We did nothing – are doing nothing – will do nothing…

I’ve started reading We Did Nothing by Linda Polman. It’s all about the UN – how it is structured and why it is useless. She looks at three crisis situations: Somalia, Haiti and Rwanda. It’s fascinating and should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in international affairs. She describes with great adeptness how the UN was set up and run for the interests of the five main world powers. It is an organization that carries out the wishes of the ruling Security Council. This council makes decisions which include mandates to send peace keeping forces to certain countries. The countries that make up the Security Council or indeed any of the member states may not contribute money or military aid to help the UN achieve the set objective but they are somehow absolved from blame because few articulate the fact that they are both the decision makers and the means to fulfill decisions. The UN has instead become seen as a separate entity – a sort of global police force – an organization that can be blamed for failing to act, in time and successfully.