Saturday, June 27, 2020

The UN - Fit for Purpose?

The United Nations deputy secretary-general  Amina Mohammed  said their had been a distinct lack of solidarity regarding the coronavirus outbreak and told DW that a number of countries displayed a "me first" attitude, when the world "needed to come together."

Mohammed recognized that nations needed to look after their own interests first, before helping others, but now the time has come to work together. She said: "We understand that you need to put the oxygen mask on before you can reach out and help others," but now it is time to "help in that global response."

"But today, we have so many more conflicts. We have different needs. And so I think that one needs to look at being fit for purpose. And I would argue that we could do better."

2 comments:

Mike Ballard said...

Political States are ruled by those who own the wealth labour produces and that which lies in natural resources. Ruling classes have conflicting interests. Sometimes, they can act in tandem with each other in order to overpower other class rulers and their political States. Conflict and war are embedded in class rule.

ajohnstone said...

100% right as usual, Mike.

The United Nations as a solution to the worlds problems is utopian even if certain bodies such as WHO, UNESCO and FAO do have their uses. But we see that even in the pandemic WHO is riven by nationalist self-interest and for Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change it is simply advisory, to be ignored by many countries when the findings are inconvenient.