Eighteen months ago, I started writing about corruption at the highest levels in the United Nations organization, which extended to vendors and subcontractors and which funded violence in Israel, in Darfur and other areas of the Sudan. I would link to some of those posts now, but when my old blogspot site was hacked into, I lost most of them. In those posts, I wrote about the corruption involving Kofi AnnanÂ’s son and Boutros GaliÂ’s son, as well as other high-ranking UN officials in the Oil for Food program.

On Monday, Paul Volker released a full report on Part 1 of his investigation on the Oil for Food programÂ’s bribery and corruption scandal, which is believed to involve a number of senior officials. One official, Alexander Yakovlev, has already pleaded guilty in Federal court to charges of bribery, after being stripped of diplomatic immunity. Benon Sevan, the former head of the Oil for Food program, continues to be in hiding somewhere in Cyprus, he is expected to receive indictments this week.

As the investigation continues, the focus will now move to the Security Council staff and members. The committee has already requested AnnanÂ’s notes, as well as Security Council meeting minutes related to sanctions against Iraq in the years before the 2003 Iraq invasion, for possible conflict of interest.

HereÂ’s what angers me the most, the failure of the UN to live up to its responsibilities and charter time and again, especially in the face of dire human crisis. We began to see their disregard for human life in Uganda. We continued to see their ineffectualness in Somalia. We are now seeing the UN's analysis/paralysis in Nigeria, where thousands have already died, and where it is expected that hundreds of thousands more will starve to death over the next few weeks. This is in spite of the self-delusional attempt to end poverty and famine through the world-wide Live8 concerts, which featured Kofi Annan as one of its speakers.

The true crime here, and the crime no one will be prosecuted for, is the continual victimization of the youngest victims through greed, corruption, abuse of power, and in-action. In doing so, the UN secured an Aushwitz-like death for thousands of the worldÂ’s poorest and most vulnerable children.

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In the Spring Â’05 issue of The Wilson Quarterly, an international opinion magazine published by Princeton UniversityÂ’s Center for IntÂ’l Relations & Diplomatic Scholars, William Powers writes a lengthy article on the 7 Steps to Big MediaÂ’s Salvation (free). I summarize his views here for your consideration, and then take issue with his viewpoint.

1. Relax. Nobody likes a whiner, particularly one who doesnÂ’t know how lucky he is. YouÂ’ve been around for centuries, and youÂ’re more powerful now than ever before.

2. Enjoy yourselves. Â…traditional news outlets have become joyless things. Most American [broadcasts and] newspapers are dull, fearful creatures. In contrast, blogs and other online news sources often possess an attractive, intelligent vibrancyÂ… because it connects us to the great throng of humanity.

3. Be natural. Enough already with your pretensions to objectivity and neutrality. Everyone has leanings, passions, and, yes, biases. By claiming to be superhuman—bias free—you come off as weirdly subhuman. In all honesty, sometimes you have the public personality of an android. Striving for perfect fairness is a fine goal. Just don’t act as though you achieve it on a regular basis.

4. DonÂ’t patronize. One reason young people say they avoid newspapers and other traditional news media is that whatÂ’s offered by those outlets has no apparent connection to the world they live in. To them, the news doesnÂ’t look or sound like life but rather like some false approximation of it. Swear off demographics. Hire journalists of all ages, and deploy them in unexpected ways. In journalism, thereÂ’s no such thing as generationally correct work. Have an octogenarian cover blogs. When David Broder retires from The Washington Post, give his column to the sharpest 27-year-old you know. The results could be strange and wonderful.

5. Make trouble. ItÂ’s a fact: Nobody respects a suck-up. Why did it take the surprise attack of 9/11, and a war launched partly on the basis of bad intelligence, for you to wake up to the problems in the U.S. intelligence agencies? That story was an investigative journalistÂ’s dream, and you missed it. You were probably in a strategy meeting about how to regain all those eyeballs no longer trained on you.
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