Revenge Strategy: Wasting the power of your hate on the guiltless (XXIV). United Nations 74th maze?
United Nations Today.
Today we will continue experiencing the United Nations, as one of the consequences after World War II. The UN has grown from what we have read on my last publication to a huge maze of complexity. United Nations has evolved to become a puzzle that needs to be solved not in one post or publication, but at least a couple of them. This is the first one of the week.
Maze Labyrinthus Ribeauville, FRANCE: Aerial view of a giant labyrinth set in Ribeauville, eastern France. AFP PHOTO FREDERICK FLORIN
What is a maze?
A maze is kind of a labyrinth; a puzzle consisting of a complicated network of paths or passages, the aim of which is to find one’s way from an entrance to a goal (finish line). A maze is not easy to solve. It is made up by many tangled or confused-conflicting paths. And that is why many of us get lost inside a maze.
Even though the United Nations has invested to be less than a maze, to a quick-responsive and simple entity, it is quite impossible to understand it without being lost at the beginning.
Where is the UN? Locations: United Nations has 193 countries on board, and its main office-hubs are beyond New York, Geneva, and The Hague. The UN has added regional offices located in Nairobi, Kenya; Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Bankok, Thailand; Santiago, Chile; Beirut, Lebanon; and Vienna, Austria. There are important UN facilities in Washington DC (The World Bank Headquarters is there). Almost every country on earth has at least a little UN local agency.
How many are the UN? Number of employees: UN Staff members are 44,000. 60% work from field locations all over the world. According to payscale.com, United Nations pays its employees an average of $82,397 a year. Salaries at United Nations range from an average of $47,861 to $139,966 a year
The UN system: It has established a chart to understand the basics of how it is organized. We can watch it here. Please let me know if you understand it.
If you wish to download it in PDF, please click here: UN system_chart_17x11 2019.
What does the UN do? Purpose today:
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Maintain International Peace and Security.
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Protect Human Rights
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Deliver Humanitarian Aid
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Promote Sustainable Development
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Uphold International Law
Let´s see the following wrap video, provided by UN Youtube Live Channel, about the United Nations General Assembly from last week:
Why is the UN considered a maze in constant restless waters?
Any consideration is based on perception. Each of us as an individual subjective perception and interpretation of things. In consequence, I believe the big issue with the current United Nations organization has nothing to do with the ultimate utilization of social media tweets, Instagram photos or Facebook posts to communicate. Social media tools are simply a communicational strategy. There are a lot of misunderstandings about what the United Nations has to accomplish, when do they act, how do they proceed, and where do they get the money to pay themselves.
The UN’s confusion perception of a troubled sea is simple. It has two levels. At the internal level, at the tier of sources of funds linked with the interests of each country participating at the UN. And the second matter that causes so much confusion, is at the external level, the lack of education about the UN role in the planet. The roots of the UN charter came after WWII Hitler’s aftermath and the UN itself has not been able to be taught at School (K12-University) as a class or subject. It is important to learn about the UN first, before criticizing it.
Let´s explore the first and most relevant internal level cause of confusion: This started when the UN original parents (UK, USA, France, Russia, and China) structured the “who pays what” with a “donation or contribution” scheme. This UN income inception started as a “foundation for peace”, kind of philanthropy game, which clearly felt into the differentiation of its own sponsors:
(1) The surplus countries: Countries classified as high-income countries or/and certain mid-income countries which can be subdivided into three segments:
- The epicurean big country’s parents and in-laws who have provided the majority of funds for UN affairs. These countries contribute to the bulk core of donations. These countries have a surplus or abundance of resources and the capability to pay their gifts on time and sharply to the United Nations.
- The intermediate size comfortable countries, which have reached a status of economic-political-social stability during the last 74 years after the end of WWII, but, do not have a critical aggregative decision making influence separately or individually.
- The rest of the bantam lilliput countries which are also stable (have not had wars or conflicts) and can contribute to the UN without any problem.
(2) The dearth countries:
These are the world nations which have been classified as Low-Income countries with more than half of its population living with less than US$5 dollars per day. These codependent states, usually, have been unable to be self-sustainable from their own production resources. And the majority are highly indebted. These countries are remarkably in need, and many of them are the direct recipient of the UN basic programs or SDG goals. The common denominator of the dearth countries is their high level of poverty, lack of institutional ethical structures and the majority have become poorest, either because they have had wars or civil conflicts, or they have had dictatorial anti-human rights regimes for many decades, or because they have not been successful to implement a balanced social promotion to help them to leave the multidimensional scarcity. In addition, these countries have not had a consistent and coherent public policy compass, and their degree of instability is closely related to one or more causes of poverty shown below.
Causes and Symptoms of Poverty. An effort to gather them in one shot. By Eleonora Escalante with the help of other authors.
Let´s start to ask ourselves some pertinent questions, in order to understand why the UN is perceived as a maze:
- What happens when we confuse the United Nations with the rest of the entities (specialized entities and other UN relatives)? The UN itself has a different and specific budget in comparison to its other specialized agencies.
- What happens with the UN, when a minimum amount of countries show a surplus (are rich and have everything under control), meanwhile we discover that even mid-income countries need help to improve their levels of SDG?
- What occurs when the biggest contributors to the United Nations as USA, China, or Japan wish to fix “their own way” the issues in the world, and the rest of the countries do not agree?
- What happens when each country’s contributor of funds to the UN and its affiliates, starts to request that part of their grant is also returned to them?. Each country has a list of priorities to solve, and each leader goes to the UN to knock the door with the intent of trying to find resources for their own critical issues.
- What happens when the second block of nations (dearth countries), which I name as the “needy”, receive funds to improve their situations, and after a few years, nothing results? There are minimum expectations from donors, and the problems have persisted without any amelioration…
- What happens when the problem of one rich surplus country is not war, but climate change?
- What happens at the UN decision making level when Antonio Guterres receives a voluntary billionaire donation from a wealthy group of citizens who are determined to save the extinct species from the oceans, meanwhile he doesn´t have the money to help to solve Yemen and Saudi Arabia´s problem?, or Iran continues to exploit its Uranium´s mines above the allowed maximum limit?
- What occurs at the UN, when the central European countries, all together in a block decide to offer more money to the UN but they ask “exclusively” for programs in return for their own needs and wants in developing countries where they wish to invest?
- What happens when a royal kingdom decides to promote education at an international level and decides to do it through the UN or one of its affiliates; when in reality UN is begging for funds to solve the “other war” boom issues of the world?
- What occurs to the UN, when they watch how the sources of funds go directly to the sons and daughters entities with specific purposes such as UNDP, or UNICEF, but they have little or no influence over them?
- What happens when the most critical issue for China´s expansion into emerging markets, is not the most crucial issue for Pakistan or it is not the most relevant issue for India? How to proceed when main donors are resented because other nations have not paid their dues?
UN budget (of one year only). Source Statista
- What happens when the little kids of the United Nations, such as the specialized UN entities have become gross and bigger in resources, people and budget, than the core budget of the original UN Father Peacekeeping division?
- What happens when some leaders insist on dismissing the problems of war in developing countries, just because “it is not of their concern”, and no one wants to provide funds to stop wars or civil conflicts…?
- What happens when China and Russia wish to gain more jurisdiction and influence on the United Nations, by providing more sources of funds, but some countries do not trust them for it?
- What happens when the critical first priority for the United States let´s say is drug use disorders (opioids) and this priority is different than the critical first priorities of the recent war and refugees affected countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Iraq, Lybia, Yemen, Venezuela or other countries listed below:
Source Global Index of Peace, prepared by the Institute of Economics and Peace.
On my next publication, we will continue exploring self-explanatory questions to address the second reason of complexity to understanding the UN at an external level. The UN lack of knowledge or education from all of us. How can we appreciate something that we do not know? We will also explore some budget numbers.
Thank you. ¡Necesito una taza de café!
Source of Reference to write this article:
https://qz.com/1396994/where-does-the-un-get-its-money-a-simple-explanation-of-a-complex-system/
Disclaimer: Illustrations in Watercolor are painted by Eleonora Escalante. Other types of illustrations or videos (which are not mine) are used for educational purposes ONLY. Nevertheless, the majority of the pictures, images or videos shown on this blog are not mine. I do not own any of the lovely photos or images posted unless otherwise stated.
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