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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 25, 1995)
U.N. wasteful, inept, lacks leadership o, \u n i i i i This week marks the 50th anniversary of the formation of the United Nations To the Wilsonian idealists of the American journalistic and political elite, this is i auxe for celebration. However, for those who do not have a stake in its survival, an honest examination of the U N 's tnu k r«x ord w ill show that the organisation has not lived up to the promise it gave on ()t t 24. 1045. and that the United States should seriouslv consider with drawal. Over the past 15 years, events in Kthiopia. Rwanda and Bosnia (not to mention Somalia) K,.< . I. iV,.. 1 S' , I... _ * (met at !«• of French and British U N soldiers in Bosnia being tied to flag posts, used as human shields against probable NATO air strikes It is obvious that in our world of civil wars and internal strife, the gentlemanly elites of the t N are i ompletelv and absolutely unetjuipped to deal with such messy political entangle ments Nations a< ting individually and in treaty on their own could be much more effective without the i bains of the U N shat kled about their arms I heir operation of ret ent memory. w hu h i ould be even closely construed as a suet ess. was Operation Desert Storm - even this, in reality, was the United States acting under the guise of the l! N incompetent in handling nec essary humanitarian tasks In Ethiopia during the enrh HOs, we can ret ail the si enes of starvation which shocked our notion. As the U N began shipping food to the area, the group ignored claims of jour nalists and independent OPINION Besides the fai t fhill i! doesn't work, the UN, lik*’ most governing bodies, is a vast wasteland of profligai v In a ret out report in Tiiw. some ext esses of the group were reported, including an audit tho! discovered S10 million unai count ed for from a I NK it K (United Nations Interna tional Children s emergent v Fund) mission in Kenya, with a new sewage system and a barb© cun pit making the list Another -peace-making item was the nne-million-dntlar a day price lag for intervention in Somalia, which included funding for air conditioned apartments mill KmImm nUILKid WII^I mill ill v • uuf iiiiiri 1 *'*K government of Mengistu Haile was actually stealing food meant for famished civilians and diverting it to the military This led not only to gntalt.tr human suffering, but also to irn reused power for Haile Commenting on the tragedy. Alex de Waal, former co-director of Human Rights Watch Africa told Peter Ho inart of The Slew Republic "It was criminal The U N s role in that t ost many livtts and strengthemtd Mengistu The gov ernment would have fallen years earlier without their help." This is not the type of action the world should expect from a group such as the U N Its charter states that one of its duties is "to reaffirm funda mental human rights," a tusk, which was obvi ously neglected in Kthiopia If it were not so tragic, the hypocrisy of the group would lie laughable. Another all-too typical example of U N to trac k, and hopefully clean up such spend tng. thi> 1' N has him! hurl Past like, the l huter Sot returyCioneral fur Internal Oversight Sor vices His first impression' After seven months on the job. 1 think tfie t; N. is a good example of waste and inefficient y Since we have lived in Ainerit a. we are m ens tomed to a governing body which spends money like there's no tomorrow However, as we begin to question the wisdom of our own govern ment's spending patterns, those of the If N. should lie open to question as well asiiio tram promems with its ell#* tivoness and budgeting, in an era when freedom and flex ibility are important, tlm U N impinges upon America's sovereignty As President Clinton stated in a spee< h on ()t.t ti "In Bosnia, as else where. if the l anted States does not lead, the job will not Ih“ done ' As the world’s largest and most able military, this leadership is our obligation and our moral responsibility The U N., through its dithering and bureaucracy, does not allow this mission to be carried out effei lively We live in a violent and ever-< hanging world It needs true leaders, not simple bureaucrats Primo A / Fontana, a senior ma/ormg in eco nomics. is ii columnist for the Kmerald. mcumpeience can oe muna in incur role in me current rebuilding of Rwanda. In the previously mentioned article, Beinart reports that the very fort es responsible for the horrific; genocide a few years ago now control many of the tJ.N camps. Christine Umutoni. the Deputy Minister for Rehabilitation and Reintegration in the coun try's new government told Beinart that the U N was "unwilling to take the stops necessary . .. to keep the killers away from the refugees '' It is unfortunate that these two examples are not aberrations, but the norm. All of us recall the horror of watching a dead American soldier, part of a U.N. force, being dragged through the streets of Somalia Or more recently, the gross The Oregon Humanities Center presents: UNIVERSITIES and The Public Perception 2:00 p.m. Jaroslav Pclikan, Professor of History, Vale University, and author of 77i«* Idea of the University. A Reexamination, speaking on The University as Partnership | 3:30 p.m. Panel Presentation by UO faculty on how citizens have viewed higher education historically in the United States, Western U.S., and Oregon, featuring Professors •Richard Maxwell Brown, emeritus, History •Christopher Ioby Ed son, Education and Policy Management • Risa Palm, Geography; Dean, College of Arts and Sciences •Earl Pomeroy, emeritus, 1 listory Wednesday, October 25, 1995 Gerlinger Alumni Lounge FREE AND OPEN TO THE PUBUC Cosponsored by the Office of the President A reception will follow the talk For information or disability accommodations, please call RUTHANN MAGUIRE. Oregon Humanities Center, at 346-3934 SEU YOUR STUFF THURS, OCT. 26 9wiv9fm FRI, OCT. 27 9AM SPM BUY NEW STUFF FRI, OCT. 27 6pm-9pm SAT, OCT. 28 9am-6pm LANE COUNTY FAIRGROUNDS CO SMIliMGtjljlj MAKE A DIFFERENCE - TEACH OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY GRADUATE PROGRAMS IN TEACHING AND SCHOOL COUNSELING Master of Arts in Teaching; Agriculture E dur ation Biology, Chemistry, Integrated Science and Physic* Education Elementary f dotation I nglish E (location ■ wsunn ruu .man Home Economics Education Mathematics t ducntion Musk: Education Phy sen'll F ducal ion Technology Education MSlfiCounatlng: -Sft'Wl Counseling Application deadlines to begin Summer 1996: Elementary Education Decembers, 199b Secondary and K 12 January 12. 1996 School Counseling February 15. 1996 nor information and application contact: Student Services. 100 Education Hall, School ol Education, Oregon State University, Corvallis OR 9/331 350? or call (503) 737 4841 Email haleyk@ccmail.orst.edu UAU 4 m■ AcBmtv tqr.Mt ^fiPizza Pipeline Piping Hot! 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