U.N. 'dirty' turns up cracks and asbestos [“...the building has not been maintained.’]

Reuters ^ | Jul 4, 2005 | By Claudia Parsons

[Born to Conserve]

"(Look at the wall behind the criminal: It's wrinkled!)"

No, that's the grain of the wood veneer.

But it sure is ugly veneer.

[Tacis]

Geez, Kofi and his son and other family members have been looting the UN building maintenace fund, too? No surprise, they live in mud huts with dirt floors at home so building mauntenance is low priority, espececially if they've got a good supply of cow dung for do-it-yourself repairs.

[LRS]

At first, I started to blast away at the writer of the article, Claudia Parsons, as I don't know much about her, other than seeing her name before on roto-Rueters articles. But, after refreshing myself on previous Claudia Parsons reports, she may be a bit "stealthy" when it comes to fairness for a roto-Rueters writer, as she demonstrates in this article. I think she knew just how upset people against the U.N. would be with this report with its "Blame America" and "I want my U.S. tax dollars so that I can get rich" attitudes reflected by some of the people interviewed, and juxtaposed them with thoughts of "cruise ships", and with lines like "Inside the chamber where delegates from the 191 member states gather to discuss poverty, human rights, peace and security, even the ambassadors were not immune from danger..."We had to replace the entire ceiling there because parts of the ceiling were falling down on delegates' heads,"", knowing perfectly well how someone like me would respond to such comments. This is not an endorsement of Claudia Parsons, but on a roto-Rueters standard, there was some semblance of balance when one looks for it...

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

No maintenance huh? This is proof the building is run and occupied by banana type republics. After they steal all the money along the way, there is no money for maintenance. Nothing new here. Go home!

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

"Hopefully, it will collapse around them while they are in session...."

I was going to say the same thing.

[Gatún(CraigIsaMangoTreeLawyer)]

While critics, particularly in Washington, may be worried about the oil-for-food scandal and investigations into mismanagement in allocating U.N. contracts, some at the United Nations have more practical concerns.

The word "mismanagement" is the PC word for robbery. When you see that word, substitute the word theft/steal/robbery/larceny/etc.

[johnny7]

I had that take also.

However, if this is what she had to resort to in order to get-out-the-truth...

[RichardW]

If we are really, really, lucky, that building will fall down into a heap of rubble. A more evil institution has never been created.