PHA-Exchange> Re: [afro-nets] Mr Bolton in the UN 3 weeks

[Profitinafrica at aol.com]

Dear Colleagues

I am not sure I agree with a lot of Ambassador Bolton's red-lining ... but 
there is no question the UN, the General Assembly, all the structures and its 
operating agencies need to be looked at with a clear focus on cost and value 
delivered ......  

There are a lot of problems ... and they should be addressed. I would prefer 
to see practical action to help people and reduce poverty high on the agenda 
for reform ... and I would like to see the initiatives defined by the "south" 
rather than by the "north". The Perhaps the 60th year anniversary should be 
cancelled and the funds used to do something useful. Spending effort on the MDG's 
is nonsense ... making rapid progress NOW is what should be happening ... not 
working slowly towards failed objectives 15 years from now. The way the 
expectation of life is dropping in Africa, there won't be much of a population left 
in 15 years time.

Perhaps I am in a bad mood because of Niger. Information coming out of Niger 
back in last November ... nothing happened at the UN or anywhere else ... 
later some NGOs started making more noise .... nothing ... and then BBC does a 
piece .... and everyone suddenly wakes up .... and now action plans everywhere 
... and to crown the achievement ... the UN Secretary General makes a visit to 
Niger. If this is not a disfunctional system, I don't know what is.

Surely the world can do better than this. But as long as the UN remains the 
way it is .... and as long as people rely on the UN and have expectations that 
it will perform ... the world will remain in this disfunctional mode.

Peter Burgess
____________
Peter Burgess
Tr-Ac-Net in New York  212 772 6918 peterbnyc at gmail.com
The Transparency and Accountability Network
With Kris Dev in Chennai India
and others in South Asia, Africa and Latin America 
http://tr-ac-net.blogspot.com
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