Let’s hear it for the United Nations and their brave and “historic step” to pass a resolution supporting “equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation” … or let’s not.
Suzanne Nossel, deputy assistant secretary of state for international organizations, told CNN, “It really is a key part in setting a new norm that gay rights are human rights and that that has to be accepted globally.”
“It talks about the violence and discrimination that people of LGBT persuasion experience around the world,” she said, “and that those issues … need to be taken seriously. It calls for reporting on what’s going on, where people are being discriminated against, the violence that is taking place, and it really puts the issue squarely on the U.N.’s agenda going forward.”
Woopie fuckin’ zoopie doo.
Anyone with a lick of sense and a brush with recent history will get what a limp dick sits squarely on the UN’s fat ass agenda. Take, for example, the great job done in Sudan, the effectiveness of their “Racism Forum” that featured “that wonder of gentle tolerance, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Holocaust denier extraordinaire”, and the “Climate Change Summit” in Copenhagen that did such wonders for promoting the case of prostitution but little else, then the one in Cancun that accomplished even more bugger all.
“Their insatiable lust for power is only equaled by their incurable impotence in exercising it.” ~ Winston Churchill
Subtract from all the job they’ve done … or not … in protecting children in places like the “Democratic Republic of Congo, in Haiti, infant mortality in general, female genital mutilation and the rights of children and women to education and a normal lifespan.
It all rather pulls one hand away from any applause the United Nations gigantic PR machine solicits with statements like:
Friday’s vote “marks a victory for defenders of human rights,” said Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. “It sends a clear message that abuses based on sexual orientation and gender identity must end.”
Can you hear the sound of one hand clapping? No. Me neither. But that doesn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the bullshit spreading one little bit …
Nossel told CNN, “it’s not like discrimination or violence are going to end overnight” because of the U.N. resolution, “but now … when there are proposals in parliaments or legislatures around the world to illegalize gay activity or repress people because of their sexual orientation, opponents can point to this and say, ‘Hey, the U.N. has spoken out, there is a resolution that rejects this squarely.’
“That is the way these international norms are built,” she said. “It’s not from scratch. On women’s rights, on minority rights, it builds up over time. So this is really a critical beginning of a universal recognition of a new set of rights that forms part of the international system.”
International norms? New set of rights? International system?
Go ahead … pull the other one.
The UN does have a place and a purpose; the place is New York … and Geneva … and on First Class seats toward Five Star hotel rooms in some of the poshest places on the planet. The purpose is to keep a bunch of people highly-paid, well-dressed and traveling while seeing the sights from lily-white convoys of SUVs …
“Our chief usefulness to humanity rests on our combining power with high purpose. Power undirected by high purpose spells calamity, and high purpose by itself is utterly useless if the power to put it into effect is lacking.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt
A collection of my short stories:
I'm in this one, too ...
And I'm in here, as well ...
Well said and I’m on the same page with you. When I heard it all I could think of was big deal. No one gives a rats ass about the UN anymore these days.Then I began pondering what they could do with that building that could do some good. Perhaps housing for the poor. Posh condos with a fancy restaurant on the roof. Anything that actually has some use to it.
Multi-story parking garage?
I like it! With the proceeds going to AIDS research or some other worthy cause that they are supposed to be doing something about but just talk about. I think we are of one mine here.
Just think of all the limos that would be freed up for non-UN use! And all that green marble inside would make nice counter tops …
Back in the days I was a runner, passing the UN building was part of my regular route whenever I was in Manhattan since I stayed with a friend who lived in the area. There were some very schmancy folks I would see every morning stepping from big, black cars and heading through those doors …
Another excellent post! Among so many other things that are Sandra, I worship your skill with the language. You have the most annoying way of causing me to gush like a 16 year old.
I think the best that can be said about UN resolutions is that, especially when they call for children’s rights, they tend to piss off the Right Wing — at least, in America. That’s not much to say in their defense, but it can be gratifying when the likes of James Dobson predict their passage will collapse Western Civilization…again.
Happy to hear I can still annoy, Paul.
Although pissing of the Right is admirable, it’s not enough to justify existence. In my opinion, the best thing that can be said is that the UN gives good report. Of course, the cost is outrageous and the impact negligible.
~smiles~ UN is nothing more then a mirage to placate the population of that there is a democratic governmentship, it is big an illusion as democracy, free market and fairtrade products on our shopping shelves, it is there go give us a picture that “everything is ok and if it is not we are working on it to make it better” unless a organization as UN had its own military power, one stronger then anyone elses, it will remain a joke, why? because rules are NOTHING with the follow through of punishment for those who break them. Oh and I am not cute 😉
You are especially cute when you agree with me, yes, Bobby.