[. . . . ] Traditional distrust or dislike between ethnic gangs is fading.
"Greed will overcome all of that. Fighting and violence between criminal organizations does not pay. Greed will win at the end of the day. Two individuals or criminal groups may not like each other but if there is an opportunity to make huge profits, they will make peace," Chief Supt. Soave said. "We are going to have integrated criminal organizations that are going to pose huge threats." [. . . . ]
UN: Kofi Annan fails to protect whistle-blowers at the UN -- so where does this leave those who would whistleblow on the oil-for-food scandal?
UNITED NATIONS - The axe has been six months in coming, but few familiar with the United Nations doubted it would eventually rid itself of Dr. Andrew Thomson after he and two other staffers authored a book about widespread sexual abuse, drug use, corruption and incompetence in UN peacekeeping.
While handing out the pink slips would have appeared too vindictive at the release of the book in June, the world body has now told Dr. Thomson he's out at the end of December, after serving the organization since 1992.
[. . . . ] Kenneth Cain, a human rights official, and Heidi Postlewait, a UN training officer, joined Dr. Thomson in writing Emergency Sex and Other desperate Measures: A True Story from Hell on Earth.[. . . . ]
Where Corruption Rules -- The U.N. is thoroughly tainted. -- Not accountable to anyone except itself -- This is the "multilateral" body that Paul Martin wants us to heed? Canada's moral beacon?
Another shuck! This is the body that allowed Yasser Arafat armed with a pistol to address the UN peacemaking forum. He may have left the bullets at home but the symbolism of the gun was bad optics and a bad precedent. Then Kofi Annan was invited to address Canada's parliament -- but our government allowed threats of protest--funded by whom?--to prevent President George Bush from addressing our Parliament. Ask Romeo Dallaire what he thinks of the usefulness of the UN after Rwanda. Think AIDS in Africa and South Africa's President Mbeki's refusal to admit its existence for so long, then his pronouncements on who is responsible--and the UN's refusal to consider responses besides blaming the West and demanding Western drugs. The UN has not really explored alternate responses--such as Uganda's Christian-based-abstinence and fidelity program which, apparently is working. Remember the Durban conference on racism and xenophobia? Israelis do, I'm sure. Thug states have secured positions of power and influence in the UN--and participants at the conference had the gall to write up a memorandum at the end that Israel is the only state that engages in racism and xenophobia. Sudan--think Darfur--was one of the co-signers of this. Ask yourself whether the UN has anything useful to say to the West. Now, read the following on what appears to be a sinkhole of corruption.
Calling the UN a peacemaking body and claiming Canadians would all be better off if we followed the "multilateral" approach of the UN does not make it so.
Where Corruption Rules -- The U.N. is thoroughly tainted. Rachel Ehrenfeld, National Review. Rachel Ehrenfeld is the author of Funding Evil: How Terrorism is Financed — and How to Stop It, director of the Manhattan-based American Center for Democracy., and member of the Committee on the Present Danger.
[. . . . ] The U.N.'s corruption is not limited to money. Sexual exploitation and trafficking in minors have been the routine in U.N. refugee-relief programs throughout Africa, the Balkans, and southeast Asia. In 2002, U.N. aid workers distributed food or loans and scholarships throughout refugee camps in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea — in return for sexual favors. The following year, the U.N. investigated a report that a ship chartered for peacekeepers in East Timor was being used to bring in child prostitutes from Thailand. And in the Balkans , U.N. peacekeepers patronized nightclubs where girls as young as 15 were forced to have sex with them. Confronted with one of the scandals, a senior U.N. official responded — in the words of the BBC — that "ending the sexual exploitation of underage refugees would be an uphill task because gender discrimination was deeply rooted in many cultures...all over the world." So you see, it's not really the U.N.'s fault.
What makes this all even more appalling is the fact that the U.N. claims to be at the forefront of the global war against AIDS. Yet U.N. officials' behavior helps spread the disease.
[. . . . ] Indeed, many U.N. officials come from societies in which the level of corruption on all fronts is so high that it is an accepted social norm. [. . . . ]
There is so much more if you read and follow the links there.
