Palmer Events Center
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha - A Damned Clever Comparison (Though Totally Inaccurate)
RECEIVED Tue., Aug. 9, 2005
Dear Editor,
I sit waiting in breathless anticipation of the Chronicle's call to have someone like Jim Hightower write a scathing attack on a corrupt, evil organization surely on par with Enron or WorldCom, the UN. It has all the necessary ingredients of a good anti-corporation rant, corruption, nepotism, rich people stealing from the poor ... it's the oil for food scandal. 'Course, I might have missed it, but I really haven't seen all that much attention paid in this paper to the UN, which is odd. Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad. All virtually ignored by the UN, whose mission I was led to believe was to address issues in places around the world. Like genocide. Politically motivated starvation of hundreds of thousands in Africa. Like slavery in Sudan. Indictments are being handed down right now to leading UN officials for taking kickbacks in the oil for food program, namely Benon Sevan, who was the director of that program. You know, money that was supposed to buy food and medicine for the children of Iraq? Alexander Yakovlev has pled guilty to taking $1 million in bribes as a procurement officer for the program.
Last year, or the year before, the UN held a conference on world hunger in South Africa. Cost per delegate to the four-day meeting? It was $40,000 per delegate. But that is to be expected, they were eating fresh lobster.
In all honesty, the UN did do a lot to help stamp out smallpox. Other than that, it needs to be looked at just as hard as Enron was and action needs to be taken. Time to hold the UN accountable. Thanks for all the nice letters too, wish my responses could get published, but please, keep writing.
I sit waiting in breathless anticipation of the Chronicle's call to have someone like Jim Hightower write a scathing attack on a corrupt, evil organization surely on par with Enron or WorldCom, the UN. It has all the necessary ingredients of a good anti-corporation rant, corruption, nepotism, rich people stealing from the poor ... it's the oil for food scandal. 'Course, I might have missed it, but I really haven't seen all that much attention paid in this paper to the UN, which is odd. Bosnia, Rwanda, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad. All virtually ignored by the UN, whose mission I was led to believe was to address issues in places around the world. Like genocide. Politically motivated starvation of hundreds of thousands in Africa. Like slavery in Sudan. Indictments are being handed down right now to leading UN officials for taking kickbacks in the oil for food program, namely Benon Sevan, who was the director of that program. You know, money that was supposed to buy food and medicine for the children of Iraq? Alexander Yakovlev has pled guilty to taking $1 million in bribes as a procurement officer for the program.
Last year, or the year before, the UN held a conference on world hunger in South Africa. Cost per delegate to the four-day meeting? It was $40,000 per delegate. But that is to be expected, they were eating fresh lobster.
In all honesty, the UN did do a lot to help stamp out smallpox. Other than that, it needs to be looked at just as hard as Enron was and action needs to be taken. Time to hold the UN accountable. Thanks for all the nice letters too, wish my responses could get published, but please, keep writing.
Thank you for your time and consideration,
Carl Swanson
Carl Swanson