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Posted on 02/11/2010 4:26:13 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
Welcome to Bantanamo
Posted By Colum Lynch Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - 5:29 PM Share
For the next four years, the United Nations' nerve center, including Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's office, will be situated in a squat, three-story, corrugated steel building on the U.N.'s north lawn that looks like a cross between a suburban big-box store and a high-security lockup facility.
Bantánamo, a nickname embraced by U.N. staffers, has taken much of the grandeur out of diplomacy at the United Nations. It's a serious comedown for U.N. civil servants and delegates who have been grinding away in the cause of peace in one of New York City's architectural landmarks, the glass and marble U.N. headquarters tower and the U.N. General Assembly hall -- now undergoing a $1.87 billion renovation.
"The morale among the people in the secretary general's office has never been lower," a U.N. official who works in the new building told Turtle Bay. "Everybody is profoundly depressed and demoralized because they are put into windowless, airless cubicles that are completely inhumane."
Some diplomats say the scaled-down, no-frills quarters send just the right message for an organization that has been struggling to shake off a reputation as wasteful. "It's stern and pragmatic but it's by no means ostentatious," said Heraldo Muñoz, Chile's U.N. ambassador, adding that governments, principally the United States, have unfairly criticized the organization in the past and starved it of cash. "Being in this temporary shelter reflects the state of the U.N. I feel we should be able to put it up with it for a few years."
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At a ribbon-cutting ceremony last month, Ban celebrated the building's lack of pretension, noting that "there are no escalators. The windows are limited. We have simple concrete floors. No carpets."
(Excerpt) Read more at turtlebay.foreignpolicy.com ...
Who cares. Get out of my country.
Well, it’s a start. Now to get them OUT of my country once and for all!
...low moral... Heck... Go back to the swamp or where ever these drones came from.
GMTA and only 40 seconds or so.
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They’ve got 3 other headquarters, why don’’t they just move into one of those ?
So close to 2 Billion Dollars in renovations for these folks and they still gripe about their temporary quarters?
Pretty grateful lot, these UN types.
Given the speed the UN does things they will be in these temporary quarters for a decade or more.
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