WASHINGTON (AP) – The White House objected Thursday to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s description of the United States as a “deadbeat” donor to the world body. Ban used the phrase Wednesday during a private meeting with lawmakers at the Capitol, one day after he met with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office. White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Ban’s “word choice was unfortunate,” given that the U.S. is the largest contributor to the United Nations. The United States pays 22 percent of the organization’s nearly $5 billion operating budget but is perennially late paying its dues.
Asked whether Ban should retract his comment, Gibbs said some recognition by Ban of the U.S. role would be appropriate.
“I think given the contribution that the American taxpayer makes, I do think it would be appropriate to acknowledge that role,” Gibbs told reporters at his daily briefing.
Ban, apparently concerned about his choice of words, issued a statement late Wednesday saying the U.S. “generously supports the work of the U.N., both in assessed and voluntary contributions.” Ban also said he enjoys “an excellent working relationship with the United States and appreciates the many ways that it supports the United Nations.”
Well that’s a fine way to treat your host!
The truth always hurts.
I’ve had the misfortune of working for five UN Agencies (UNICEF, WHO, WFP, UNDP and UNHCR) and I can tell you it’s amazing anything positive gets done. The UN appears to be staffed by people who have only one thing in mind: keeping their job. And why not? I worked with a Polish physician who told me he was making almost $200,000 per year in Africa whereas, at home, he might make 3 or 4 thou per year. I could give numerous similar examples. The point is, there is NO incentive to accomplish anything because that means the end of your job and a return to your third world home.
I have maintained for years it is time to fund the things the UN does well, like distribute food in emergencies, and carry out vaccination programs. But the rest of it needs to either reorganize or disband. It definitely needs to learn not to bite the hand that feeds it.
This is the perfect time to dump the UN. Ban Ki-Moon, let me acquaint you with another American phrase.
Go fuck yourself.
Isn’t it funny how the resident “be responsible” bunch all of a sudden gets so tender?
Send them packing.
Hey fuckwad, we already spend billions of dollars on the rest of the world while our own citizens continue to have problems. If you haven’t noticed we’re in a bit of a crisis at the moment that I personally would rather see us spend our money on our own people before we go and help out someone else first.
In the corporate world, if you overtly insult your biggest customer by calling them a deadbeat, you’d be immediately fired.
In the sports industry, you’d at LEAST be suspended…but probably fired too.
Yes, the UN special programs have no incentive to end, and the people there want to stay there as long as possible. I suspect that’s why we are still in Kosovo.
Actually, I worked for UNHCR in Kosovo during and after the conflict. If by “we” you mean the US, I suspect the reason we’re still there is the huge air base we built in the south.
Need to get the US out of the UN, and the UN out of the US.
We could solve the National debt by making those deadbeat “diplomats” pay their parking tickets…Too bad Comrade Barack would never consider such a thing.
You know, the people who posted about the UN’s lack of customer focus have a real point. UNESCO never fails to crap on us every time they hold a meeting – their favorite charge being “cultural imperialism” for the heinous crime of entertaining people too well instead of requiring Hollywood to make us watch Uighur music festivals and documentaries on the plight of the (insert your favorite obscure cultural entity).
Yet the UN has shown a true lack of self-awareness, as when then-Secretary General Kofi Annan and his son were both found to have accepted money and other gratuities from the bankers handling Iraq’s Oil for Food swindle. We have yet to hear an apology from the UN on that score, or really, even a fully-publicized accounting of the matter.
Given the UN’s record for both malfeasance and nonfeasance, it’s remarkable that Ban Ki-Moon has the nerve to criticize what historically has been its most steady financial and political supporter as “deadbeats.” Even more remarkable is the lack of consequences with which Mr. Ban’s attack of verbal diarrhea had met.
I really think our nation has pressing problems at home which demand any funding which might otherwise go to funding Ban Ki-Moon’s jet-setting and his idiotic prating before the press.