You have got to check out this posting from The Diplomad about his dealings with the Vulture Elite of the UN.
This Embassy has been running 24/7 since the December 26 earthquake and tsunami. Along with my colleagues, I’ve spent the past several days dealing non-stop with various aspects of the relief effort in this tsunami-affected country. That work, unfortunately, has brought ever-increasing contact with the growing UN presence in this capital; in fact, we’ve found that to avoid running into the UN, we must go out to where the quake and tsunami actually hit. As we come up on two weeks since the disaster struck, the UN is still not to be seen where it counts — except when holding well-staged press events. Ah, yes, but the luxury hotels are full of UN assessment teams and visiting big shots from New York, Geneva, and Vienna. The city sees a steady procession of UN Mercedes sedans and top-of-the-line SUV’s — a fully decked out Toyota Landcruiser is the UN vehicle of choice; it doesn’t seem that concerns about “global warming” and preserving your tax dollars run too deep among the UNocrats.
Sitting VERY late for two consecutive nights in interminable meetings with UN reps, hearing them go on about “taking the lead coordination role,” pledges, and the impending arrival of this or that UN big shot or assessment/coordination team, for the millionth time I realized that if not for Australia and America almost nobody in the tsunami-affected areas would have survived more than a few days. If we had waited for the UNocrats to get their act coordinated, the already massive death toll would have become astronomical. But, fortunately, thanks to “retrograde racist war-mongers ” such as John Howard and George W. Bush, as we sat in air conditioned meeting rooms with these UNocrats, young Australians and Americans were at that moment “coordinating” without the UN and saving the lives of tens-of-thousands of people.
But wait a minute, the left say’s these guys are the savior’s of the poor, the people who will protect the third world countries….yeah, they did such a wonderful job in the Sudan and the Congo. I can just picture those mercedes driving down the streets in those third world countries, UN flags flying. I can picture that and shake my head at how corrupt this organization is.
Seeing these UNocrats perched at the table, whispering to each other, back-slapping, shaking hands, they seemed like a periodic reunion of old cynical Mafia chieftains or mercenaries who run into each other in different hot spots, as they move from one slaughter to another, “How are you? Haven’t seen you since Bosnia . . ..” As the hours wore on, however, and I nervously doodled in my note pad, shifted in my chair, looked at my watch, and thought about all the real work I had to do that evening, I decided that, no, labeling them mafiosos or mercenaries was much too kind. They seemed more to be the progeny resulting from a mating between a mad oracle and a giant carrion-eater. They were akin to some sort of ancient mythical Greco-Roman-Aztec-Wes Craven-Egyptian-bird-god that demands constant sacrifice and feeding, and speaks in riddles which only it can solve. Yes, I decided, the UNocrats are great hideous vultures, roused from their caves in the European Alps and in the cement canyons and peaks of Manhattan by the stench of death in the Turd World. They leisurely take flight toward the smell of death; circle, and then swoop down, screeching UNintelligble nonsense. They arrive and immediately force others, e.g., the American tax payer, to build them new exclusive nests in the midst of poverty, and make themselves fat on the flesh of the dead. My friends, allow The Diplomad to present to you The High Priest Vulture Elite (HPVE).
Yup, that’s what they are, vultures preying on the poor. Preying on the stupid (pretty much every person on the left).
Gindy commented on a news story from National Business Review that also has a few words on this subject.
While the United Nations appears to be adept at having meetings, the organisation is hopeless on the ground say career foreign service officers in tsunami-affected regions.
As news media are increasingly dominated by footage of US, Australian and regional military forces actually delivering aid to stricken survivors of the Boxing Day tsunami, UN officials are carping about housing in major cities far removed from the front lines and passing around elaborate business cards.
Organising to organise seems to be the word of the day for the UN, say career US foreign service officers anonymously, who fault the international organisation for taking credit where none is due and proving hopeless at actually delivering relief…..
A close reading of the UK’s Department for International Development’s (DFID) brilliantly detailed daily reports of activity in the affected regions also reveals that UN officials are working hard at planning to work — and estimating the need for work — rather than actually delivering aid on the ground.
All of which is a bit chilling, since the UN is positioning itself as the primary carrier of aid relief to the region and has been critical of the “core group” response led the the US and Australia.
Not all the criticism of the UN effort reported on Diplomad originates with the authors of the blog.
In an excerpt from a January 2 report written by local Dutch diplomats who had visited Aceh, Diplomad reports:
The US military has arrived and is clearly establishing its presence everywhere in Banda Aceh. They completely have taken over the military hospital, which was a mess until yesterday but is now completely up and running. They brought big stocks of medicines, materials for the operation room, teams of doctors, water and food. Most of the patients who were lying in the hospital untreated for a week have undergone medical treatment by the US teams by this afternoon. US military have unloaded lots of heavy vehicles and organize the logistics with Indonesian military near the airport. A big camp is being set up at a major square in the town. Huge generators are ready to provide electricity. US helicopters fly to places which haven’t been reached for the whole week and drop food. The impression it makes on the people is also highly positive; finally something happens in the city of Banda Aceh and finally it seems some people are in control and are doing something. No talking but action. European countries are until now invisible on the ground. IOM staff [note from Diplomad: this is a USAID-funded organization] is very busy briefing the incoming Americans and Australians about the situation.
The US, Australia, Singapore and the Indonesian military have started a ‘Coalition Co-ordination Centre’ in Medan to organize all the incoming and outgoing military flights with aid. A sub-centre is established in Banda Aceh.
The Captain is also reporting yesterday that Colin Powell stated the core group would disband and fold themselves into the UN’s group.
The analysis by Reuters’ Arshad Mohammed credits formation of the group to criticism that George Bush and the US were slow to respond. However, the four nations formed the core group and began distributing aid before the UN even called its meeting to discuss it — which, coincidentally, occurred today. The UN proved itself to be little more than a lumbering roadblock. Had we waited for the UN’s schedule, our ships and our aid would have waited until today to be deployed and properly managed.
That is the difference between talking about a response and actually responding. Critics, like those at Reuters, continue to ankle-bite Bush for not feeling the pain in public for three days. Bush, however, was working to alleviate the pain instead.
Elizabeth over at Poisoning Pigeons said something that I think rings true
For a long time I’ve believed that the UN feeds off of human catastrophe much like a vampire. While the UN was taking it’s sweet time setting up a conference on how to deal with the tsunami devastation other countries, including the US I might add, were actually in there slogging it out attempting to help the victims.
S.K. over at ChiCon has a few choice words for them.
Also, from now on anyone with a job title with the word coordinator in it will be ridiculed (eggs thrown if your title states the word twice). And if you drive a UN vehicle and you violate NYC’s traffic laws, listen up. You may have diplomatic immunity from a ticket, but your tires have no immunity from my boxcutter.
If the UN wants my fatwa dropped, may I suggest that you do your fuckin’ job.
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