OMNI
UNITED NATIONS
ACHIEVEMENTS
March 28, 2016
Compiled by Dick
Bennett for a Culture of Peace
See:
OMNI UN Day Newsletter #8 http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/2015/10/un-day-newsletter-8-october-24-2015.html
What’s at stake: The United Nations was
created in response to two World Wars so horrendously lethal that the century
is recalled for its mass slaughters and atrocities. The central purpose of the Charter of the
UN, largely instigated and written by US representatives, is to end wars of
aggression by nations. That ideal is
still urgently important to the world, and although the wars have not been
ended, the good provided by the cooperation of nations through the UN is
incalculable in suffering diminished and lives saved. And let’s not forget that during the Cold
War both of the belligerents used and undermined the UN for their own
purposes. Today let us return to the
Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the dozens of
extraordinarily helpful UN agencies—as well as to the Geneva Conventions and to
the Nuremberg Principles—for building a Culture of Peace and Ecology for the
generations to come.
Contents
Dick,
Another Corrupt Guvment?
UN
Achievements Recounted in One Newsletter
UN
Climate Action
Sex
and Gender
UNFPA,
Family Planning
War,
Land Mines
UN
USA
Dick,
Paul Greenberg’s Mencken Moment
Books
About the UN
Roger
Lipsey’s Hammarskjold
THE UN ANOTHER CORRUPT
GUVMENT? BY Dick Bennett
A
friend wrote to me: Dick-What
do you think is the credibility for the statement "The UN is just one more
corrupt international organization"?
My reply: What is not credible is the dogmatic
dislike of government promoted by one Party in the US. Affirmative government has proven its immense usefulness to people from the Land Grant
Universities and County Agents to Roosevelt’s New Deal and Social Security to
the National Institutes of Health and the Environmental
Protection Agency. These organizations
are corrupt?
The UN suffers the same
calumny. Haters of “guvment” also hate
the UN in the abstract as dogmas go. But
its subsidiary
bodies--its agencies (ILO, FAO, UNESCO, WHO, ICAO, UPU, ITU, WMO, IMO, WIPO, IFAD, UNDIO, and UNWTO) and related bodies (IAEA), all part of the United Nations system of
administered by the International Civil Service--are carte blanche
corrupt? The unsupportable slander is
outrageous.
But we have been talking about US and UN
civil, civilian society. If we turn to
the military the word “corrupt” might apply.
Not that individually military personnel are any more venal that their
civilian counterparts. But if you
compare the civilian system with the
military system you confront the
corruption not denoted by the synonyms of venality but by those of subversion
and defilement. We are guided from birth
not to kill other humans. Empathy, compassion
are taught as the best, the true human nature.
That is why so many young veterans are killing themselves, the
consequence of what we now recognize as “moral injury.” They were forced in basic military training
to renounce their moral and spiritual commitment to other humans, were sent to
war against them, and to kill them. And then, the deeply, morally sensitive
ones, kill themselves, but I suspect few who kill escape remorse.
Against this dismaying warping of our
society, and cruel perversion of our youth, we can oppose wars, and we can turn
to the United Nations for support.
United, not separate and warring.
Not conquering and occupying the world through armed force. Instead
of our burgeoning, bristling westward Empire surrounding China and North Korea,
for example—from San Diego/Vandenberg Missile Site/Seattle/Trident
submarines/Hawai'I to Guam/Okinawa/SK/Philippines/Australia--let us convert
this dangerous, threatening, armed force to helping E. Asia prepare and adapt
for the storms and floods and droughts ahead. Then we'll have real
security. And the military suicides will
end.
Is it any mystery why our
mainstream media underreports the UN and especially its achievements? I
urge you to join me in supporting the UNITED NATIONS.
UN
ACHIEVEMENTS in One Number of UN Foundation News
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UN
ON SEX AND GENDER
The
elimination
of the violent practice of female genital mutilations was one of the
Sustainable Development Goals adopted unanimously by UN member states in
2015. On Feb. 5, 2016, UN officials declared
2030 as the target. UNICEF estimates
that “at least 200 million girls and women…have undergone FGM. But since 2008 more than 15,000 communities
in 20 countries have abandoned the practice, “and five countries have passed
legislation criminalizing it.”
On
Feb. 4 the UN Postal Administration unveiled six new stamps that promote
equality for and celebrate
the diversity of LGBT. They are part of UN Free and Equal, a global campaign
to promote equal rights and reduce crimes against and criminalization of LGBT
throughout the world.
From
“Worth Noting,” Karen Ann Gajewski, The
Humanist (March-April 2016).
www.unfpa.org/
United
Nations Population Fund
News. 17
March 2016. The time is now: A call to end female genital mutilation,
child marriage and son selection by 2030. “When I was 12-years old, my
family ...
Jobs - About us - Contact - Sexual & reproductive health
You've
visited this page 4 times. Last visit: 3/16/16
www.unfpa.org/.../unfpa-internship-pro...
United
Nations Population Fund
United
Nations Population Fund. English · Español · Français ... Closing
date: 31 December 2016 - 5:00pm (New York time).
Duty station: HQ, New York.
www.unfpa.org/.../young-innovators-fell...
United
Nations Population Fund
United
Nations Population Fund. English · Español · Français ... Closing
date: 22 February 2016 - 5:00pm (New York time).
Duty station: HQ, New York.
countryoffice.unfpa.org/india/
United
Nations Population Fund
Joint
Statement by United Nations Population Fund and the
International ... 01/19/2016, UNFPA/IND/2016/002 -
State Programme Officer, Madhya Pradesh ...
www.unfpa.org/.../2016-international-co...
United
Nations Population Fund
United
Nations Population Fund. English · Español · Français ... 2016 International
Conference on Family Planning. 25 January 2016 -
28 January 2016.
UN Mine-clearing
As of mid-December, 2001, Afghanistan had “a
small army of mine-clearers—about 4,500 of them, most employed by half a dozen
U.N.-affiliated agencies” Their work was
suspended Oct. 7, when the U.S. began bombing Taliban and al-Qaida targets, but
resumed Nov. 14 in parts of Afghanistan after the Taliban fled Kabul.
Google Search, March 28, 2016
www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/landmines/
United
Nations
Landmines come
in two varieties: anti-personnel and anti-vehicle mines. Both have caused great
suffering in the past decades. Anti-personnel landmines are ...
www.un.org/en/globalissues/demining/
United
Nations
Every
year, landmines kill 15,000 to 20,000 people — most of
them children, women and the elderly — and severely maim countless more.
Scattered in some 78 ...
www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/landmines/mineban/
United
Nations
The
Convention was concluded by the Diplomatic Conference on an International Total
Ban on Anti-Personnel Land Mines at Oslo on 18
September 1997.
www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/issues/mineaction.shtml
United
Nations
The United
Nations and its partners, wherever they work on mine action,
strive to ... The problem of landmines and
explosive remnants of war, including cluster ...
www.mineaction.org/
United
Nations Mine Action Service
The
vision of the United Nations is a world free of the
threat of landmines and explosive remnants of war, where
individuals and communities live in a safe ...
www.unausa.org/
United
Nations Association of the United States of Am...
Dedicated
to enhancing U.S. participation in the United Nations system
with its agenda of education, public research, and substantive policy analysis.
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PAUL GREENBERG’s MENCKEN
MOMENT OF HATING THE UN by Dick Bennett
Sometimes even
ordinarily balanced individuals become rabid when they try and fail to discuss
the UN. This happened recently to Paul
Greenberg, the Editorial Page Editor of the Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette, Arkansas’ leading newspaper. In a column discussing good
and bad books, under the latter, after having quoted “the late great” H. L
Mencken’s bashing of Woodrow Wilson’s The
New Freedom in support of the League of Nations (“’hollowness…ludicrous strutting and bombast…greasy and
meaningless words’”), Greenberg
writes the following about the United Nations:
“That description brings to mind today’s
naifs who go into raptures over the League’s successor, the United Nations, or
just takes that outfit at its worthless word—whether in Syria or anywhere
else.” Greenberg is well-educated and
elaborately articulate; he is a wordsman; he chooses his words carefully,
especially when he wishes to put someone down.
So let us look at his words
carefully.
Everyone enthusiastic over something a UN
agency has accomplished is an inexperienced person (“naif”) who feels ecstacy
(“rapture”), as with being transported to another sphere of existence? Rather, in my experience, an encounter with
UN efforts to relieve suffering (WHO, UNHCR, and so on), for example, the
feeling has been admiration for the conscience and hard work. The UN is an
“outfit,” according to my dictionary a “business firm engaged in a particular
commercial enterprise”? The UN in all
its labors for the world for all of its seventy years is “worthless”? Even
the Peacekeepers are mainly honest, and their rapes and disease transmission
are much the result of UN dependence upon national volunteer armies. Greenberg knows the extraordinary complexity
of the UN. He’s not dumb, but he is
malicious in reducing the UN to an “outfit” and its admirers to “naifs.”
Or, in case I am not sufficiently
appreciative of his enjoyment of word-play, perhaps at that moment he thought
he was the “late great” not only at the slash and smash but at the sneer and
snide? Or maybe, an interesting
possibility, he wanted to explore how far he could go in playing with his
Pulitzer Prize reputation, without incurring serious permanent damage in the
eyes of his publisher or his readers?
Reference: Paul Greenberg, “Best and Worst,” Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (March 6,
2016), 4H.
BOOKS
Mazower,
Mark. No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of the
United Nations. Princeton UP, 2010. The founders of the UN envisioned no radical
break with power politics, but viewed it as an institution whereby power
politics could be pursued by other means.
Most-browsed book in
the UN library in 2015? A primer on war-crime immunity
Dr Ramona Pedretti’s Immunity of Heads of State and State
Officials for International Crimes was the most-consulted new title at the
United Nations library, with Malala Yousafzai’s autobiography I Am Malala most
popular overall
The book is based on Columbia University
fellow Dr Ramona Pedretti’s doctoral thesis, and its publisher promises it “gives the
reader a full picture of this topical issue, which is located at the heart of
today’s development of international law”. Chapter headings range from “Immunity of heads
of state and other state officials from the criminal jurisdiction of a foreign
state” to “The immunity of heads of state and other state officials as rules of
customary international law”.
“Basically, Pedretti is arguing that
incumbent heads of state can’t be charged and prosecuted by a foreign court,
whereas past heads of state can,” wrote Vox, quoting Pedretti’s statement that:
“Immunity ratione personae prevents incumbent heads of state
from being subjected to foreign criminal jurisdiction.”
President Bush and his close advisors (Rice,
Cheney) I’ll wager have read that book!
Google
Search, March 28, 2016
https://www.questia.com/library/politics.../united-nations/united-nations
Discover
librarian-selected research resources on United Nations from
the ... such as the admission of new members,
the revision of the charter, and budgetary ...
www.booksforunderstanding.org
› Book Lists › International
International
Security Management and the United Nations Editors
Muthiah ... Enhancing Global Governance: Towards a New Diplomacy
Editors Andrew ...
https://unp.un.org/
United
Nations
THE
OFFICIAL SOURCE FOR UNITED NATIONS BOOKS, DATA
& MORE ... This 2015 edition examines the seismic changes in the new world
of paid and ...
www.nytimes.com/2006/12/10/books/.../Joffe.t.htm...
The New
York Times
Dec 10, 2006
- James Traub examines Kofi Annan's career as United
Nations ... is one of the finest guides around, indeed, the best
in recent memory.
www.socialstudies.org/system/files/publications/se/5807/5807books.html
Recent
Books on the United Nations.
Reviewed by Kimberly Bush General Works Birth of a New World:
An Open Moment for International Leadership. By Harlan ...
I
spent many enjoyable hours with Lipsey’s splendid book. Give it a look. --Dick
Hammarskjöld: A Life by Roger Lipsey
The definitive biography of Dag Hammarskjöld
Description
After his
mysterious death, Dag Hammarskjöld was described by John F. Kennedy as the
"greatest statesman of our century." Second secretary-general of the
United Nations (1953 - 61), he is the only person to have been awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize posthumously. Through extensive research in little explored archives
and personal correspondence, Roger Lipsey has produced the definitive biography
of Dag Hammarskjöld. Hammarskjöld: A Life provides vivid new
insights into the life and mind of a truly great individual. Hammarskjöld the
statesman and Hammarskjöld the author of the classic spiritual journal Markings meet
in this new biography - and the reader will meet them both in these pages. A
towering mid-twentieth-century figure, Hammarskjöld speaks directly to our
time.
“An
admirably judicious and comprehensive—and long overdue—study of one of the most
remarkable figures of the twentieth century, whose presence remains both
spiritually and politically significant for an age of violently confused
international relations.”
—Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College (Cambridge University), former Archbishop of Canterbury
—Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College (Cambridge University), former Archbishop of Canterbury
“A good and
indispensable man, Hammarskjöld ‘understood and respected the need for heroes.’
In this lucid, well-written biography, he certainly emerges as one.”
—KIRKUS
—KIRKUS
The website
related to Hammarskjöld: A Life can be found at www.dag-hammarskjold.com.
Roger Lipsey, author,
art historian, editor, and translator, has written on a wide range of topics
and intellectual figures. He was the general editor of the three-volume edited
works of Ananda K. Coomaraswamy. Other works include An Art of Our Own:
The Spiritual in Twentieth-Century Art and the prizewinning Angelic
Mistakes: The Art of Thomas Merton. He is director of the parent company
that publishes Parabola magazine.
Praise / Awards
·
"An admirably judicious and comprehensive - and long overdue
- study of one of the most remarkable figures of the twentieth century, whose
presence remains both spiritually and politically significant for an age of
violently confused international relations."
—Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College (Cambridge University), former Archbishop of Canterbury
—Rowan Williams, Master of Magdalene College (Cambridge University), former Archbishop of Canterbury
- See more at:
https://www.press.umich.edu/4422905/hammarskjold#sthash.8z9Ge7We.dpuf
END UNITED NATIONS ACHIEVEMENTS
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