Nearly $1.5 Billion Down A Rat Hole

The title of this post tells you everything you need to know about the United Nations. Their 2004 operating budget is actually $1.483 billion, of which the US’s “assessment” was $363 million and Japan’s “assessment” was $280 million. Together, the US and Japan pay 43.4% of the total operating budget (24.5% and 18.9% respectively.) The other 189 member nations pay the remaining 56.4% of the budget, with Germany (8.4%), the UK (5.9%), and France (5.9%) making up the balance of the top five “assessment” payers.

Well isn’t that special? But what about Russia and China, two of our number one detractors in all issues Iraqi as permanent members of the UNSecurity Council (excuse the pun?) China, home of 1.3 billion people, pays just $29 million (2%) annually. I couldn’t find Russia’s numbers, but they are less than the number fifteen “assessment” payer Switzerland’s 17 million (1.1%.)

As a footnote, I should mention that the US is currently withholding $268 million from prior year “assessments” and Japan is holding back $19 million in protest of various disagreements dating back to the Clinton Administration.

So before you lapse into a coma with all of these figures, I’ll let you ask me “what is my point?”

Just this. We’ve already handed the UN $131 million this year of the $363 million we owe them. In our defense, our Congress continues to withhold “assessment” payments while Kofi Annon is Secretary General and the Iraq Oil For Food Scandal continues to develop. You do remember that the UN sat on their collective hands while Kojo Annon and various member nations accepted bribes from Saddam and facilitated his skimming of as much as $21,000,000,000 (that’s Billion with a “B”) that could have served the UN to feed Iraqi’s and pad the coffers of various UN programs to help out this weeks Tsunami victims?

The US upped our assistance offer to $35 million today after Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland, stuck his thumb in our eye rhetorically on Monday. Comrade Egeland had a little pow wow with members of the press today and back-tracked a bit. “He added that his earlier comments about Western countries being ‘stingy’ in their aid had been misinterpreted. The international assistance from the US and Europe, Egeland said, had been overwhelmingly positive. He called the response ‘immediate and generous.’”

In the words of JFK, I’d like to “ask not what (the world) can do for the UN, but rather what the UN can do for (the world that supports it.)” Look at this somewhat lame list of cow manure...er...um..of responses to date by the UN:

"Today the the World Food Programme (WFP) sent its first truckloads of relief food to twelve devastated districts in Sri Lanka. The commodities are part of a WFP stockpile in the country that can provide an emergency ration to 500,000 people for two weeks."

Feeding 500,000 for two weeks…not bad if they actually pull it off… But what about the next six months after that?

"In Sri Lanka and southern India, UNICEF, the UN Children’s Fund, is providing blankets, sleeping mats, clothing, oral rehydration salts, medical supplies, shelter equipment, water purification tablets, and 500-litre water tanks."

Again, a good start, although I doubt blankets are much help with 85 degree days and 80 degree nights.

"The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has committed up to $1 million and additional staff for rapid health assessments, hygiene needs and health supplies, including water purification tablets. UNFPA is focusing on the special vulnerability of women and girls in disaster-affected areas. Its priority areas include emergency obstetric care, the establishment of temporary health facilities, and the provision of equipment and supplies."

Holy Bejesus, a whole million dollars? Give me a break here, would you please…And your complaining because the US started out offering ONLY $15,000,000?

"Meanwhile, theWorld Health Organization is preparing to supply at least 15 new emergency health kits (each designed to cover the basic health needs of 10,000 persons for three months) and 13 trauma kits (each covering 100 interventions) to the affected countries."

Now let me see, health kits for 150,000 persons for three months, 1300 trauma interventions…this is basically like putting a Bandaid on your leg when you just cut your foot off with a chainsaw. They can’t be serious…

"Because flooding and stagnant water create favorable conditions for mosquitoes, WHO is strictly monitoring the epidemiological situation through the “roll back malaria” regional program. It is also mobilizing at least 15 diarrheal kits (each designed to treat 100 severe cases of diarrhea and/or cholera) for use in the region."

So 1,500 people won’t be crapping their asses off on the side of the road under one of the few remaining palm trees…

This little disaster has already killed nearly a hundred thousand people and has displaced hundreds of thousands if not millions of people. All the UN can muster is a few truck loads of food and some first aid kits?

Where are the heads and brains of the reporters at these press conferences that they can't think on their feet and ask questions of Comrad Enegland like I just did. You don't need a calculator to see that the UN's proposed response is a fraction of what they should able to finance and implement on short notice. (Maybe the reporters could use a nice dose of UN supplied laxitive to help them find their heads and brains.)

I say that the US taxpayers should demand that our government refuse to pass another single extra dollar through the UN in support of this recovery effort. The US should step in and manage the process and expenditure of our funds directly.

I've got to go to bed now...I have yet another news induced headache...anyone got an Aleve?