EVICT THE UNITED NATIONS

 

[Published in Newsmax Show UN the Door | Newsmax.com]

It's time for the United Nations (UN) to leave America.

The UN has definitely overstayed its welcome.  Recent remarks by Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, and the overwhelming adoption of a Hamas inspired resolution by the General Assembly, crossed the line of decency.

These actions should be the last of many straws that the UN has heaped on American soil.

The UN’s being on the wrong side of issues is terrible by any measure.  It turned a blind eye to the tens of millions killed by Communism.  The UN continues to ignore the lives destroyed by slavery and tribal wars.  The UN ignores those suffering under tyrants who lead many of their member nations. The UN ignores how corruption and waste infests every aspect of its operations.

On December 10, 1945, the U.S. Congress formally invited the United Nations to have its headquarters in America.  Congress can formally uninvite the UN.

The New York City School System spends $80 million a year for educating the children of UN Diplomats. It spends $8 million a year on protecting UN Diplomats and handling the traffic snarls during the annual opening of the General Assembly.  The U.S. State Department spends $31 million a year on protecting UN Diplomats.

NYC annually loses $72 million in property tax revenue as the UN Headquarters sits on tax exempt land. UN employees are tax exempt from federal and state income taxes.  Annually, this revenue loss is approximately $400 million in federal and state taxes and $26 million for NYC.

The NYC government will not miss $16 million in unpaid parking tickets from UN Diplomats.

The U.S. will not miss it.  Intelligence agencies consistently describe the United Nations as a “spy nest”.  On February 28, 2022, the Biden Administration exposed and expelled 12 spies within Russia’s UN delegation.  How many spies are operating under diplomatic cover among the 193 member delegations?

So where should the United Nations go?  Johannesburg, South Africa.

The current political environment of South Africa is a United Nations creation.  Starting on November 6, 1962, South Africa’s government was singled-out for extinction.  Over the years, harsher measures were implemented to pressure South African leaders to share power with their native population.  This included suspending South Africa’s UN Membership on November 14, 1974.  In 1994, the UN welcomed South Africa back into the fold after democratic reforms were implemented.

Moving the UN to Johannesburg would bring its policies “home to roost”.

Johannesburg has the third highest crime rate in Africa.  While it is cheaper to live there than NYC, it has terrible public transportation, high air pollution, and prone to power outages.

Third world dictators may have difficulty enticing their delegations to work in Johannesburg once the swanky apartments and lavish NYC expense account restaurants are a thing of the past.

The most compelling reason for the United Nations to move to Johannesburg is the BRICS.

Formed in 2010, the BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa have established an alternative global reality to the G7 and G20 nations.  The BRICS nations hope to overtake the western-oriented groups of nations as the focus of 21^st Century economic and political vitality.

Moving the UN to Johannesburg places it at the center of BRICS’ geopolitics. That is a plus for them. 

The $2 billion in local job creation would be the West’s final gift to South Africa’s economy.

It is also a plus for the G7/G20 (all BRICS countries are members of the G20).  Having the UN “out of sight, out of mind” places it where it should be - on the other side of the planet wallowing in its anti-West, anti-freedom, anti-capitalist agenda.  The rants of its leaders and its resolutions will not have the same “gravitas” deprived of its “New York City, USA” imprimatur.  UN diplomats will not have easy access to the U.S. media being 7,900 miles away.

Having the United Nations out of the United States would be a giant step forward in clearing the West’s political landscape. 

Congress can go on the record now for sending the UN packing. It will take a Republican President to make it a reality.

OF BRICS & DRAGONS

This article was published on the History News Network

http://hnn.us/articles/how-game-thrones-mirrors-modern-geopolitics

The Season Three finale of Game of Thrones coincided with my recent meetings in China. There is more in common than first meets the eye.

Game of Thrones is HBO’s outstanding fantasy drama about how royal families on the continent of Westeros intrigue against and slaughter each other. At the end of Season Three the key combatants remain oblivious to rising outside threats. The White Walkers, or basically “ice zombies”, are massing in the icy north looking to expand their feeding territory. Far to the south, across the Narrow Sea, Daenerys Targaryen is forming a massive army and building a cadre of capable advisors. She is waiting for the day her three dragons are large enough to lead her campaign to invade Westeros and reclaim the “Iron Throne”. A multi-year period of mild weather, the “long summer”, is about to give way to an equally long and devastating winter. Only a few whisper, “winter is coming”, and even less are preparing.

In the “real” world, America’s leaders intrigue against and politically slaughter each other. Myopia reigns supreme inside the Capital’s Beltway. Daily micro-battles over tactical issues are echoed in Lilliputian debates among hyperpartisan pundits. Like their Westeros counterparts, America’s political, economic, and media elite are oblivious to rising outside threats. This is not about terrorists, it is about BRICS.

BRICS are five major emerging economies that formed a cooperation pact in 2011: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. With the exception of Russia, BRICS are all developing or recently industrialized countries. Their common attribute is they all have large, fast-growing economies. This is allowing them growing influence on regional and global affairs. As of 2013, the five BRICS countries represent almost 3 billion people, with a combined nominal GDP of $14.8 trillion, and an estimated $4 trillion in combined foreign reserves.

BRICS are not always in agreement. Notably, China and India have serious border and water rights disputes. However, they collectively represent a major economic and trade force in the world. In many ways they are like the mercantile powers of the 17th Century. At that time, England and the Netherlands established global trading outposts, developed their merchant infrastructure, and built economic capabilities that soon encompassed the world. While the Netherlands was content to dominant trade, England leveraged its mercantilism to become the dominant strategic power for over three hundred years.

BRICS are following in these historic footsteps. China is methodically locking up strategic minerals and port facilities throughout Africa. China already holds the rights to most of Afghanistan’s mineral resources. It is fully content to have American coin and blood provide the security for Chinese miners. President Xi Jinping’s recent tour of the Americas strengthened his country’s presence in America’s “backyard”. His tour was topped off by Nicaragua awarding a Chinese company a 100-year concession to build an alternative to the Panama Canal. This will have profound geopolitical ramifications. China is also preparing to assert its highly expansive version of rights to islands and territorial waters throughout the Pacific rim.

BRICS strategically flexing their collective new muscles starkly contrasts with America’s nonexistent global economic strategy. It did not have to be this way.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan had a detailed strategic plan. His plan was to eradicate the Soviet Empire, end the threat of global Communism, and free millions of people from bondage. He masterfully and methodically implemented his plan succeeding beyond even his inner circle’s expectations. It was a combination of overt and covert active measures, coordinated with Britain’s Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II. Together, they formed a “big three” that was far more globally effective and positive than World War II’s FDR, Churchill, and Stalin.

The problem was that so much planning and execution went into ending global Communism, little effort was spent on what happened next. For all the rhetoric about a “new world order” after the fall of the Berlin Wall, precious little actually occurred. After World War II the United Nations and countless strategic meetings, such as the Bretton Woods Conference, reshaped the world. America’s Marshall Plan in Europe and MacArthur’s counter part in Japan rebuilt ravaged parts of the globe, but also established viable markets for U.S. goods.

Presidents Bush 41, Clinton, Bush 43, and now Obama have been content to let America’s economy drift through the “peace dividend” and the information revolution without a strategic game plan. 9-11 opened a large rabbit hole where Bush 43 and his NeoCons squandered coin and blood on ill-advised, ill-conceived, and poorly realized foreign adventures. Today America is over extended politically, militarily, and financially. At home, our strategic drift since the fall of the Berlin Wall has led to hyperpartisan bickering over increasingly minute matters. The rise of the TheoCons within the Republican Party have reopened debates about science and reason that were resolved centuries ago, further diverting attention from strategic global issues.

Now in 2013, America is like Westeros, every day introduces new micro-conspiracies that diminish and divert attention from the real issues. America’s role in the world and its future as an economic power are drowned out by politicians and pundits fixated on whether Paula Dean should have a Food Network show. In the meantime, the BRICS’ “little dragons” and “ice zombies” are growing in strength. Washington politicians would learn more from following HBO fantasy dramas than Cable “news” talk shows.

[Scot Faulkner served as Chief Administrative Officer for the U.S. House of Representatives. Spent the month of June in China as advisor to the International Scholar Laureate Program. http://citizenoversight.blogspot.com/ ]