Behind the UN Façade
They who created the UN after the World War II wanted to make it better. But it turned out to be as always. The UN, just likely many other international structures, turned a long time ago into the pasture for a huge staff and a status place to work with good money. It is probable that in the beginning there was some high principal: to rid the coming generation from wars, defend justice and respect promises to help with social progress and improvement of life conditions. However, 60 years after, this crystal clear according to its design organization which is supposed to join the nations, has become individual player in politics and in business, which was proved by a fresh scandal.
By the way, I don’t know if it is intentionally or not, the last Sidney Pollack movie, The Interpreter, which takes place in the UN, does not create good feelings toward the organization. Behind the good-looking façade of organization, not everything looks as good as on the outside. After watching the movie, you will come to agreement with America that it’s about time to reform this organization.
The results of the Volcker Commission, which investigated conflict of interest around the UN Oil for Food Program, screamed the necessity of urgent changes. Of course, America has personal goals to undermine the UN – it has had nothing but troubles recently with this organization. However, the theft of $10 billion was not done by American order. I have to admit that I was shocked not by the fact of corruption of certain individuals who were working in the organization, but by the fact that the UN as the organization sponsoring the Oil for Food Program was getting its own percentage for all dealings around it. And another amazing fact was that the program was designed in such a wonderful way that Sadam Hussein profited from it quite a bit. The problem was not only those officials stole the money and not those leaders of the UN and their relatives were involved in the scandals. The problem is that the effectiveness of this quite expensive organization is getting closer to zero. People just forgot why this organization was created to start with. Maybe it was expected. Maybe humanity has a tendency to sin and an organization that unites humanity cannot be free of sin either.
Alexander Yakovlev was probably not the only one who used all the UN advantages to his personal goal, he was just the first to admit it. The story is to be continued. And the story might ruin the UN as it is now. And just maybe, nobody needs the UN as it is now.
Natalya Gevorkyan, special correspondent
All the Article in Russian as of Aug. 10, 2005
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