Cargo of armed UN mines sparks El Al security alert in Canad

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Shiny Side Up
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Re: Cargo of armed UN mines sparks El Al security alert in C

Post by Shiny Side Up »

Hard to really say how "useful" the UN is when it encompasses so much. There naturally is the premise that the larger and more democratic you make something, the more unwieldly and inefficient it becomes. Even with the best intentions, its easy to see how it can be disrupted, though as per "use" if one looks into everything it has a hand in, well there's things like ICAO which affect most of us as pilots in some way, whether you view is as worthwhile depends largely on your POV. Wikipedia's entry is is a good primer for the whole picture.

Of interest, the top eight contributors to the UN, funds wise, are the only ones which contribute a higher ammount per person than their population would warrant, the top contributor being of course the US with only roughly 4.5% of the world's population contributing the lion's share of 22% of the funding.

One can look at the problem in one of two ways: Either you see the UN as horribly inefficient and therefore a waste of effort, or that it amazingly accomplishes anything given the massive scale of the task that is often asked of it. For some interesting reading this article gives a certain peek into the machinery at work. With todays advances in communications making the apparent size of the world seem small through our internets and televisions, one still must remember the world is an inconcievably large place which easily swallows the best efforts of a few.
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5400AirportRdSouth
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Re: Cargo of armed UN mines sparks El Al security alert in C

Post by 5400AirportRdSouth »

The UN provides a forum for countries to talk to each other, which is valuable by itself. Sometimes it does great things (pushing for rights of the child, landmine ban, Agenda 21, ending El Salvador civil war etc etc) and other times it screws up (Rwanda genocide, scandals).

Wait...what?


Sorry, couldn't resist.

I tend to think along the same lines.... as "useless" as the UN may seem to those on the outside looking in, the alternative, or lack of alternatives, could well be much, much worse.

/sarcasm on

Things would be be so much more productive and efficient if we could just get a good world-wide dictatorship going, then countries could just be forced to do whats " right ".

/sarcasm off
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alctel
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Re: Cargo of armed UN mines sparks El Al security alert in C

Post by alctel »

Shiny Side Up wrote:For some interesting reading this article gives a certain peek into the machinery at work.
Great (and highly frustrating) read, thanks!
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dashx
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Re: Cargo of armed UN mines sparks El Al security alert in C

Post by dashx »

So "training equipment" (mainly) becomes "military landmines" some of which is "primed to detonate"?

Who writes this stuff?????? And can they beaten severely by the RCMP?????

And why the hell would EL AL carry this stuff into Israel so it can be transported to Egypt?

Are times that tough for El AL? Maybe the owners should have stuck with Arkia.
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Re: Cargo of armed UN mines sparks El Al security alert in C

Post by Panama Jack »

Isn't Canada a signatory state of the UN-brokered "Ottawa Treaty" (the treaty that outlaws anti-personnel mines)? Or are these anti-tank mines?

My opinion on the UN: it may not be perfect, but if it didn't exist you would need to invent them.
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Re: Cargo of armed UN mines sparks El Al security alert in C

Post by xkbal »

Expat wrote:So easy to slander something you know nothing about, except through second hand news, purposely reported for self-interest on a nation, or its financial backers...
:roll:
I've worked at 3 UN missions, 2 military observer missions and one refugee. I will acknowledge that I may not know everything about the organization. However from what I've seen the UN is the most corrupt/incompetent/poorly run organization I've ever dealt with and is beyond recovery. We may need an organization with the stated goals of the UN, but the UN isn't it.
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