UN faces financial shortfall
My heart bleeds: The head of the UN today announced that it faces a financial shortfall in October that might force it to cut its bloated budget and reduce the number of posh conferences it holds.
The United Nations (UN) is running a deficit of $230 million, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, and may run out of money by the end of October.
In a letter intended for the 37,000 employees at the UN secretariat and obtained by AFP, Guterres said unspecified “additional stop-gap measures” would have to be taken to ensure salaries and entitlements are paid. “Member States have paid only 70 per cent of the total amount needed for our regular budget operations in 2019. This translates into a cash shortage of $230 million at the end of September. We run the risk of depleting our backup liquidity reserves by the end of the month,” he wrote.
To cut costs, Guterres mentioned postponing conferences and meetings and reducing services, while also restricting official travel to only essential activities and taking measures to save energy.
For a short but detailed explanation of the present status of the U.S. policy and politics towards funding the U.N., see this Congressional Research document [pdf]. It appears that the effort by the Trump administration to stop funding certain UN operations, including Palestinian terrorist organizations, might be a major contributing factor to this shortfall.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
My heart bleeds: The head of the UN today announced that it faces a financial shortfall in October that might force it to cut its bloated budget and reduce the number of posh conferences it holds.
The United Nations (UN) is running a deficit of $230 million, Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Monday, and may run out of money by the end of October.
In a letter intended for the 37,000 employees at the UN secretariat and obtained by AFP, Guterres said unspecified “additional stop-gap measures” would have to be taken to ensure salaries and entitlements are paid. “Member States have paid only 70 per cent of the total amount needed for our regular budget operations in 2019. This translates into a cash shortage of $230 million at the end of September. We run the risk of depleting our backup liquidity reserves by the end of the month,” he wrote.
To cut costs, Guterres mentioned postponing conferences and meetings and reducing services, while also restricting official travel to only essential activities and taking measures to save energy.
For a short but detailed explanation of the present status of the U.S. policy and politics towards funding the U.N., see this Congressional Research document [pdf]. It appears that the effort by the Trump administration to stop funding certain UN operations, including Palestinian terrorist organizations, might be a major contributing factor to this shortfall.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Good.
Go Trump go!
NATO also need to get its priorities in order. Trump pointed that out when he was there for the opening of their new plush building!
Other countries, including Canada, must put in their allotment. Pierre Elliot Trudeau was the one to cut Canada’s NATO commitment.
Can anyone think of other government systems which need pairing down?
I can’t believe that one Halloween I had once gone trick-or-treating for UNICEF. After learning that the UN itself did bad things and supported bad people and groups, rather than being a place to prevent wars and conflict, I regretted missing out on all that candy, that year, by helping to finance them. *Sigh* The things we do in our innocent youth — trick-or-treat being learned extortion.
Phill O asked: “Can anyone think of other government systems which need pairing down?”
Isn’t the short list the government systems that do not need paring down?
Edward, the short list of Government bodies that don’t need paring down?
0.
I have zero sympathy for the grifters in the UN having to cut back on their parties.
commodude-
Good stuff!
(we need to move the UN building, to Somalia.)
Edward–
yeah, got sucked into that myself one year. (UNICEF)
pivoting….
[Parody Alert…]
“UN Home Security….”
https://youtu.be/2Whrat_Rn0I
1:31
Maybe they should have a bake sale. Or bang the drum on Rodeo Drive in El Lay.
Tangentially related, read an article on why rich twenty-somethings (virtually all trust fund babies who did not earn their wealth) want higher taxes (Liberal Guilt). Of course, nothing is said about changing their lavish lifestyles as a consequence or – Quel Horreur ! – having to work for a living like the deploreables because their wealth has been confiscated . My reaction ? Hey, people, nothing stops you from donating your money, right now. Set the example, here. Otherwise, can you spell HYPOCRITE ? How about LIAR ?
“If you are not a liberal at twenty, you have no heart. If you are not a conservative at forty, you have no brain” – Winston Churchill
I must have been tired when I first read Robert’s comments.
“It appears that the effort by the Trump administration to stop funding certain UN operations, including Palestinian terrorist organizations, might be a major contributing factor to this shortfall.”
Does this mean that the UN has been handing out a bit less that a quarter billion dollars to Palestinian terrorist organizations? Holy Bleep!
commodude,
Perhaps the Library of Congress belongs on the short list.
https://loc.gov/