo: "Today was the first day of the UNHCR annual consultations with NGOs that will last the whole week. As intern of the UN Liaison Office of the General-Conference of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, I could not miss it! So there I go to the plenary session... We then had a very inspirational speech from Gil Loescher, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and International Relations of Notre Dame University, who was nearly killed in the bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad in August 2003. At a moment of the speech he said something that made the entire assembly hold its breath, more or less like this: ...it was with them (speaking about refugees) that I learnt how to survive and live under difficult conditions which, ultimately, has been very useful for my own recovery (he made his speech in his wheel chair)."
New York Times: "Dr. Kees Waaldijk began surgery shortly before 10 a.m. one recent Saturday in a cement-walled operating room in this city near Nigeria's northern border. More than five hours later, orderlies carried the last of four girls to the recovery ward. In the near-90 degree heat, Dr. Waaldijk's light blue surgical garb had turned dark with sweat.
What brings the girls to Dr. Waaldijk - and him to Nigeria - is the obstetric nightmare of fistulas, unknown in the West for nearly a century. Mostly teenagers who tried to deliver their first child at home, the girls failed at labor. Their babies were lodged in their narrow birth canals, and the resulting pressure cut off blood to vital tissues and ripped holes in their bowels or urethras, or both.
Were it widely available, the United Nations agency states, a $300 operation could repair most fistulas. But Mozambique, with 17 million people, has just three surgeons who consistently perform those operations. Niger, population 11 million, has but six, the organization reported in 2002."
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To support UNFPA's campaign to End Fistula, visit One By One Project. One By One is a volunteer-led initiative that enables people to make a difference by creating giving circles to raise enough money to cover the cost of fistula surgery, post-operative care and rehabilitation for one woman.
To learn more ways to get involved, visit The Woman Tour
"For the past decade, UNHCR has been issuing Refworld as the most comprehensive, reliable and updated refugee information resource available anywhere. Sometimes referred to as the "Refugee Encyclopaedia", Refworld is a collection of more than 90,000 full-text, searchable documents from UNHCR specialists and information partners around the world." [Read more]
A sampling of United Nations related blog commentaryBeautiful Horizons: "The United Nations has just adopted the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the International Federation for Human Rights and the International Commission of Jurists are all hailing the document in a joint announcement. They are also urging all nations to ratify the document."
Brian Barder: "Blair's great failure lay in not having insisted from the outset, as an absolute and immutable condition of UK participation in the use of force against Iraq, that military action must have the prior approval of the Security Council in a new and explicit resolution. To go ahead without it was a plain breach of our international law obligations: it was, and is, an illegal war and its authors are war criminals. It's no good Blair arguing that we couldn't get UN approval because France would have vetoed any resolution that would have granted it: that's a disgraceful lie, as anyone who takes the trouble to read the transcript of the relevant Chirac television interview must realise."
Cuanas: "In an indispensible article, from National Review, Michael Ledeen warns that we had better do something Iran very soon: While most media attention has been devoted to the "diplomatic" United Nations visit of Iran's brand new terrorist president, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nezhad, the fascinating turmoil within Iran, both inside the mullahcracy and between the mullahs and the Iranian people, has gone largely unreported."
Dean's World: "The United States is in sharp contrast with Britain, where laws against self-defense combined with the toughest firearm restrictions of any democracy coincide with a rapidly rising crime rate: "In a United Nations study of crime in 18 developed nations published in July, England and Wales led the Western world's crime league, with nearly 55 crimes per 100 people." Given these facts, it's clear that the anti-defense Left is basing their ideas on wishes and dreams, not reality."
Insecurity Forum: "We are living in a world that is growing smaller, and in a period when the agenda of peace and human security is assuming increasing priority. Beginning from the early years of the post-cold war era, and more prominently since the fateful events of "9/11", the agenda of human security has increasingly assumed an urgency of global proportions. It is quite clear that research on peace and security is now subject to broad national, regional and international debate. Besides several Seminars and Conferences held such as this one by EADI, discussions are under way in major international forums, such as the African Union, the United Nations and other forums to find lasting solutions to conflicts."
Thomas Paine's Corner: "Bush and his minions lied to Congress to launch the invasion, defied the UN and international law, and, according to John Pike of GlobalSecurities.org, are establishing 12 of what the Pentagon propagandists call "enduring bases" in Iraq.... The US government needs to respect international law, treaties, human rights, and the autonomy of sovereign nations, and to participate fairly in the UN."
Window Washer: "The United Nations 2005 World Summit came to a close Friday, leaving many disappointed that little was achieved in regards to the Millennium Development Goals. But activists pledge not to be disheartened by this failure of world leaders to take action against poverty. Read IPS coverage of the summit that, despite its shortcomings, likely will set the stage for future international relations and development."