The Hindu Business Line : Waste of time and money

THE three-day UN "summit" attended by heads of states and governments was described as the largest such gathering ever, but going by the forgettable outcome, it was a big yawn. Indeed, never in the history of human organisations was so much time and money wasted by so many for so little: This about sums up all the hustle-bustle, the side-shows, the photo-ops and the torrent of words submerging the cavernous hall in a steady and soporific monotone.

The multiplier effect of each of the top dignitaries, in terms of the innumerable aides dancing attendance on them and security personnel swirling round them is also enormous.

Such a hullabaloo would have been justified if, say, the UN was about to adopt a resolution on revolutionary reforms bringing about a sea-change in its composition and functions, or if it was to make a solemn proclamation of universal disarmament and destruction of all the existing stocks of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).

It would have been well worth the while had the haves among the 191-member body forged a brand new mechanism to pool financial, material and technological resources many times the present commitment (an unmentionably minuscule 0.7 per cent of their GDP) on which the have-nots would be able to draw for fighting hunger and disease and spurring their growth, or even if there was to be a grand announcement of the full implementation worldwide of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Nothing of the sort happened. The US decisively put its foot down against any common approach to stop the spread of (WMDs) or any increase in the stipulated percentage of official development assistance. The Arab countries succeeded in thwarting the inclusion in the definition of terrorism of any reference to killing of innocent civilians.

The African Union queered the pitch for the expansion of the Security Council, already stonewalled by the US and bedevilled by the discord among aspirants for permanent membership.

The Action Taken Report on MDGs was so patchy as to amount to nothing. The stigma of the oil-for-food scandal had greatly eroded the authority of the Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan.

No wonder, it elicited comments like "profound disappointment" and "unforgivable sham" from some delegates. Altogether this was a summit that the world could have got on without.

B.S. Raghavan

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