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Film shows complete failure of UN |
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Written by Lynne Cohen
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Wednesday, 03 February 2010 |
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OTTAWA – The reputation of the United Nations is certainly not very positive these days – especially not in the Jewish community – so the recently released 90-minute film U.N. me reveals no blatant surprises. But the movie, produced by New Yorker Ami Horowitz – a one time investment banker who abruptly left that career for filmmaking – is funny and entertaining anyway, even if a tad too long.
The goal of the film – which began production in 2006 – is to demonstrate the complete failure of the world body to even approach its founding principles. Set up after World War II, the UN was supposed to protect the world from wars and human rights violations. Instead, it has become an elegant rendezvous for dictators and international thugs.
The film premiered at the National Archives in Ottawa on Jan. 25 and was sponsored by the Free Thinking Film Society (FTFS). It opens with Horowitz himself sarcastically comparing the beauty of autumn leaves with the opening of the UN General Assembly, and the speeches by the worst tyrants in the world. Horowitz is then seen trying to find a UN employee at the headquarters in New York, having no luck because it is past 3 p.m. and everyone has gone home.
Through the portrayal of issues including peacekeeping, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, Oil for Food, the Rwandan genocide and human rights, the film confirms that incompetence and corruption now shaping the heart of the UN.
In one section, a UN peacekeeping force stationed in Cote d’Ivoire actually fired live rounds into a crowd of peaceful protesters. Dozens were killed and injured, but the UN did not investigate. In the movie, Horowitz – who was also in Ottawa for opening night – went to the African country and spent hours on the phone trying to make an appointment to see the chief UN person in Cote d’Ivoire. Unsuccessful, he eventually snuck into the top echelons of the peacekeeping contingent. While interviewing the top UN man, Horowitz asked about the slaughter. He was cut off quickly and led away without getting any answers.
In another hilarious episode, Horowitz asks a few UN big wigs about the definition of terrorism. A major problem, they all tell him, is that they cannot come up with an agreed upon definition of the word. Horowitz buys a Webster’s dictionary from a nearby bookstore, photocopies the page with the definition of terrorism on it and hands it out to UN employees as they walk by.
According to the film, at least 1,000 cases of sex abuse by UN peacekeepers have been alleged and never dealt with. When UN officials went on important fact-finding missions, they spent much of their days shopping and at cocktail parties.
With respect to Oil for Food – the largest scandal in the history of eating – the UN never took corrective action against any of its employee culprits.
As for the genocide in Darfur, Horowitz shows how the UN’s Human Rights Council has prolonged the horror and suffering by trying to discredit the urgent recommendations of its own investigative team. Part of that team was Nobel laureate Jody Williams, who travelled to some of the refugee camps and talked to the women survivors. She was told about the rapes they endured to try and keep their husbands alive. Williams, a courageous and forthright woman, was ignored and insulted by her UN colleagues.
John Bolton, former US ambassador to the UN, is interviewed in the film. He denounces the fraud and waste and says, “everywhere they [UN officials] behave like colonial masters instead of servants to the people.” |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 10 February 2010 )
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