Yesterday the Carter Center announced that the run-off Presidential election held on October 29, 2006, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was "extremely orderly and peaceful" and "very well executed." This is a remarkable piece of good news for the inhabitants of this war torn country and those of the entire region, which has been destabilized for more than a decade due to almost non-stop cross-border clashes. And it is an example of one of the myriad ways in which the United Nations is fostering peace and prosperity around the world.
After over forty rounds of voting, neither Guatemala nor Venezuela will join the Security Council. Rather, Latin American member states have nominated Panama as a compromise candidate.
"Condemning the recent militia attacks in Sudan's strife-torn West Darfur region that killed scores of civilians, reportedly including young children, and forced thousands more to flee, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan today called on all sides to respect humanitarian law and appealed to the Government to prevent such violence.
"The Secretary-General condemns the large-scale militia attacks in the Jebel Moon area... on 29 and 30 October. The attacks on eight civilian settlements, including a camp harbouring some 3,500 internally displaced persons, caused scores of civilian deaths and forced thousands to flee the area," Mr. Annan said in a statement attributable to his spokesman." More
"The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously on Wednesday to shift power from Ivory Coast's president to its prime minister to guide the volatile West African nation to long-delayed elections within a year." More
NYT: "Venezuela and Guatemala agreed Wednesday to withdraw from their race for a seat on the United Nations Security Council and to support Panama as a candidate."
"North Korea said Wednesday that it was returning to nuclear disarmament talks to get access to its frozen overseas bank accounts, a vital source of hard currency.... In Washington, Bush cautiously welcomed Tuesday's deal and thanked the Chinese for brokering it. But he said the agreement would not sidetrack U.S. efforts to enforce sanctions adopted by the U.N. Security Council to punish Pyongyang for the nuclear test. Those measures ban the North's weapons trade and other items such as luxury goods." More
The next installment of UNF Insights explores some problems associated with using what economists call "Purchasing Power Parity" (PPP) to assess what each member state must pay in dues to the United Nations. Readers of The Economist might recognize the term from the magazine's periodic "Big Mac Index," which uses the price of a McDonalds hamburger to compare economies around the world. In short, PPP is a way to measure comparative standards of living by comparing the price of a "basket of goods" in one place (i.e. a Big Mac in Bengal) to the same "basket of goods" elsewhere (i.e. a Big Mac in Bologna.)
When applied to the price of a hamburger, PPP gives harmless anecdotal evidence about the relative strength of economies. But if used to calculate UN dues - as some key member states have argued - it would have debilitating consequences for UN operations. To find out why, click here for my short essay on the topic.