Posted on 12/29/2004 5:07:39 AM PST by IronJack
Here's a letter my father sent the UN weenie:
Mr Jan Egeland
Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs
United Nation Organization
New York, New York
Dear Mr Egeland,
United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs!
My, what an impressive title, truly appropriate for an international bureaucrat and Euroweenie.
It seems you believe the United States to be 'stingy' when it comes to disbursing humanitarian relief around the world. Not only that, it seems you believe that I, as an American, am clamoring for an increase in my taxes to accomplish this noble task.
What a mind set! U.S. politicians, in the main, leave much to be desired. So many are vainglorious, self aggrandizing, ignorant and corrupt, but they cannot compare to the politicians and bureaucrats in your own organization.
Tell me, where were you, in your guise as "Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs" during the period of sanctions on Iraq? Oh! Were the tears being shed about the perfidy of the United States, with the complaints of the lack of food and medicine in that benighted country! Why, it turns out that UN officials and their friends were making tens of millions of dollars in illegal deals with Hussein. Were you not aware of what was going on right under your own nose? Where was your concern for 'humanity'?
Concerning the subject of "concern for humanity", what has your organization accomplished in
Darfur, with, in your owns words, over 70,000 dead and 10,000 more dead each month.
Democratic Republic of Congo /Rwanda, with close to 4 million dead and United Nations 'troops' more involved in prostitution and child rape than they are in attempting to establish peace - 'soldiers' who don't want to be 'warriors'.
Mr Egeland, The United States will send more aid when a proper assessment is made of the needs of those affected by the tsunami. In the meantime, if the UN is in dire need of funds for your own "humanitarian assistance", I suggest you contact those colleagues who made those many millions with the "Oil for Food" program. (Granted, however, there won't be much chance of 'skimming' a bit as the middleman's percentage.)
By the way, I was rather surprised at your use of the word 'Christmastime'.
How politically incorrect!
But then I realized, of course, there was 'a method to your madness'.
What sanctimonious prigs you people are!
Try: <"p"> (without quotes).
Thanks for the post, IronJack.
Bttt
Such figures were what prompted Jan Egeland - the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator and former head of the Norwegian Red Cross - to challenge the giving of rich nations.
. . .
Measured another way, as a percentage of gross national product, the OECD's figures on development aid show that as of April, none of the world's richest countries donated even 1 percent of its gross national product. Norway was highest, at 0.92 percent; the United States was last, at 0.14 percent.
Bush's Reply says is all:
"Well, I felt like the person who made that statement was very misguided and ill-informed," Bush said from his Texas ranch. "We're a very generous, kindhearted nation, and, you know, what you're beginning to see is a typical response from America." Bush noted that the United States provided $2.4 billion "in food, in cash, in humanitarian relief to cover the disasters for last year. ... That's 40 percent of all the relief aid given in the world last year."
The UN received a 2.2%? commission on all Oil for Food monies, they skimmed this right off the top.
The UN was to use this money to oversee the Oil for Food program, since they didn't do that, they are guilty of malfeasance and theft by fraud.
The UN has been around about 50 years. Can you name 5 UN successes? That's only 1 success per decade, it should be easy.
Great post, Jack!
The French were so stingy that they left the elderly to die while the young celebrated their "vacations" during a heat wave summer before last.
As well it should. This man is supposed to be a diplomat handling a crisis. Instead, he precipitates a greater crisis by insulting the greatest contributor to the crisis' relief. That spells incompetence in my book, and should destroy the reputation of the offender.
... as long as every other person in Sub-Saharan Africa ... gets by on less than $1 a day, I hope you would agree that the situation is pretty grim
Admittedly, but that is hardly the fault of the United States or anyone else. Blaming others for that misfortune simply clouds the real issues, and sabotages real solutions.
... and that mincing one's words shouldn't necessarily be the first priority.
Precisely. Which is why I did not mince words.
On a practical note, I'd be much obliged if anyone could tell me how to get space between an italicized quotation and my own subsequent remarks.
Use the "greater than" and "less than" signs (upper case of the comme and period, respectively) to bracket an HTML command, in this case the letter "p" (for paragraph).
According to the UN and Jan Egeland Norway is number 1 in giving at .9% of GDP and that the USA is last in giving at .14% of GDP.
In the real world, which would you really rather have the USA's .14 or Norway's .9%?
Hint: The USA's .14% is a vastly larger number of dollars than is Norway's .9%. Americans give more in every measurement except as a percentage of GDP because of our GDP is so large.
Part of the luxury of having an $10 trillion economy is that we can do many more good things because each thing takes a smaller percentage to do.
Snowbirds bring their dollars down to NW Florida during the off-season. They keep help Walmart and the 2 for 1 dinner specials active.
So Egeland can go to hell...
We need to stop being "diplomatic" with these people and just toss them out on their backsides. I'm fed up with them, and I'm even more fed up with the liberal creeps who take their side in this.
Raising awareness of human rights and making the World Declaration of 1948 one of the leading documents of our time;
Contributions to establishing the Law of the Sea and other aspects of the Law of Peoples;
The successful contributions of several agencies including The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR);
Preventing civil wars during decolonization, for instance in the Congo, 1960-61;
Ending the Iran-Iraq war in 1988;
Helping to end apartheid in South Africa;
Keeping the peace on Cyprus; in Lebanon; Liberia; Angola; Ethiopia/Erithrea; the Central African Republic; Bosnia and Kosovo after the wars; in and many other locations;
Wiping out smallpox;
Monitoring and promoting free elections in countries like El Salvador, East Timor, Eritrea, Guatemala, and many other;
Preventing massive famine on the Horn of Africa in 2001;
Getting Iran to agree to spot checks of nuclear facilities. Like I said, those are just a few that come to mind.
I do agree with the posters who note that private donations must also be counted in, it's just that many of the countries big on public aid also give a lot of private donations. Per capita, at least...
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