Posted on 01/08/2005 8:39:47 AM PST by Brian Mosely
Saturday evening moving into night. We have a slight lull in the pace of activity at the Embassy; all of today's C-130s are loaded and on the way -- even my teen-aged son whom I can't get to pick up his room was unloading trucks at the airport. After a few calls, we managed to snag another hanger at the airfield to store the pile of supplies which keeps growing despite the multiple C-130 flights. It's a pleasure to watch the Australians and our guys work together. They're interchangeable -- except for that, that . . . uh, you know, that cricket thing . . . but for that flaw the Aussies would seem perfectly normal.
You don't want to hear about Aussies and Yanks working. You know all about that. You want to know about the UN. The UN, you ask, what about the UN? Gee, fUNny you should ask. I was just thinking about the UN. Yesterday the UN rep who flew up to Aceh solely for the event, held a press conference at which he criticized the US airlift of supplies. The little S.O.B sniffed that it was "uncoordinated" and that some villages were fed twice while others were missed and that no "assessment teams" were being sent. The Guardian and AP have picked up the story, but my internet is so s-l-o-w, that I haven't been able to find it and link to it. Maybe tonight the internet will speed up and I can find it. I learn from colleagues who were there, no journalist asked the little twit just how many people the UN had fed, and if, indeed, "assessment teams" are what is needed why haven't the gadzillion UN assessment teams hanging out in the capital moved into these remote villages. I'm sorry but I detest these Vultures more and more.
What else is the UN up to, you ask? Oh the usual that you would expect from an organization with a dozen or so well-funded agencies supposedly devoted to emergency humanitarian relief . . . no, no, not feed people or provide them medical care, what do you think the UN is, the US military or something? What is wrong with you readers? Has The Diplomad taught you nothing? The correct response is put out a press release in New York claiming to be doing all sorts of things that others, e.g., US and Australia, are doing -- oh, and catch the dig at US helicopters.
The local UNocrats, not to be outdone by their New York Vulture brethren, tore themselves away from the buffet at the Hyatt, and put out a matrix, dated January 5, that sums up what the UN has "done" since the quake and tsunami hit on December 26. It's a pack of outright lies and distortions.
My favorite entries in the matrix come from UNICEF (see the prior pre-tsunami Diplomad posting on the glories of UNICEF.) Under "Water & Sanitation," UNICEF tells us "Response team being deployed." Yessiree, that'll put water into dehydrated kids' mouths -- a "response team" which is not even here yet. Under "Health," UNICEF engages in a grotesque lie: The matrix lists a number of items as tsunami relief which UNICEF had PREVIOUSLY donated to the Ministry of Health -- this is known as "double counting" or "cooking the books." Under "Food/Nutrition," they list "Deworming tablets for 676,000 children (to combat anemia.)" How about combating starvation first? In the "Education" column we learn that UNICEF has donated "100 sports kits; 50 psycho-social kits; 50 uniform kits; 100 furniture kits; psycho-social training and supplies for 300 teachers."
Let the mockery begin . . . Oops! No, no, wait, my friends, the best, the best is yet to come!
Under "Other," UNICEF proudly boasts it has sent the one item desperate people most want, UNICEF Director Carol Bellamy! Yes, she arrived, took a tour, and gave a press conference. Just think how many people were saved by UNICEF flying Bellamy and her entourage out here first class, putting them up in a five-star hotel, and flying them up and back to Aceh, and then back to New York. Makes you want to rush out and buy those UNICEF cards and go out collecting money for UNICEF doesn't it? Carol Bellamy, Queen of the Vultures and the Supreme High Priestess, Con Artist Without Peer has graced these shores, we truly live in an age of wonders.
UNDP comes close to UNICEF in the brazenness competition. All the columns save one are blank. Under "Other," UNDP states "$100K cash grant for coordination + assessment; 2 Recovery experts sent to arrive 12/31." In other words, they've spent $100,000 to do what they're supposed to do in the first place, coordinate and assess; oh and they've flown two folks out here (first class, of course) who'll do something or another. Have they in fact arrived? What have they done since then? These are questions to which you will never get a straight answer. WFP, OCHA, and WHO can barely come up with anything to brag about: in fact, WHO (World Health Organization) has NO entries at all in the matrix' columns. UNHCR claims to have provided 20 thousand jerry cans for water, there's one problem with that claim: USAID provided the cans which are filled up on the USS Abraham Lincoln with pure water and flown to affected areas by USN Seahawk choppers -- the very ones that get criticized so very much.
Our folks in Aceh report that UN "coordination" means that the UN holds a meeting every day at 5 pm near the runway in Aceh. Every donor nation and NGO stands up and states what it's doing; the UN rep writes it down. Some times, however, it's hard to hear. The distinctive "whoop! whoop! whoop!" of those nasty American choppers and the roar of Australian and American C-130 engines on the tarmac can prove very bothersome to the UN rep as he tries to hear what everyone else is doing. Poor man! If only those stingy Aussies and Yanks would have the decency to shut down relief operations while the UN rep is trying to hold a meeting, after all, he's here to help, help himself, that is, to taking credit for what the others are doing.
One last thought. Who ever said Mother Nature didn't have a black sense of humor? Let me tell you a true story about an Acehenese cow. She survived the earthquake and the tsunami. On January 5, as she was crossing the runway a B-737 bringing relief supplies hit and killed her. The 737? Crumpled undercarriage and damaged wing. Nobody human hurt. Runway operations shut down until (please play Flight of the Valkyries) a superb combined USAF/USN team came choppering in with the most amazing gadgets and moved the thing off the runway, restoring full operations in just a few hours. To paraphrase the Joker, "Where do they get such wonderful toys!"
Back to the airport . . .
This guy is so good...
but I haven't heard him quoted on Fox News, Rush, Sean, Medved, Hewitt, Boortz, Hedgecock, etc. Nor, obviously, on ABCNNBCBS. He is linked to all the time by the big bloggers. He really needs to get into the mainstream conservative media.
FUNny stuff!
the Yoo-En..., the Yoo-En... As long as the Yoo-En don't stand in front of the flight line protesting, I'll refrain myself!!!
The UN is s JOKE!!! Time to bail out!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316555/posts
(Barf alert)
A tragedy that could make - or break - the troubled UN
Guardian ^ | 01/08/05 | Simon Tisdall
UNgrateful posers.
Thanks for posting Brian - I check his site a couple times a day for updates. We need to start sending his stuff to FoxNews, Rush, Sean, etc., etc.
Diplomad update ping
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1316871/posts
Hugh Hewitt: Who's Stingy Now?
The Weekly Standard ^ | January 7, 2005 | Hugh Hewitt
Posted on 01/08/2005 4:17:25 PM CST by RWR8189
The United Nations fritters away money while the American military steps in to help the hopeless in southeast Asia.
IF YOU'RE GETTING OVER being steamed at Norwegian U.N. apparatchik Jan Egeland, who a week ago thought the U.S. response to the tsunami "stingy," then you need to check in at The Diplomad, a tremendous blog run by a State Department careerist serving abroad and which has done more for the reputation of State among conservatives in the past few months than 20 years of Council of Foreign Relations meets and greets. Short summary: Your worst fears about the United Nations are true.
snip
LOL - I dropped Diplomad a comment that he was being WIDELY circulated in America. Hope he doesn't lose his job!!
If you're a big blog reader, I recommend BlogLines. I use it as a consolidator for the dozens of blogs I try to follow. One glance tells you whether a particular blog has an update.
PING
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