UN Summit: Expect Disappointment

Don't expect too much reform out of the major 171-nation summit going on at the UN. It was hoped major post-oil-for-food structural reforms would occur, and progress would be made on fighting poverty and brutality. Go back and consider 171 nations, all scrambling to find a spot between blatant self-interest and a presentable public face.

The UK charity Oxfam has little hope:

“On all issues but stopping genocide, Governments appear to be on their biggest ever recycling drive - hours of negotiations have resulted in a repetition of existing commitments at best.”

And UN Sec. Bolton shares the view:

This is only the first step here. It was only ever going to be the first step here because the nature of the culture is such that the changes we want both in the way the Secretariat functions and in the way the member governments function needs to be changed in a substantial way. So we’re pleased that this is a good first step. And it’s good and we’re happy with that. But it is a first step and there’s no question about that. A lot more work remains to be done.