UNcivilized, UNsecurity, UNconvincing

There is something strangely appropriate about referring to the United Nations as the UN. Use it as a prefix, and you know what I mean. Un- means the opposite of, and that is precisely what the United Nations has become, consisting of such bodies as the UN-Security Council and the UN-Human Rights Commission. It has become downright UN-settling. Today, as the Newsday is reporting that the death toll in Darfur is nearing 300,000, we find the UN-Security Council involved in a grand debate over whether African courts, or the International Criminal Court should have jurisdiction over war crimes committed in the region. In another stirring show of resolve, the UN-Security Council voted to strengthen its arms embargo, now prohibiting the sale of arms to the government of Sudan.
Hurray for the United Nations. Buoyed by the obvious success of an embargo of Iraq, it rushes in and places an embargo of arms to Sudan. I am certain that, upon hearing the news, the millions of Sudanese displaced by this genocide burst into spontaneous celebration. I just know that the 300,001 and 300,002 victims of the massacres in Sudan will be comforted to know that the weapons that killed them were purchased illegally. I am expecting that, in the immediate future, I will see the results of this latest UN-action, and that, now that it is illegal to buy/sell/transport arms in the Sudan, everyone will lay down their arms and strive to turn the region into a Thomas Kincade painting.
Of course, the United Nations has more important business to attend to, such as managing the Oil-for-Food scandal. The lives of Africans in Darfur are far less important than the posteriors of the Secretariat of the UN. The latest on that continuing fiasco finds that Kofi Annan's former chief of staff, Iqbal Riza, ordered the shredding of documents that may have been pertinent to the investigation. If that isn't enough, let us remember who was in charge of UN-peacekeeping during another genocide, Rwanda. That is correct, Riza was also an aide to Annan when he was in charge of UN-peacekeeping. A transcript of a PBS interview with Riza regarding this earlier genocide can be found here.
The performance of the United Nations in the world, when it comes to the big issues can be summed up in a word. UN-satisfactory.
Note: To learn more about Darfur, or to find things that you can do to help, click here.