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What's happening
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- May Lunch and Learn Meeting to Discuss UN’s Future When the United Nations was established, although its founders had used a broad brush to paint its mandate, it was seen as a panacea against wars, at least of the Hitlerian proportions the world had just endured. In its sixty-three years of existence since then, the world became more complex, its membership quadrupled, and it was assigned additional and more complex tasks. At the same time, the unreserved backing it had initially enjoyed from its members, especially its most important member, the United States, became more nuanced . At times it even seemed possible the organization might founder. The UN's existential crises seem to be over for now, but what about its future? Our Lunch and Learn speaker in May will be Will Davis, Director of the UN Information Center in Washington DC, who will discuss "The Future of the UN." The meeting will take place on Wednesday, May 28, from Noon to 2:00 PM, at the Carolina Meadows by sending a check for $17.00 to Barbara Rodbell, 404 Carolina Meadows Villa, Chapel Hill, NC 27517. The deadline for reservations is Friday, May 23. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Education Outreach Committee The University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill United Nations Organization (UNO) conducted a Model U.N. Conference for high schools in April. Called MUNCH 2008, the Conference, which simulated the deliberations of United Nations intergovernmental panels, drew 156 students from twelve high schools across the state. Jerry and Barbara Berke attended the opening ceremony and observed part of the deliberations of the General Assembly, while the Greens enjoyed part of the Security Council debate on Kosovo, one of five simulations held. The UNC-CH students conducting the Conference, led by Scott Pion, UNO’s President, challenged the high school students by introducing crises into the debates. For example, the Security Council suspended debate on Kosovo to deal with a threat by Myanmar (Burma) to fire nuclear weapons on Moscow and Taiwan. Another crisis involved biological warfare. Frank Felicelli, advisor for the Model U.N. Club at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough, observed that, “We participated in MUNCH 2008 and the kids performed well despite limited prep time. That weekend also coincided with our prom so that wiped out our upper classmen on Saturday night, effectively taking any contenders for an award [an important element of the conferences which, in addition to being learning vehicles for the students, are effectively interscholastic competitions] out of consideration. That said, I was pleased and we have enough underclassmen to build a program…”. Mattis Hennings, President of the Model U.N. Club at East Chapel Hill High School noted that “…MUNCH was a rewarding opportunity for the entire team… the organization was excellent and the staff constantly kept all delegates on their toes… Marsha Sugana won best delegate for representing India in EcoSoc, and Neil and Kiron Lebeck won an honorable mention for portraying Syria in the Arab League.” Carrboro High School’s new Model U.N. Club won the Superior High School Delegation Award. The Club’s advisor, Kathryn Erikson, reported that Trevor Dolan and Mike Filippini won the Outstanding Delegate Award for their role in the WHO (World Health Organization) simulation. In the Security Council, John Ambrose won the Best Delegate Award. Josh Falek and Ben Judge won the Best Delegate Award in the Arab League, while Nick Persico and Ben Palmer won the Honorable Mention Award in the ECOSOC Committee. The West Triangle Chapter plays an important role in stimulating and maintaining interest by schools in the Model UN program, which was developed by UNA-USA as a way of educating students about the United Nations and the world in general. If you would like to support this Committee’s work, when you sign up for the next Lunch and Learn, please check off “Education Outreach” on the Registration Form in this Newsletter and send your donation in together with your Lunch fee. If you would like to join in the Committee’s work or have suggestions for us, please contact us at 919-545-0941 or cgreen17@nc.rr.com . -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hurricanes
and the UN Weather forecasters tell us that the Hurricane season now begins on June 1 each year and this gets the attention of everyone on the east coast. It reminds us of the damage done from the one-two punch to the Gulf coast from of Katrina and Rita in 2005. But memory fades with time and a good example is the dual damage from Hurricanes Dennis and Floyd that sailed over eastern North Carolina in 1999. These two storms, just weeks apart, dropped first 15 inches and then 19 inches of rain on ground already saturated with water. This buoyed caskets from graveyards and houses from foundations sending them, along with livestock, downstream to an unspecified fate. Recovery from Floyd seemed endless and people from Tarboro to the coast lived in FEMA trailers for years. Where do these things come from? The easy answer is that they start off the coast of Africa but how do they get their names? You may be surprised to learn that these weather systems are given specific names by a specialized agency of the United Nations, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Its headquarters is in Geneva, Switzerland and has six regional associations around the world. In our region, North and Central America have established a hurricane committee that approves names and coordinates forecasts and warnings of hurricanes in the western Atlantic and Caribbean. In other parts of the world hurricanes are called typhoons, cyclonic storms or tropical cyclones. They are devastating not only for their strong winds but also floods and storm surges as well as other secondary effects such as tornados and landslides. The most severe on record is a death toll of nearly 300,000 people in Bangladesh in 1970. Compare that to 1,800 deaths from Katrina and 57 dead from Floyd, the worst storm to hit North Carolina in recent years. A particularly important aspect of hurricanes, as distinct from other natural hazards, is the world wide availability of early warning systems as a basis for preparedness and disaster mitigation. As a result of international co-operation and co-ordination and modern technologies such as satellites, weather radar and computers, all tropical cyclones around the globe are now closely monitored. This is done from their early stages of formation by designated regional specialized meteorological centers; the one for our part of the World is in Miami. Inland residents need to pay at least as much attention to these weather systems as people on the coast. Statistics show that hurricanes cause more deaths inland than on the coast. In Charlotte, for example, Hurricane Hugo caused immense damage when falling trees from the storm snapped power lines all over town and electricity was not completely restored for 2 weeks. When the United Nations was formed after World War II, the World Meteorological Organization took up the important task of providing standard names for storms so that all would refer to the same weather system. One can imagine the confusion if different countries referred to the same storm with different names. The names, are adopted from a rotating system according to the alphabet; for this year they are: Arthur, Bertha, Cristobal, Dolly, Edouard, Fay, Gustav, Hanna, Ike, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, Marco, Nana, Omar, Paloma, Rene, Sally, Teddy, Vicky and Wilfred. The Greek alphabet (alpha, beta, gamma etc.) is used to name additional storms. Last year, so many storms occurred that it was necessary to dip into that supplemental alphabet. The WMO is just one of many United Nations “Specialized Agencies,” headquartered throughout the world, that focus on developing global standards and promoting economic and social development in a wide variety of sectors that affect everyday life around the world. Another is the World Health Organization which has successfully worked to eliminate smallpox from the earth and is striving to do the same with polio. While the UN has its critics, it’s important to recall its positive accomplishments, through this vast network of international cooperative programs. More information on WMO can be found at http://www.wmo.ch . -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
U.N.
Budgets and U.S. Arrears Up According to figures compiled by the Better World Campaign, a component of the U.N. Foundation, for the first time in a decade, the U.S. has “hard arrears” to the U.N. regular budget. These are debts that cannot be glossed over with “late payment” status, a way used in the past to finesse the problem of governments losing their votes in the General Assembly by virtue of accumulating excessive arrears in their dues to the organization. Overall, the U.S. owes the U.N. some $2.8 billion, comprising almost half of all dues arrears owed to the organization by its member governments. These constitute 94 percent of all arrears owed to the U.N.’s “regular” budget, 34 percent of arrears to the peacekeeping budget, and 46 percent of the total arrears owed to the organization. This makes the U.S. by far the largest debtor in the world to the organization. Some of the debt is for current year bills, but most is for prior years, which the U.S. has no plans to pay, a condition it imposed, partly because of Congressional strictures, to settle its previous arrears bill (the U.S. is rarely less than $2 billion behind on its U.N. payments). Shortfalls in the proposed FY 2009 budget will add another $610 million to the US permanent debt to the U.N. The United States pays 22 percent of the organization’s costs (its so-called “regular” budget) and about 27 percent of its peacekeeping costs. Moreover, current U.N. expenses have increased by 25 percent, resulting in its highest-ever budget, much of it driven by U.S. demands in the area of peacekeeping operations, primarily in Sudan, Afghanistan and Iraq (where the U.N. is newly re-involved after having been virtually frozen out since the U.S. invasion in 2003). Peacekeeping expenses have more than tripled, with nearly 110,000 peacekeepers - the highest number ever - currently participating in 17 missions at a cost of about $7 billion. The U.N. has a 2008-2009 “regular” budget of approximately $4.2 billion (just over $2 billion per year), while the 2007-2008 peacekeeping budget currently totals $6.8 billion. The most urgent problem is in the area of peacekeeping. If the U.N. is to continue to carry out its critical role in this field, a role which the United States is strongly pressing, it is crucial that the U.S. meets its obligation to provide the U.N. with the funds it owes even as it meets its new annual dues obligations. Congress now has before it a spending request from the President that includes $334 million for the U.S.’s peacekeeping dues for the urgent Darfur mission which it has strongly pressed the U.N. to undertake and for which it has voted in the Security Council. It also contains $53 million for U.N. regular budget dues for political missions in Afghanistan and Iraq which are required to advance the peace process of both countries. Congress must increase U.N. funding to pay off the arrears the U.S. has already generated. To do so, it must immediately provide a total of $877 million. It’s up to us, as supporters of the United Nations, to lobby for those funds, especially because we know from experience that our Senators are not strong supporters of the United Nations and need to be reminded that we’re their constituents too and we expect our priorities to be addressed (please note that Senator Dole is up for reelection this year). Following is the text of an email that members are urged to send (or if preferred) paraphrase, to Senators Burr and Dole. “I am writing to ask you to help ensure that the United States begins immediately to pay off our burgeoning financial arrears to the United Nations. The United States now owes $2.8 billion to the United Nations, on which we depend to carry out peacekeeping operations that our government might otherwise be called upon to undertake. It is irresponsible and counterproductive to shortchange our U.N. financial responsibilities at the very time we are asking the United Nations to assume greater responsibilities in places like Darfur, Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
I urge you to support increased U.N. funding in the President’s fiscal year 2008 supplemental spending bill to help pay our U.N. debt accumulated in recent years. Specifically, Congress should immediately provide $133 million for the U.N. regular budget and $744 million for U.N. peacekeeping to cover the President’s request for operations in Darfur, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and shortfalls in these accounts from recent years.”
The Senators’ email contact addresses are as follows (Ed. Note: I know they’re long and involved - I don’t know if that’s by design, to cut down on workload; whatever the case. I urge you not to be put off by them; the message is too important.)
Senator
Burr
Senator
Dole: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keep Up With The U.N. As members of UNA-USA, we’re interested in what’s happening at the United Nations. However, it’s not always easy to find out. One way that we’ve told you about is through UN Wire, the daily digest of information about the United Nations and U.N.-related developments throughout the world that links the reader to articles in the world press about developments at the world body. It’s sponsored by the U.N. Foundation and can be subscribed to, at no cost, at https://www.unfoundation.org/signup.asp. Another vehicle for information is the UNIC Newsletter, an on-line publication of the United Nations Information Center, the U.N.’s public outreach information office, in Washington DC, which provides unique insider insights into developments personalities atr the world body. You can subsribe to it via email or go to http://www.unicwash.org/newsl/newsl.html and click on “Newsletter.” It is also available at no cost. Admittedly, these publications won’t meet all your reading needs and can’t substitute for a good novel. But they’re excellent resources which, along with the UN’s and UNA’s own web sites (http://www.un.org; http://www.unausa.org ) can provide you with a great deal of interesting, useful up-to-date information about the world body we support, and maybe even help you to dispel some of the shibboleths and misinformation about it that, unfortunately, is too prevalent “out there.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Year Ahead for the West Triangle Chapter The year ahead for the West Triangle Chapter starts with — our summer vacation. As usual, both The West Triangle World and the Lunch and Learn meetings will be taking June, July and August off, returning in September. We’ve been fortunate in being able to find speakers for our September - December L&L’s already. As is our policy, all are highly highly qualified experts on United Nations or other international-related topics so please mark the dates and the speakers on your calendars now so you’ll be sure to hear them. They’re as follows: September 24 - Professor Jason West of UNC’s School of Public Health who will be speaking about Global Warming. October 22 - This will be our UN Day commemoration (UN Day formally falls on October 24, but we’ll be marking it on our closest meeting day). Our speaker will be Jane Roberts, co-founder of “34 Million Friends of UNFPA,” the national non-governmental organization that was established by Jane and another American woman as a reaction to the Bush Administration’s continuing refusal to release Congressionally appropriated funds to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). November 19 - Duke Law Professor-emeritus Horace “Robbie” Robertson will speak to us about the Law of the Sea, a much needed international convention resisted by the United States for many years, but finally agreed to by President Bush. December 17 - Robin Kirk, Director of the Duke Human Rights Center, will join us in commemorating international Human Rights Day (officially marked worldwide on December 10, but again celebrated by the West Triangle Chapter on our closest meeting date) In accordance with our usual practice, both our November and December meeting dates have been moved from our usual fourth-Wednesday-of-the-month in order to accommodate Chapter members’ possible holiday plans. In addition to these regularly scheduled meetings, The Chapter will co-sponsor with “UNO”, our student affiliate on the UNC campus a commemoration of Hguman Rights Day on the college’s campus. Other events will be announced as they’re scheduled. HAVE A GREAT SUMMER. SEE YOU IN THE FALL!
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