The Olive Branch Legacy

During my school days history classes, a fair bit of importance was given to "the United Nations Organization", UN for short - How it was conceived and, what does it do etc etc. I even remember participating in oratorical contests where in we have to speak about UN and its achievements. My mom being the history professor will dutifully fill me with info on the same and I grew up thinking very high about this world body.

My first shock or setback to that mentality came after I landed in the US - the birthplace of the very UN concept and the home of three of its important organs - General assembly, Secretariat and (drums roll !!!) the "Security Council". I was shocked to see UN not even getting a mention in media that a dumb movie star or a franchise sports player in US get. Back home in India, DoorDarhsan news tends to give headline importance to anything UN related. Then as I matured, it dawned upon me how the super powers merely use it as a "diplomatic tool" to cover their acts while in the background going ahead with their military interests. The Iraq war was the last straw in my confidence that UN would be worth something in the future. Like the rest of the world, I could only watch Kofi Annan (bless his soul) haplessly trying to impart sense into Bush and his puppeteers without much avail. The list goes on. The last known respect, in my view, a super power has given to this world body on a "issue of significance" has been the Cuban Crisis (thanks to some level-heads at the helm of US that time) when US took to this world body to put its case.

Recently when I visited NYC a second time, this time with mom, we decided to visit the UN headquarters in Manhattan. She was interested as history prof and my interest was mixed by now. By now, not surprising to me, UN HQ is not high on any NYC tourists list. Here's some of the things that caught by attention there -

1. Most visitors there were from 3rd world. I was about to conclude that they were the only ones but then a throng of europeans I guess came in as well.

2. An airport style security to the world body's visitor center entrance. In a movie style stunt, I was even asked to drink and show that what I was carrying in my backpack was indeed drinking water.

3. The workers, majority of them, are not Americans. Even the lift operator had an east european accent. Not sure if they have a quota system of sorts.

4. You can take a walking tour to General Assembly hall for $11. I decided a dinner in NYC Saravana Bhavan was worthier.

5. Most displays/posters there were geared towards CTBT and the effect of nuclear race etc. Japan for its part has contributed a section depicting the ills of a nuclear attack. Two posters in all intrigued me -

a. One showed a world map and indicated the nuclear war heads, nuclear tests and test sites each country had. No prize for guessing the winner - US and Russia at top two. I remember a May 1997 news article where US termed India as "a Nuclear Nation" after the Pokhran-II tests. So much for CTBT...

b. The second one is very interesting - In a typical US style of conveying things, this one showed what the effect would have been had the "Hiroshima Bomb" be dropped in today's NYC's Times Square. The hotel we stayed in our trip was near Newark airport, 30 miles from NYC. From the pic, it seemed, we would have been a goner too. Not sure if this poster was Japan's idea or some one else's.

6. The best touch of all - Silk portraits of all the UN Secretary Generals - beautifully done art work, very realistic. Courtesy of - guess who ? - see today's pic for the answer.

Again, I left the visitor center with my idea reinforced. UN is a human creation. Its not going to work unless we respect and... Ok. Never mind.