Are We Putting Our Faith in a UN Cesspool?

A May 26, 2009 article by Jonathan Tobin includes:

The keystone to Barack Obama’s foreign policy is a revived faith in international institutions such as the United Nations and deference to the opinion of the same. But despite the seeming popularity of this policy, reasons for disgust at the current state of the UN and its agencies continues to build up.

One example is provided in an open letter signed by French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, “Shoah” director Claude Lanzmann, and Elie Wiesel, published by the Huffington Post. In it these three heavyweights express their dismay at the near certainty that Farouk Hosny, the Egyptian Minister of Culture, will become the next Director General of UNESCO. They write:

Mr. Farouk Hosny is not worthy of this role; Mr. Farouk Hosny is the opposite of a man of peace, dialogue, and culture; Mr. Farouk Hosny is a dangerous man, an inciter of hearts and minds. There is only little, very little time left to avoid committing the major mistake of elevating Mr. Farouk Hosny above others to this eminent post.

Hosny’s statements over the years mark him down as an incorrigible Israel- and Jew-hater who has actually advocated the burning of books published by Israelis. The latter is a perfect resume line for someone who is supposedly going to be responsible for preserving the heritage of this planet’s culture, isn’t it?

But already in office and far higher up in the Byzantine labyrinth of UN bureaucracies is another ideologue and hater: Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, president of the United Nations General Assembly. A hardcore Sandinista veteran of Nicaragua’s nightmarish past, d’Escoto has already provoked concern in the United States for his open hostility to the state of Israel. Now, the New York Times has reported on his plans for using the UN as a platform for institutionalizing his socialist dogmas. This not very sympathetic piece by Neil MacFarquhar, tells us that Brockman wants to create 9 new global institutions, authorities, and advisory boards:

Everyone basically agreed that the United Nations should serve as the voice of the poorest nations, and that its many tentacles provided an excellent source for collecting data on the impact of the meltdown. … To Mr. d’Escoto, a priest and former Nicaraguan foreign minister, the world financial crisis demonstrates the need for something closer to a revolution, both to mend the deep wounds opened by capitalist excess and to prevent future calamity. He wants the General Assembly to be anointed the leader in reformulating the world’s economic institutions. (The draft document suggested an open-ended process, steered by Mr. d’Escoto.)

“If the new financial system and architecture is going to be put together, and these rules of the game are going to affect everyone, as the crisis has affected everyone, the proposed solution and new rules of the game should be legitimate for everyone,” said Paul Oquist, Mr. d’Escoto’s senior adviser for the conference, and a Nicaraguan official. “It is the General Assembly that offers that in a universal vein.”

Sitting beneath portraits of Fidel Castro of Cuba, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, among others, Mr. Oquist also said that the meltdown of 2008 proved that no state or states had a monopoly on financial wisdom. That statement, at least, attracts a consensus here.

So, in addition to being a cesspool of anti-Semitism, as demonstrated anew by the pick of Hosny, the United Nations will, under d’Escoto’s leadership, become a clearinghouse for a new socialist “revolution” that will attempt to re-order the international financial system in the image of Nicaragua or Cuba. And Barack Obama wants us to listen more closely to the UN and care about its opinions? John Bolton’s famous quip about lopping off 10 floors off the UN building never seemed more moderate.