Most people are familiar with the U.N.’s notorious ineffectiveness, but viewers of the documentary U.N. Me will reach an inevitable conclusion: It’s even worse than we thought.
Managing to fit as many U.N. scandals into the short documentary as possible, filmmakers Ami Horowitz and Matthew Groff rely on interviews with U.N. officials and live-video footage as they investigate the opaque institution. From “peacekeepers” sex abuses, the oil-for-food program, the Commission on Human Rights, the Counter-Terrorism Committee, to Rwanda and Darfur, the filmmakers cover some of the U.N.’s most colossal failures.
U.N. Me investigates how well the U.N. is tackling today’s international problems. On the subject of terrorism, the film shows the office of a U.N. staffer whose walls are adorned with posters of suicide bombers. At one UNICEF-funded school, a mural commemorates the martyrdom of a female suicide bomber.
Worst still, U.N. vehicles are captured on film being used to carry out terrorist attacks. Asked about this in the film, a U.N. official responded, “We’ll have to look into that.” But don’t hold your breath, as the U.N. is still looking into the issue of terrorism.
U.N. Me documents the incompetence of the Counter-Terrorism Committee. Formed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, the committee has failed to name a single terrorist, terrorist organization, or a state sponsor of terrorism. It can’t even define what terrorism is, since doing so would classify many U.N. member states as state sponsors of terrorism. The filmmakers suggest the committee start with a dictionary.
At a special screening at Heritage, Ami Horowitz was asked whether the United Nations would ever become effective in fulfilling its original charter. Horowitz suggested the United States use its hegemonic funding as a stick to force the United Nations to get back to its original charter and rid the institution of its fraud, incompetence, and criminality. Right now, he said, “there’s no transparency—they live in a bubble.”
U.N. Me is now available on DVD, and a theatrical trailer is available on the official website.
Bronson Stocking is currently a member of the Young Leaders Program at The Heritage Foundation. For more information on interning at Heritage, please visit: http://www.heritage.org/about/departments/ylp.cfm
