As a colonial master, the UN's performance is somewhere below France's track record. At least the French, while living high on the hog in their colonial capital cities, built plantations and mines exporting useful products. Wherever the UN peacekeepers are in charge they keep the restaurants and prostitutes busy, but build no railways and plant no estates.

Kosovo, where the UN is running everything, is, in the words of Business Week, a basket case. Superficially, its economy is growing, but that is because of businesses like the Thai massage parlor found in its capital city: they are sucking up the money spent by the UN and its member states. Honest economic activity is minimal, as demonstrated by the ratio of 26:1 between imports and exports.

Business Week doesn't mention any child sex rings, as were found in Rwanda and the Congo, set up to serve the, um, needs of the UN traveling circus. So maybe the Kosovars are doing better than their African fellow "benficiaries" of the UN's care. Or maybe BW is uninformed.

Meanwhile, in contrast to the rest of Europe, poor and Muslim Kosovo is having a populatioln explosion. You can find Kosovars begging in front of many tourist sites in Italy, especially the major churches in Rome, where the bescarfed women hold out their hands and chant, "Pieta, peita, signore."

That Kofi Annan sure does know how to run a successful operation. No wonder John F. Kerry wanted to give the UN more responsibility for our security.

Hat tip: Ed

Thomas Lifson  11 11 04