Useful Fools

Roger L Simon has been doing a great job of keeping the UN Oil-For-Food scandal alive, scooping the MSM on the depth of Kofi Annan’s family involvement.

Enough of this raises a basic question about the UN: can an organization largely composed of individuals from culture where corruption is rampant be effective at other than lining the pockets of its staff?

History says “no” - corruption, once it reaches a certain level, becomes the daily purpose and modus vivendi of the corrupt organization, be it a government, an NGO or a corporation. Corruption is a corrosive agent that threatens to dissolve the working structure of any large human organization. It is also a cultural norm in most societies, a vestige of feudalism or tribalism, where the “powerful man” solves social problems in return for money or other favors. Corruption is why Mexico, rich in natural resources, consistently turns in pathetic economic performances while producing billionaire presidents. Corruption is one reason the USSR fell. Corruption is the biggest reason that most 3rd and 4th world countries remain in poverty.

It should come as no surprise that the United Nations has long been an inefficient body with lofty goals and expectations towering over low achievement and disappointment. When a bureaucrat is chosen from a member nation, what are the odds that corruption, not merit led to the choice? When huge amounts of money are spent by unsupervised bureaucracies, how much is steered by corruption?

The United Nations may be the last great myth - a corrupt and venal organization believed, out or pure romanticism, to be useful and good. It is time for UN supporters to look at it with the same bright light used on the projects they dislike. The results will be instructive.