UN-accountable
U.S. President George W. Bush has had a taxable income of $ 638,694 in 2005. His tax return is publicly and freely available. That is what I call transparence. A taxpayer in the U.S. knows how much his government is getting from him. Now, try to find out how much Kofi Annan earns. It seems virtually impossible to know, although Kofi is paid by the world's taxpayers (and also by generous "donors"). Of course, the UN now uses "financial disclosure forms". What a wonderful and modern opening to the public! However, Kofi didn't fill it out yet and the financial situation of a UN employee is disclosed to... the UN! And there is absolutely no intention to make it public. By the way, Kofi has recently also accepted a $ 500,000 gift from Dubai's ruler. This fact, that triggered a "no comment" by the Under-Secretary-General for Management Christopher Burnham, is possible, because apparently staff rules do not apply to the secretary-general... Via FreeRepublic: Burnham highlighted the new financial-disclosure policy, saying financial-disclosure forms will be “far more expanded and meaningful.” He said the financial-disclosure form to be filed by various U.N. officials “is stronger than the one we have in the federal government we have in Washington, D.C.” But he admitted during the question period that the forms will NOT be available to the public. By contrast, federal [i.e. U.S. -ed.] financial-disclosure forms by high-ranking officials, including members of the executive and legislative branches and Supreme Court Justices, are disclosed publicly.In other terms, this is another attempt of an Annanian non-reform, designed to mislead the public while still remaining a huge corrupt and inefficient "Organization". This resembles the case of the Human Rights Council, which was supposed to lead to more credibility of the "Organization" in the field of human rights (remember?). Yet, China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia are now part of it. Other members are Algeria, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Pakistan, Russia and Tunisia. The new Council looks therfore an awful lot like its failed predecessor. I have already stated here that it was an utter failure from the beginning. I don't think the facts have proven me wrong.* I admit though that the Swiss socialist minister of foreign affairs, Micheline Calmy-Rey, has contributed a lot to this. But she is an utter failure, too.  *The United States has refused to join this party because it disagreed with the election process since it would enable Rogue Governements to be part of it... (Hat tip: Gabrielle) |
<< Home