Meanwhile, the campus sinks and the rodents rise...
To try and move the request for funding along, the U.N. has invited a group of politicians, journalists and diplomats on a "scenic" tour of the bowels of the world body.
What will they see?
. Besides the rats, mice, centipedes, spiders and cockroaches, the VIPs will see rotting ventilation pipes, asbestos-filled storage rooms, and an air conditioning system (built by Carrier in the 1950s) that would have a hard time cooling a drink in the Delegates Lounge, let alone the entire U.N. complex.
In 2000, just weeks before the U.N.'s Millennium Summit, a 4-foot section of the ceiling of the Delegates Lounge collapsed right above an area where President Bill Clinton was to have an official lunch with Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
. In other areas, public water fountains spew a greenish-brown water that most folks opt not to partake of when it surfaces. Nobody seems to know what is in this liquid... perhaps secret Iraqi WMD?
Most diplomats complain that this is not "what the U.N. is supposed to be."
At the U.S.'s U.N. mission building nearby, things are not much better.
Some U.S. diplomats complain that their diplomatic headquarters "looks more like a YMCA than a diplomatic mission."
Move it to Paris...