Stingy Jan Egeland, that prototypical U.N. bureaucrat, opens his mouth and out come words that prove, again and again, the uselessness of the U.N. to Americans.
 
Immediately after the impact of the tsunami became apparent, Stingy castigated Americans for their stinginess because they didn't tax their citizens in amounts he thought appropriate and then turn the money over to him so he could spend it as he pleased.  After the money sources criticized him he kind of, sort of apologized.
 
Unable to restrain himself, he opened his mouth again to bite the hands that feed him.  He wants all the pledge money and he wants it now or else... Or else he'll tell. 
 
Wow!  That will certainly endear the U.N. to the Americans.
 
Because Stingy probably hasn't learned anything, the U.S. should give him some simple instructions. For starters, the United States should demand that we want guarantees that the monies they turn over to the U.N. are not misspent (remember the oil for food scandal),  guarantees that UN personnel will not rape tsunami victims (as they have in Africa), and that he'll push the wealthy Arab nations to kick in more.
 
And then they should finish with, "Thank you very much but all is going quite well because we're doing it ourselves and a few other reliable nations, not really with the U.N.  As a result the disease and starvation that you predicted and certainly would have happened had the U.N. been in charge, did not occur; corruption is at a minimum and the victims are not being victimized again——all of which also would have happened with the U.N. dominating relief efforts."
 
Ethel C. Fenig   1 12 05
 
UN tells donors to speed up delivery on tsunami aid pledges 
 
Donor nations must speed up delivery of aid pledges for the Asian tsunami relief effort and face public shame if they fail to live up to their promises, a top UN official told a key conference.

Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief coordinator, said that of 3.4 billion dollars of formal aid pledges, only 300 million dollars had been committed so far to projects, programmes and assistance on the ground.

"We need very quickly more signed contracts, more cash, more concrete commitments to help keep this massive effort going in the next six months," he told reporters just before the Geneva conference got underway.