<HTML><FONT FACE=arial,helvetica><HTML><FONT SIZE=2 PTSIZE=10 FAMILY="SANSSERIF" FACE="Arial" LANG="0">Dear Colleagues<BR>
<BR>
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 ...... <BR>
<BR>
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.<BR>
<BR>
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.<BR>
<BR>
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.<BR>
<BR>
Peter Burgess<BR>
____________<BR>
Peter Burgess<BR>
Tr-Ac-Net in New York 212 772 6918 peterbnyc@gmail.com<BR>
The Transparency and Accountability Network<BR>
With Kris Dev in Chennai India<BR>
and others in South Asia, Africa and Latin America <BR>
http://tr-ac-net.blogspot.com<BR>
</FONT></HTML>