My Time in World Government

So things aren't going so well in Kenya. Which is obviously true but not obviously relevant given that I'm currently in Peru. Except that Nairobi and a week in Kenya were on my itinerary while I sorted out my visa for Tanzania for the trip up Mount Kilimanjaro. It seemed such a good plan in mid-December but then Kenya had an election and the sitting President rigged the presidential ballot and then everything in Nairobi went to brown sauce.

So I had to make alternative arrangements and find the closest Tanzanian Embassy, which turned out to be in the United States, and I had the choice of visiting the permanent mission to the United Nations in New York or the Embassy in Washington D.C. So off to New York for a few days I went.

While there, I took the opportunity of taking the public tour around the UN, and got to hang out in the General Assembly and the Security Council as well as seeing various gifts to the UN from member countries. The UN compound is not legally part of the United States, and is the common property of its members, however they couldn't give me a passport stamp.

The UN was established in 1948 after World War II with 51 members. There are now 192 member states of the UN (which is less than the 204 registered members of FIFA, so football (soccer) is apparently more important to some than world governance).

In addition to world politics the UN also oversees the IMF, World Bank and various other international trade bodies, including the IMF and World Bank. They also look after UNICEF (childrens welfare), UNESCO (emergency relief) and lots of other specialised agencies and programmes through the Economic and Social Council. One of their more ambitious programmes involves the eradication of child poverty and illiteracy by 2015.

The Security Council consists of 15 delegates, five permanent members plus ten which are chosen so all geographical regions are always represented. The Security Council is the only UN body which is able to make legally binding and enforceable resolutions.

The General Assembly below. The General Assembly was in session but it was lunchtime when I took the photo, hence there are very few people hanging around. The interpreter boxes are visible left and right of the centre podium behind the glass. Apparently the seating order is changed every year to stop the delegates from Zaire and Zimbabwe always getting the desk in the back corner and Angola and Argentina hogging all the morning tea.

And I got my visa to Tanzania, so look forward to some shots of Mount Kilimanjaro in a few weeks time.