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UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

reuters.com

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Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#101

Post by throwaway422432 »

AndrewKemendo wrote: post #11
browningstreet wrote: post #9

This sounds exactly like “work” today. Certainly matches my experience in big tech. It reminds me, tangentially, of something I did a while ago. I scraped hundreds of environment non-profits and NGO websites from around the world. Many of them are UN affiliated to some degree. I tried to find 3 things: 1) what the non-profit does, 2) what the non-profit produces, 3) what the non-profit accomplished. My ability to gle…

NGOs are primarily money laundering operations for political purposes. It’s one of the primary mechanics for how capital controls the execution (or not) of policy. Very powerful tool.

This may be true of organisations that are funded by USAid, etc; so they essentially allow the Government of the day to execute policies while attempting to avoid responsibility when the "my tax money pays for what" questions arise.

A lot of NGOs/charities/foundations are simply vehicles for tax avoidance/reduction or nepotistic job creation. There are very few that are truly altruistic, or maybe once were but eventually become indistinguishable from a corporation in how they are run, and what they pay their executives.

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#103

Post by esseph »

xandrius wrote: post #50
esseph wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You expect journalists to translate research papers for you? Damn.

You expect the average person even to be able to read a research paper? Damn.

Not at all, which is why I wonder why the hell you'd ask a journalist!

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#104

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

ants_everywhere wrote: post #87
simpaticoder wrote: post #30

This is an institutional reflection of the individual tendency to talk about problems rather than solving them. Or, an important variant, where the urge to help those in need is expressed as directing them to "appropriate resources", which are also services that direct those seeking help to other appropriate resources, ad infinitum. The net result is a whole army of people who's expressed goal is to help people but w…

As someone who's done a lot of volunteering at soup kitchens and such as well as things like public policy research, my take is exactly opposite. Typical soup kitchen volunteering is pretty low impact. It's the first thing a lot of people think about when it comes to volunteering, and people like that they get to interact with the less fortunate. So they show up with their church group a few times, ladle some soup an…

Completely agree. The important corollary to that is that policy, in many cases, matters a lot more than boots on the ground (obviously good policy and manpower together are usually required).

I've volunteered with a prominent animal rescue charity for over 2 decades. While the work does require a lot of people, after you do it long enough you quickly realize bad policy is a giant contributor. For example, Texas is the only state in the US where it's illegal for shelter vets to do care on animals unless the animal is fully surrendered: https://www.humananimalsupportservices.org/blog/why-cant-vet... . So there are a lot of poor people who can't afford vet care, and then their only option is to surrender the animal at a shelter, where in many cases the animal may be euthanized. If your goal is to reduce the unnecessary killing of pets in shelters, fixing this policy is worth like thousands of volunteers.

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#106

Post by olddustytrail »

mhb wrote: post #64
olddustytrail wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well its most powerful and influencial member is the USA, so I suppose that follows.

It would if the US were writing the reports.

Why shouldn't the US be writing reports? I presume they have basic literacy skills.

Well, perhaps not the current government appointments but that's surely an exception.

Re: UN report finds UN reports are not widely read

#109

Post by mhb »

nashashmi wrote: post #97
willguest wrote: post #54

> last year that the U.N. system supported 27,000 meetings involving 240 bodies, and the U.N. secretariat produced 1,100 reports The bureacracy is expanding to meet the needs of the expanding bureaucracy

Isn’t this why democracy fails? It is exhausting. It is work designed for a paid shill. It is a burden placed on the governed by the government to distance everyone from participating. It is the shade preceding the darkness that democracy dies in.

What is "this" in the why democracy fails? Are you suggesting that the UN is some kind of democracy?
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