United Nations

Accompanied by my dear friend Aimee I ventured over to the United Nations headquaters here in New York City. It was actually the first time I’ve been to the facility, still trying to wrap my brain around the concept that the 18 acre complex is actually considered international territory, and is manged in 7 adopted official languages. They even have their own postal system & issued stamps which can only be sent from the site.

We took the 60 minute tour of the main building and most notably saw two of the five principal organs chambers of the Security Council chamber and the UN General Assembly along with some great murals by Norman Rockwell and various pieces of art donated from countries such as China, Iran, Vietnam, India and Russia.

It’s amazing to me that this where so many of the world’s leaders regularly come to voice their concerns, conflicts and disagreements to the world community and that for years as a native New Yorker I’ve never visted the place until today.

The main building is showing it’s age and it appears due for a major facelift, but more interesting is the mixed feeling of the overall effectiveness, politically, of the United Nations amongst peace activists, social justice organizers and world leaders at large. Granted, the UN charter is a complex system and the structure and usage of the veto system within the Security Council causes a fair share of problems, but it’s no question in my mind that the overall presence of the United Nations is a neccesary element to the promotion of the peaceful resolution of international issues and human rights.

The other element seems to be the active participation of everyday citizens of priviledged nations to agitate their governments into doing what’s beneficial for the common good as well as for local communities. Something of which I intended to do a better job of on my end.

I’m curious to hear what others think of the UN, do you think it’s still relevant to today’s world? How would you improve upon it? Or does a an eniterly new approach need to be taking to resolving conflicts across the world?

–> some more pictures can be viewed below:
Set 1 • Set 2 • Set 3 • Set 4 • Set 5

–> view some more pictures in this gallery too!

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