THE U.N. (AS IN USELESS NATIONS)
I guess the UN, having acted so decisively and expeditiously in the December 26 tsunami crisis (are you aware that on January 18, the U.N. became ACTIVE, FINALLY, in Sumatra with TWO leased helicopters), has decided to take on a much larger quest, more suited for such a superbly efficient organization. (Oh, and it should be noted that the US has increased its helo flights from 30/day to 80/day and has been there virtually since day one.) But, I digress. Sorry.
So what is this new U.N. undertaking? What's the U.N.'s new labor of love, that only such a fine global utopian organization would be able to take on and master? Drum roll, please....................................................
It's going to end world poverty! It will now spread the wealth. (This is code speak for taking your money through a global tax). How will they do it ? Well, they have a MAGICAL report. Nope, not an ordinary report, but a magical 3000 page report. 3000 PAGES!
(Their crackpot research team consisted of 265 experts and graduate students took THREE YEARS to collect and analyze the data.)
This magical 3000 page report is entitled, "A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals". You can go to their website and download it for free. Go ahead, download it, read it, and get back to me folks. OK? I expect you to read it in its entirety and then report back to me by the end of the week. You will be graded on it.
"Any report 3,000 pages long is worthless as a plan of action, much less a Practical Plan." So what are some of the tidbits from this plan?
1) recommending that rich countries double their investments in poor countries to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing (by 50%) extreme poverty by 2015 (that's only 10 years from now - a rather ambitious goal wouldn't you say?) and going beyond to eliminate it by 2025.
2) it was time to relaunch the aid target, set in 1969 and confirmed in 2002, of having the 22 rich countries put in 0.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP)
3) one of the biggest benefits of the report would be to help development specialists "get back our ambition" because development experts had become cautious in their thinking because so many programmes had failed. (Heh, heh.) (That's their words/analysis, not mine.)
4) said international organizations and donors needed to strengthen developing country expertise in science and technology through higher education. "Higher education is at the centre of the development process, but assistance to poor countries often focuses mainly on primary schools."
Hmmmmm.....Oh well, I am not going to waste my time trying to analyze that.
The bottom line folks is that an organization that takes 3 weeks to plan and then implement some half-a**ed relief plan to victims of one of the worlds worst natural disasters is incapable of tackling the much more complicated and ambitious endeavor (by taking on the impossible) and eliminating global poverty.
(Hat tip to Diplomad)
So what is this new U.N. undertaking? What's the U.N.'s new labor of love, that only such a fine global utopian organization would be able to take on and master? Drum roll, please....................................................
It's going to end world poverty! It will now spread the wealth. (This is code speak for taking your money through a global tax). How will they do it ? Well, they have a MAGICAL report. Nope, not an ordinary report, but a magical 3000 page report. 3000 PAGES!
(Their crackpot research team consisted of 265 experts and graduate students took THREE YEARS to collect and analyze the data.)
This magical 3000 page report is entitled, "A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals". You can go to their website and download it for free. Go ahead, download it, read it, and get back to me folks. OK? I expect you to read it in its entirety and then report back to me by the end of the week. You will be graded on it.
"Any report 3,000 pages long is worthless as a plan of action, much less a Practical Plan." So what are some of the tidbits from this plan?
1) recommending that rich countries double their investments in poor countries to reach the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) of reducing (by 50%) extreme poverty by 2015 (that's only 10 years from now - a rather ambitious goal wouldn't you say?) and going beyond to eliminate it by 2025.
2) it was time to relaunch the aid target, set in 1969 and confirmed in 2002, of having the 22 rich countries put in 0.7 per cent of their gross national product (GNP)
3) one of the biggest benefits of the report would be to help development specialists "get back our ambition" because development experts had become cautious in their thinking because so many programmes had failed. (Heh, heh.) (That's their words/analysis, not mine.)
4) said international organizations and donors needed to strengthen developing country expertise in science and technology through higher education. "Higher education is at the centre of the development process, but assistance to poor countries often focuses mainly on primary schools."
Hmmmmm.....Oh well, I am not going to waste my time trying to analyze that.
The bottom line folks is that an organization that takes 3 weeks to plan and then implement some half-a**ed relief plan to victims of one of the worlds worst natural disasters is incapable of tackling the much more complicated and ambitious endeavor (by taking on the impossible) and eliminating global poverty.
(Hat tip to Diplomad)
posted by HeavyHanded at
1:34 PM
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