IO Watch

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Archive Introduction

Where is the Rule of Law?

Inadequate UN Oversight

Recent Developments

Overview Quotes 12

Overview of IO Watch Archive Quotes XII,

January-February 2008

579a. “A joint African-United Nations force took over peacekeeping duties in Darfur on Monday, a long-awaited change that is intended to be the strongest effort yet to solve the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. But many are already warning that … if it fails, it will only worsen the 4 ½ year conflict, which has already killed more than 200,000 people and driven 2.5 million from their homes.

The force – at 9,000 soldiers and policemen – is only a little larger than the beleaguered and ineffectual African Union peacekeeping mission it replaces. Even in the best-case scenario, it will take months to build up to its planned strength of 26,000. …

The fighting has only grown more complicated over the past year, with rebel groups splintering. … Attacks on international aid workers increased 150 percent over 2007, and violence has made large areas inaccessible to humanitarian relief, according to the U.N. ,,,

[A Darfur expert said] the main problem was the lack of Western will to build an effective force. ‘The people of Darfur … are poor, they’re black, they’re Muslim, and they don’t sit on any natural resource. You can’t get any lower than that on the geopolitical pecking order.’”

“New Darfur peacekeeping force takes over”, Associated Press, The New York Times, December 31, 2007. [Note: Yes, it is a December 2007 date, but it marks the formal launch of the UN’s biggest peacekeeping/humanitarian effort ever, with grave troubles as quickly indicated by the following three articles.]

579b. “[Top UN peacekeeping official Jean-Marie Guéhenno] told the Security Council on Wednesday that obstructionism by the Sudanese government, the unwillingness of other countries to supply needed transportation equipment and continuing outbreaks of violence threatened the [new Darfur peacekeeping force. … ‘Without decisive progress on … [these] issues, we will indeed face dire consequences’, [he said.] …

Most of [his] statement … dealt with foot-dragging tactics by the Sudanese government in Khartoum. … Sudan was still… stalling agreement on providing the land necessary for bases, on the approval to conduct flights and other operations at night, [and] on the legal status of the force …

[Sudanese delays were] making it difficult to persuade major powers to … contribute the [crucial] heavy and medium transportation units and 24 helicopters [requested] … because of the vast terrain. … [Sudan was barring experienced] military units from Thailand or Nepal … and a sophisticated engineering unit from Scandinavian countries. … [And the government of Chad] has pursued Chadian rebels into Darfur with air attacks, … ‘an extremely worrying development.’ …

[Mr. Guehenno concluded that] the United Nations would not have … [the force] in place ‘for many months, even in the best case scenario.’”

Warren Hoge, “U.N. official warns of Darfur failure”, New York Times, January 9, 2008.

579c. “Three years after the United Nations adopted a groundbreaking resolution to help it intervene to stop genocide, even longtime supporters of the rule acknowledge that it has not helped the organization end the violence in the Darfur region of Sudan.

The General Assembly resolution, approved in 2005, … established the right of international forces to step in if [the responsible] governments did not fulfill this new ‘responsibility to protect.’ …

‘It was an incredible leap forward … [but] it hasn’t survived the first test: Darfur’, said [an NGO expert.] … [Darfur shows the great difference] between gaining acceptance for a working theory and making the theory work. …

There is Security Council approval … [a vocal] worldwide campaign backing intervention, and … [legally, the 2005 resolution.] … But many [developing countries] that supported … [it] have backed off out of suspicion that they could become targets of intervention. …‘Governments will] … only act if they feel they are going to pay a price for not exercising [this responsibility,’ said another expert.]

Recalling … [the 2005 Assembly resolution, a third expert said] ‘Unless we can apply it to a situation like Darfur, then the promise will be lost.’”

Warren Hoge, “Bold UN rule fails to halt Darfur atrocities”, International Herald Tribune, January 21, 2008.

579d. “The United Nations has admitted that it will be the best part of a year before an international peacekeeping force will be fully deployed in Sudan’s Darfur region. … Now the UN’s head of peacekeeping, says the operation will not be deployed for the best part of 2008. Some would say even that is optimistic.”

“Sudan peacekeeping mission delayed until year’s end” UN”, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC News), January 29, 2008. [Note: These articles, and the three years of ongoing disappointment, suggest a “make or break” situation for UN peacekeeping, or at least a very serious and humbling “reality check,” in 2008.]

580. [The disputed Kenyan national election of December 27^th and resulting breakdown and shocking spread of violence brought a flood of excellent media articles on the causes and critical unresolved aid and governance problems in what has long been considered one of Africa’s most stable states, which affect (and occur in) other countries as well. Most of the following are available via Google search by the authors, titles, and dates.]

Western countries’ tolerance of Kenya’s corrupt government, and failed anti-corruption efforts, have exacted a terrible price, according to Michael Holman, “The crisis in Kenya leaves a guilty stain on the west”, Financial Times (UK), January 2, 2008.

Kenya’s leaders stole an election to cling to power, and diplomatic pressure should insist on a vote recount, or a new vote, according to “A very African coup”, The Economist, January 5^th, 2008, p. 8.

Kenya’s apparent wealth and progress hide the desperation of the Kenyan majority living on a dollar a day, according to William Wallis, “Do not let Kenya’s tragedy wreck Africa’s prospects”, Financial Times (UK), January 5-6, 2008.

Colluding with autocrats in Kenya, Pakistan and elsewhere breeds extremism, not stability, according to “Backing autocrats: the backfire policy”, Financial Times (UK), January 7, 2008.

The UN should not merely monitor elections, but ensure that election commissions meet minimum standards and are rigorously scrutinized, according to Edward P. Joseph, “Observe early and often”, International Herald Tribune, January 8, 2008.

African landlocked states also suffer severely because their food, fuel, and other resource transit flows are blocked by the Kenyan crisis, Michela Wrong, “Violence bars gateway to heart of Africa”, Financial Times (UK), January 8, 2008.

A leaked memo appearing to favor Kenyan president Mwai Kibacki from the World Bank, which has a $1 billion aid portfolio in Kenya, damages its objectivity, according to William Wallis, “World Bank denies Kibacki bias”, Financial Times (UK), January 10, 2008.

Entrenched African leaders who steal votes thwart African aspirations and test their faith in democracy, according to William Wallis, “Dodging the ballot”, Financial Times (UK), January 15, 2008.

Related articles on developing-country governance problems, which also afflict the UN, and on “sub-nationalism” problems, are presented in items 587a-b and 592a-c below.

581. “To economists, 32 … measures the difference in lifestyles between the first world and the developing world. The … [former group consumes] resources like oil and metals, and produces wastes like plastics and greenhouse gases, … [at average rates] about 32 times higher … than they are in the developing world, [which tend mostly down toward 1.]

That factor of 32 has big consequences … [in terms of consumption for the world’s 6.5 billion people.] … If the whole developing world were suddenly to catch up, … it would be as if the world population ballooned to 72 billion people (at present consumption rates.)

… [No one can] claim that we could support 72 billion people. … [The only approach that will work] is to aim to make consumption rates and living standards more equal around the world. … Much American consumption … [contributes little to quality of life.] For instance, per capita oil consumption in Western Europe is about half of ours. … [We could also manage fisheries and forests more sustainably.]

Fortunately … there have been encouraging signs. … The world has serious consumption problems, but we can solve them if we choose to do so.”

Jared Diamond, “What’s your consumption factor?”, International Herald Tribune, January 3, 2008. [Note: Mr. Diamond is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Collapse” and “Guns, germs and steel.” IO Watch will not spend much time on all the ongoing UN palaver , but will note such examples of clear thinking on climate change issues when it finds them – see also item 557b. in Overview Quotes XI.]

582. “The Simon Wiesenthal Center on Thursday said that in the wake of last week’s murder of former Pakistani premier Benazir Bhutto it was calling on the United Nations to designate suicide bombings as a crime against humanity. …

‘Suicide terror. What more will it take for the world to act?’, asks the ad addressed to UN chief Ban Ki-moon … ‘The horrific … [Bhutto murder] is the latest in the unending plague of suicide terror attacks that have murdered thousands of innocents and destroyed tens of thousands of families across the globe,’ it added.

The Center called on the 192-member UN General Assembly ‘to hold a special session to deal exclusively with the scourge of suicide terror.’ [A center spokesman said the General Assembly] should focus on suicide terror the way it does on famine or AIDS. He suggested that the United Nations draw up ‘an international watchlist of all the enablers of terrorism’ that would then be subject to a travel ban.”

“UN urged to threat suicide bombs as crimes against humanity”, Agence France Press, January 4, 2008.

583. “[The Khmer Rouge war-crimes tribunal] … Is flawed. … Phnom Penh insisted the trials be held in Cambodia … [where] the notoriously corrupt Cambodian judicial system would still play a leading role. Yet the U.N. had no trouble persuading 20 … countries to ante up …nearly $50 million …since fund raising began in 2004.

The cash has not been enough. … The translation team … [struggles with] 300,000 pages of Cambodian-language documents. … The witness protection team has a skeleton staff. … There are corruption allegations … [from a U.N. audit last spring] … which the United Nations Development Program … tried to bury. …

Now the tribunal has its hands out … [for an additional $120 million. Any US funding should be] a lever to enforce new and better practices – such as a full investigation into allegations of [administrative] kickbacks.

The real measure of the war-crimes tribunal’s success, however, will be whether it can bring a sense of closure. … Practically every Cambodian has a relative who died during the Khmer Rouge genocide. Which is all the more reason to ensure that these trials turn out not to be a sham.”

Leslie Hook, “Justice for Cambodia”, Wall Street Journal, at online.wsj.com, January 4, 2008.

584. “After years of headline-grabbing rows, divisions and scandals, the beleaguered [United Nations] suddenly seems to have gone quiet. No more bold plans for sweeping reforms … or grand visions for the organization’s future. Yet behind the scenes, Ban [Ki-moon] is quietly getting things done. …

[He was the US and China’s choice] … but he has skillfully exploited his links … to push through extremely difficult agreements on both Darfur (opposed by China) and climate change (opposed by both China and America.)

Meanwhile, … sanctions are real: just before Christmas, 11 staff found guilty of corruption were sacked. … [A Procurement Task Force has exposed $600 million of tainted contracts] and is investigating a further $1 billion in suspect deals. … [And The Secretariat hopes to exploit the expected retirement by 2013 of almost half the UN’s managerial staff to achieve post cuts and shifts to new jobs.] …

[First considered] by one underling as “mediocrity big time”, … [Mr. Ban] had perhaps naively hoped to ‘lead by example.’ At the UN, that is often not possible. … [But what he] lacks in charisma, he makes up for in industry, a sharp mind and sheer tenacity.”

“The rewards of beavering away”, The Economist, January 5^th, 2008, pp. 49-50.

585. “Mistrust continues to grow between the UN’s administration and its member states. … Rajat Saha, [former chairman of the UN’s Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions] detailed a system in which UN departments underestimate … how much they’ll spend on travel, and ask for funding for employment posts that they then leave vacant for months and years. ‘They should lose those posts.’ Mr. Saha recommended, and ‘those responsible should be held accountable.’ …

[As] detailed in one of Saha’s last reports (A/62/589 issued on December 17^th), … [a table shows] that while the UN’s Office of Human Resources Management projected it would spend $509 million on travel over two years, it spent $1.191 billion, a cost overrun of 134 percent. The Office of the Under-Secretary-General for Management, which oversees budget presentations to the ACABQ, over-spent by a whopping 252 percent.

Saha also criticized as ‘bizarre’ the UN’s policy on staff mobility, also overseen by the Department of Management. He contrasted the UN’s inaction on this, which leaves many staff ‘slogging it out in difficult posts,’ with the policies of many member states, including his own country, India.”

Matthew Russell Lee, “UN’s budget advisor criticizes lack of planning, from no-bid contracts to travel costs”, Inner City Press, January 6, 2008. [Note: In many UN Member States, unauthorized overspending of appropriated funds is illegal. In the 1990s, the UN at least struggled to prevent such excesses: now it seems that the top responsible officials don’t care. A recent Financial Times article discussed the owner of a chain of British pubs, who only achieved true success when he hired a tough finance director. In her first year, using internal controls to stop petty corruption and mismanagement, she saved three times her £40,000 pound salary. Would that the UN had such a top manager (and see the newest UN oversight efforts in items 588a-c.) ]

586. “Ban Ki-moon, reviewing a year in which 17 UN staff were killed in a bombing in Algiers, yesterday acknowledged the organization was no longer viewed as neutral in some parts of the world. … ‘The UN is not working for any group of nations,’ said Mr. Ban. ‘It is working for the well-being of many developing countries. The UN has to do more to explain why [it] is there and what it’s doing.’ …

His remarks reflect concerns that the UN has become a target of al-Qaeda and other fundamentalist groups. A statement this month attributed to Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda leader, described UN troops in southern Lebanon as ‘crusader’ troops.

The UN had begun rebuilding its depleted presence in Iraq at the time of the Algiers bombing. Mr. Ban said he would be in contact with member states about enhancing security for UN personnel.”

Harvey Morris, “UN admits problems with image”, Financial Times (UK), January 8, 2008.

587a. “Kenya’s recent presidential election unleashed turmoil that … has been pinned on its ethnic divisions. … [But] the key culprit is, rather, a serious flaw in Kenya’s governance: the weakness of its national legislature. … [It’s easy to see that] where the legislature is strong, opposition groups can hope to affect policy through their representatives in parliament, without the need to resort to violence.

But Kenya’s parliament is anemic. In our global survey of the power of national legislatures, Kenya ranks only 126^th out of 158 countries, well behind other developing nations such as India (44^th), South Africa (48^th), Benin (59^th)), Brazil (60^th), and Ghana (82d.)

In Kenya and other countries with weak legislatures, the presidential contest is a winner-take-all affair. Benin and Ghana are ethnically divided … [but] have stronger legislatures. … [Election losers can use] their sway in parliament to control the president. …

[First world efforts to build civil society] … have, unfortunately, underinvested in bolstering formal institutions such as national legislatures. Stemming the mayhem in Kenya and preventing presidential elections from igniting explosions elsewhere requires strengthening parliaments. [Developing country peacemakers and democrats and Western aid agencies] face no more urgent imperative.”

M. Steven Fish and Matthew Kroenig, “Kenya’s real problem (It’s not ethnic)”, Washington Post, January 9, 2008. [The survey is “The Handbook of national legislatures: A global survey.”]

587b. “Kenyans were cynical about their political establishment long before the latest election violence. … In fact the underlying cause of the violence is endemic political corruption and flawed governance by Kenya’s political elite.

Upon coming to power in a clean election in 2002, President Kibaki … concentrated power – and access to wealth and patronage – in a cabal of cronies. … His government had legitimate successes: consistent … annual economic growth; universal free primary education; the revitalization of tourism. …

All too often in Africa, [however,] politics is played as a zero-sum game. The state is often seen as a cash cow to be captured and retained at all costs. Power-grabs by particular ethnic groups are nothing new. But when combined with institutional graft and cronyism, [they] can be explosive. Kenya has not bucked the trend, and the post-election violence is not the surprise some observers would have us believe.”

Simon Roughneen, “Corruption trumps tribalism”. International Herald Tribune, Jan 11, 2008. [Note: Among the incisive analyses of the current Kenyan tragedy, these two articles are also very interesting for the light they shed on poor UN General Assembly governance and oversight of Secretariat (and especially UNDP) accountability, transparency, and performance matters. The Assembly is of course weak because its representatives are not elected, there are many conflicting factions, and they pass no enforceable laws.

Further, however, IO Watch observes that most of the 192 UN Member State’s diplomats in New York come from countries with weak legislative systems. They are largely uninterested in accountability (see the global survey above), and too many of them regrettably consider the Secretariat’s $20 billion annual wealth of jobs and funds as their own cash cow for graft and cronyism “to be retained at all costs.”]

588a. “Stressing that transparency is a precondition for accountability, [Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) head] Inga Britt Ahlenius today spotlighted the steps to bolster [UN] capacity to investigate allegations of fraud and corruption, … adding that the public has the right to know what is going on within the world body. …

She stressed that ‘there is no excuse for having poor internal control mechanisms and for tolerating mismanagement’ because ‘we are handling … [considerable public funds] and should care about that as if it were our own money.’ …

[Beyond the “pilot’ Procurement Task Force,] she said that measures are being taken to bolster and restructure the Office’s investigation division. One step … is to create specialized team functions for sexual exploitation and abuse cases; and [for] financial, economic and administrative offences.

Additionally, Ms. Ahlenius … plans to relocate investigators currently in peacekeeping missions to three regional centers – New York, Vienna, and Nairobi – comprising 110 posts … pending the approval of the General Assembly … [and] is ‘confident that by the end of this year …[OIOS will have] a permanent and specialized [investigative] capacity to deal with … abuses, … administrative offences … and crimes.’”

“UN oversight office chief says steps being taken to bolster transparency”, UN News, 10 January 2008. [Note: This effort is of course long overdue for an underfunded, understaffed OIOS struggling to address many UN corruption problems worldwide. But will the General Assembly (see items 587a-b above and 588c. below) really permit OIOS investigation work to become much more forceful? If so, vastly increased transparency and regular reporting about OIOS corruption-fighting results, sanctions, and court convictions (which has been suppressed ever since OIOS began in 1994) would be most welcome, to demonstrate publicly that the UN, finally, takes corruption-fighting seriously.)

588b. “[OIOS head Inga-Britt Ahlenius said at her news conference] that over the last three months the office had examined about 250 cases. ‘We found mismanagement and fraud and corruption to an extent we didn’t really expect.’

[She said] two-thirds of the cases being reviewed related to peacekeeping missions. Around 80 [cases] involved possible sexual exploitation and abuse. …

[She also said that] investigators have already confirmed that contracts worth about $US600 million involved fraud at some level. … [Procurement] task force head Robert Appleton said ‘There’s no question that some of the large contracts here have been tainted, … but … not anywhere near the majority.’

Ms. Ahlenius said the OIOS had begun urgently reviewing a $US250 million [UN] contract … with US defence firm Lockheed Martin Corp to build five peacekeeping bases in … Darfur. … Ban Ki-moon has come under fire for awarding the contract … without opening the field to competitors. … Ms. Ahlenius said the OIOS … will review all such single-source contracts. …

The UN General Assembly … [in December criticized Mr. Ban’s decision and demanded] the OIOS review. Mr. Ban said current UN rules allowed him to award such contracts in exceptional cases.”

“UN internal probe finds corruption, fraud”, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC News), January 11, 2008.

588c. [The General Assembly/Fifth Committee decided in December 2007 that it regretted the piecemeal presentation of the investigations-related issues reported to it. It called for an overall review of the capacity of the OIOS Investigations Division by 30 June 2008, including activities of the Procurement Task Force. It further called on the UN Board of Auditors to audit the Task Force activities from January 2006 through June 2007 and report thereon to the Assembly in the autumn of 2008, and to further consider the overall review of the capacity of the OIOS Investigations Division in the spring of 2008.]

“Report on the activities of the OIOS”, UN document A/62/605, 26 December 2007.

588d. “Is the United Nations a corrupt organization? … [A successful cleanup by] the UN Procurement Task Force, … [led to another year, with] a plan to make it a permanent overseer of [UN] white-collar misdeeds. … But some U.N. officials and member states consider the task force a waste of money that makes the organization look bad and sanctions the harassment of its officials. …

Sanjaya Bahel, … convicted on fraud and corruption [charges] in June 2007, … exposed how incredibly easy it was for … bureaucrats to barter U.N. contracts for personal luxuries … and do so with impunity. … [But when a senior Singaporean official was suspended Singapore] launched a campaign to end funding for the task force that almost succeeded. …

[To Ban Ki-moon’s credit], the pendulum has begun swinging from … idolizing [a UN] secrecy culture to stressing, as he put it, ‘transparency and accountability.’ [As OIOS head Inga-Britt] Ahlenius noted , OIOS reports are now available to governments on request, [and she recommended making them public.] Good Idea. The more money … [invested] in oversight and transparency, the easier it will be for U.N. officials to argue that their organization is not corrupt.”

Benny Avni, “Is the U.N. corrupt?”, The New York Sun, January 14, 2008. [Note: Thus is the battle fully joined in 2008: will the UN will finally strengthen the OIOS as an effective corruption fighter, as originally intended in 1994, or continue along “as is,” allowing widespread UN mismanagement, fraud, and corruption to continue in its $20 billion annual expenditures? Meanwhile, strong pressures for more dynamic and transparent oversight continue vigorously elsewhere, as discussed in the next four items.]

589. “Applications … are invited to fill a part-time position on the [Asian Development Bank’s] Compliance Review Panel (CRP). The CRP is responsible for the compliance review phase of the ADB’s Accountability Mechanism.

The CRP investigates alleged violations by ADB of its operational policies and procedures in any ADB-assisted project that directly, materially, and adversely affect local people in the course of …. [those projects.] We seek candidates with …

-- Demonstrated knowledge of compliance review, including the ability to deal thoroughly and fairly with requests for investigation or redress. … Experience in this field is an asset.

-- Highly-developed communication and diplomatic skills to work effectively with ADB staff, Management, Board of Directors, and externally ADB clients, member governments, other international organizations and comparable institutions, civil society, and nongovernmental organizations. …

-- Integrity and independence from Management.”

“Compliance Review Panel Member”, Advertisement in the Financial Times (UK), January 10, 2008.

590. “[The United States government has] 64 Inspector-Generals – 31 appointed by the president and 33 appointed by heads of smaller agencies. Those appointed by the president handled 24,100 investigations during fiscal year 2006.

A recent run of inspectors general accused of misconduct shows the watchdogs need to be more independent from the White House and agency bosses, and more accountable when they misbehave, says [US Senator Claire McCaskill, a former auditor and prosecutor and] a sponsor of a Senate bill designed to improve the watchdog system. … A Senate committee unanimously approved McCaskill’s bill in November after the House [of Representatives] passed a companion measure. …

Congressional complaints about inspectors general last year often focused on allegations that the watchdogs weren’t aggressive enough. … A former inspector general …said he supports most of the proposed reforms. ‘We’re supposed to … call things as we see them. If we uncover things that reflect badly on the government, we’re legally and morally obliged to report it. We’re obligated to do that for the good of the country.’”

Matt Kelley, “Probes at NASA plummet under its current IG”, USA Today, January 11, 2008.

591a. “World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick released the development lender’s first detailed internal report on corruption in a lending program, which said the ban found ‘serious incidents’ of fraud and corruption in five bank-funded health care programs in India.

‘These problems have to be fixed, and I am committed to clearing them up,’ Zoellick said in a written statement. He said the bank would punish any staff members found to be negligent in spotting and reporting abuses.

The bank is building additional safeguards into health-care and other projects. … They include publishing all procurement processes, bidding and contracts on the Internet. Procurement controls are being tightened.”

“World Bank corruption report”, Washington Post, January 12, 2008.

591b. “Robert Zoellick faced a new crisis Wednesday over efforts to stop corruption in [World Bank] lending. The head of the bank’s anti-fraud unit resigned amid signs of continuing discord over how the bank handles the issue. …

[Susanne Rich] Folsom, whose anti-corruption work was praised last fall by an outside panel of experts led by Paul Volcker, [has decided] to move on after more than two years of fights with staff inside the bank on the corruption issue. …

[A joint announcement on remedial measures in India did not] mention Folsom or her office, which was taken as a slap by people who work there. The anti-corruption campaign … was a main priority of [former Bank head] Paul Wolfowitz, who angered many of the bank’s board members when he suspended aid to several countries, citing reports that the bank had been defrauded in many of its lending programs. … The issue then backfired on [Wolfowitz] when it was disclosed last year that he had arranged a pay raise and promotion for his girlfriend, and officials charged that he had violated the banks’ own ethical guidelines.”

Steven R. Weisman, “New crisis embroils World Bank leader”, International Herald Tribune, January 17, 2008.

592a. “Pakistan’s deepest cleavage, … [between its regions, is] part of a growing phenomenon – the persistence and growing strength of subnational groups. With the end of the battle of ideologies, … human beings’ oldest identities have moved to the core of politics. It is why people vote and what they will die for. [As in Pakistan and Kenya,] elections can exacerbate divisions. …

Subnationalism is thriving even in postmodern Europe … in the status of Kosovo, a part of Serbia … [between Flemish- and French-speaking populations in Belgium,] which went six months without a government … and in Britain, where … [Scotland’s ruling party pursues] independence. …

Why is this happening and why now? Globalization and democratization are the broad trends of the day, and both have the effect of empowering small groups within countries and weakening the nation-state. In such circumstances, the pull of old identities – all of them much older than the nation state – dominates politics. …

There are no good answers other than the long, hard work of nation-building – political bargains, compromises and institution-building, none of which is easily affected by outsiders. All this makes for a world that is becoming rich, empowered, and unmanageable.”

Fareed Zakaria, “What people will die for”, Newsweek International, January 14, 2008, p. 49.

592b. “Huge differences persist among 300m-odd Arabic speakers and 22 countries of the Arab League. Particularly among people under 30, who make up the vast majority of Arabs, the mood is one of disgruntlement and doubt. …

“[The past] personality based-leadership … has fallen out of fashion. Unfortunately, it has not been replaced by more institutionally-based systems of rule, let alone … by democracy. … Regimes point to the existence of parliaments, while hiding the tricks used to pack them with friends and exclude real opposition. …

In many Arab countries loyalty to the state is weaker than loyalty to a sub-grouping based on kinship, ethnicity, religion or region. This is hardly a unique problem … but Muslims have, in addition, yet to resolve the essential question of whether laws should emanate from the people or from God. … In most Arab countries, regimes hold power by virtue of tradition or through military-backed movements that claim to represent the will of the masses. …

In such circumstances, it is not surprising that people prefer the devil they know to the fitna (communal strife) or fawda (chaos) that seem all too likely to replace it.”

“Between fitna, fawda and the deep blue sea”, The Economist, January 12, 2008, pp. 40-42.

592c. “Kenya is a strange animal. In the 1960s, the bright young nationalists … wanted to eradicate the nations that made up Kenya … [to give birth to] a brand-new being: the Kenyan. …

The [current] burning houses and the bloody attacks here … reflect the manipulation of identity for political gain. … Five years ago we voted for a broad and nationally representative government. … Tragically, President Mwai Kibaki [instead] cultivated the support of his Kikuyu community. [In] our most recent election, Raila Odinga built … a big ethnic tent [like the one] that first bought Kibaki to office. …

Odinga and Kibaki are not really ethnic leaders, but … they have stoked tribal paranoia and used it to cement electoral loyalty. … [Now] we are likelier to suffer an escalation of retaliations and a descent to that special machete place that nations rarely recover from. …

Yet all is not lost. … A constitution that names and recognizes the tribal nations within our nation, that decentralizes some power and that includes us all in the process is possible. … The moment is now to make a solid thing called Kenya.”

Binyavanga Wainaina, “No country for old hatreds”, The International Herald Tribune, January 7, 2008.

593. “When, two years ago, Asian shores were hit by an unprecedented tsunami, there was an unprecedented world response. … The challenge became not how to raise funds, but how best to use them in confronting daunting miseries. …

On the first anniversary, the prestigious Financial Times carried a hard-hitting … report on glaring deficiencies. But that did not dispel increasing reports of confusion amongst relief groups, a total absence of a U.N. leadership role, duplication of expenditure, exaggerated salaries for ‘advisors,’ dumping the wrong people in emergency spots, and imposing unwanted … activities on helpless devastated people. For example, of $1 billion allocated in one area, $635 million came under the general title ’Food’ or ‘Shelter and non-food items.’ A two-month investigation by the FT could not determine ‘how that money has been spent.’

In January 2008, the second anniversary, it is only fair to wonder where the money went. … We were told, as usual, that a new mechanism was put in place: that there will be very strict oversight over available funds. … New Co-ordinator [John] Holmes … could [better better double-check now] with the government in Jakarta [about the unexplained billion dollars] to avoid bigger questions later.”

“Where did the tsunami billions disappear?”, UNforum, 15 January 2008. [Note: The same issue was very firmly reported by the senior UN auditor who did most of the tsunami audit work, but was ignored by Kofi Annan. See the IO Watch dark sides entry UN, impunity, 2007, pages 12-13.

594. “An Irish diplomat has been appointed to co-chair a United Nations task force aimed at reforming the international body, which has been rocked by scandals, accusations of gross inefficiency and long standing questions over its effectiveness. …

Paul Kavanaugh … will co-chair the Working Group on UN Reform which hopes to implement new policies for accountability, transparency and cost effectiveness within the UN. … Barbados and Luxembourg chaired the initial work of the group … of coaxing UN members to agree on implementing the recommendations of the High-Level Panel on System-wide Coherence’s [report of November 2006] over the coming months. …

‘Greater coherence is required across the work of [the UN’s] broad system of agencies’ … [said an Irish official.] …

The reforms could also counter the deliberate misuse of funding. A series of scandals began to emerge over the past 10 years … Last week the UN’s Office of Internal Oversight Services said it had indentified 250 cases of concen, which it waid was ‘unexpectedly high.’”

Paul Anderson, “Ireland to chair UN reform group”, Irish News, Ireland.com, January 16, 2008.

595. “Recently, … freedom’s progress may have come to a halt … [says the 2007 report of] Freedom House, an august American … [group whose observations] on the state of liberty are a keenly watched indicator.

[The report] speaks of a ‘profoundly disturbing deterioration’ in the global picture, with reversals seen in 38 countries – nearly four times as many as are showing any sign of improvement. … Last year was the second in a row when liberty, as defined by Freedom House, inched back. …

[A] number of countries … [have] gone into reverse. They include Bangladesh …, Sri Lanka, … the Phillippines … Nigeria and Kenya, … the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, … [and] Georgia and Kyrgystan. Only … Thailand and Togo made a clear leap forward last year, going from ‘not free’ to ‘partly free.’ … No country joined the top ‘free’ group, and a total of 43 countries, representing 36% of the world’s population, now languish in the ‘not free’ group. …

There was some internal debate at Freedom House over whether or not economic welfare … should be included in the calculus of liberty. But the decision has been to keep economic factors out.”

“When freedom stumbles: Measuring liberty”, The Economist, January 19^th, 2008.

596. “UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has just named actor George Clooney as the UN’s newest Messenger of Peace, with a ‘special focus on UN peacekeeping.’ …

This would be great if UN peacekeeping actually produced peace. … [But UN] peacekeeper sex scandals continue to bubble up, with their own special focus on under-age locals, … peacekeeping has been one of the major areas of UN corruption, … and in Sudan … the UN has been dithering and … renegotiating for years. …

The UN web page for ‘Messengers of Peace’ tells us … [that the dozens of] messengers ‘volunteer their time, talent and passion to raise awareness of United Nations’ efforts to improve the lives of billions of people everywhere.’ Is that really what the UN does? Or does it use billions to improve the lives of select UN special interests, of the kind sketched out above. …

Maybe Ban should appoint some Messengers of Transparency and Accountability. … If the idea is truly to help Darfur, it’s not a UN-tinsel-town partnership that’s needed; it’s an honest, or at the very least, competent, institution (that rules out the UN on both counts) – able to come to the rescue.”

Claudia Rosett, “If George Clooney really wants to be a ‘Messenger of Peace,’ then why is he shilling for the United Nations?,” The Rosett Report, January 20, 2008. [Note: The UN’s own words (as highlighted) are indeed very revealing—the celebrities’ tasks are all intended to glorify the UN’s own global intentions – not the tragic situation of those who actually suffer “on the ground,” and certainly not the UN’s actual problematic performance. For a vivid example of this self-serving UN “PR” approach, see the report by Adrian Hartley in the IO Watch subsection on Public relations, not performance (page 7 of the “printable copy” document.)]

597a. “[Western] policy makers are now taking into account the views and actions of countries that, until recently, held little sway on the international scene. … What is more, Europe’s attempt to weld 27 disparate nations into one bloc is being imitated around the globe, from Asia to Africa, as countries experiment with new ways to maximize influence. …

‘Globalization has moved politics into a world of continents,’ said Robert Cooper, … one of the EU’s most senior foreign policy officials. ‘To survive in the next world, Europe needs to operate much more as a continent. … In Beijing they would like a united Europe.’ …

Yet whether the EU and other regional blocs will be able to achieve and maintain cohesion in a multipolar world is far from certain. … The surge of goods from China and the outsourcing of jobs to Asia have increased pressure on European politicians to take a populist position and defend jobs in their own countries.

As expert Charles Kupchan of the [US] Council on Foreign Relations put it, the rise of China and other powers ‘creates a demand for supranational institutions – but undermines them at the same time.’”

Stephen Castle. “A ‘world of continents’ emerges: Groups of countries are joining forces to speak with power and focus”, International Herald Tribune, January 23, 2008.

597b. “Among the chieftains of politics and industry gathering in Davos for the World Economic Forum, … a consensus appears to be building that the capitalist system is in for one of those rare and tempestuous mutations that give rise to a new set of economic policies. …

Power is steadily leaking from West to East. Income inequalities are rising in rich countries. And signs of a protectionist backlash are multiplying … [as climate change worries and a bursting] credit bubble give novel ammunition to those in the West who question free markets and clamor for more shelter from globalization. … ‘Economic theory tells us that globalization is a win-win, but it isn’t, at least not in the West’, says [economist Stephen Roach.] ‘We need a new script.’ …

The risk is that Western governments, mindful of the growing backlash among voters, will be tempted to rewrite the script by engaging in old and new forms of protectionism. … As the shift in savings from West to East … accelerates, complaints are bound to flare anew, said economic historian Daniel Yergin. ‘The question is: will there be international norms and rules or is the focus going to be on protection?’”

Katrin Bennhold, “Roadblocks on horizon for global economy”, International Herald Tribune, January 23, 2008.

598. “Feeling guilty about wasting time at work on computer solitaire? Join the growing guilt-free multitude at www.free-rice.com, an online game with redeeming social value. The game presents a word and four choices of definition. Pick right, and the cash equivalent of 20 grains of rice is donated by site advertisers to the World Food Program. …