The United Nations

The U.N. General Assembly was this week.

How many people can name the Secretary General of the United Nations without looking it up?

That's the problem with it. The United Nations is based on the right idea. It is more successful than the League of Nations that came before it. But to most people it is a bland and faceless bureaucracy. The first image that comes to mind is the building. Image from Google Earth.

Most nations show respect for the United Nations but only when it's convenient. There are no real consequences for ignoring a United Nations Resolution.

How about a makeover for this global institution? What it really needs is some charisma. Remember Pope John Paul. The Catholic Church was a bureaucracy and relatively few people could name the Pope. But then John Paul became a global celebrity.

Why shouldn't the United Nations be cool, with it's Secretary General an A-list global celebrity? The world will want to follow the United Nations just because of how cool and charismatic it's leader is.

Has anyone ever noticed how the U.N. Building resembles the U.S. Dollar? Images from Google Street View and the Wikipedia article "United States Dollar".

The U.S. Dollar has been the unofficial global reserve currency for about eighty years, and that is also when the United Nations was established. Is the dollar given subconscious support by it's resemblance to this global building? Might this have been done purposely?

What might it have been like if the United Nations had been in Niagara Falls? Canada was going to donate Navy Island, in the river above the falls, as the site of the United Nations Building. Image from Google Earth.