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It always has been a powerless organization. I'm a Myanmar citizen and I grew up thinking naively that one day, the UN would come and free us from the military

It always has been a powerless organization. I'm a Myanmar citizen and I grew up thinking naively that one day, the UN would come and free us from the military dictatorship. It never happened and I eventually got scholarships to study in the US. Before I left for the US, I learned more about the UN and how its affiliated NGOs work/function (e.g., UNICEF) when volunteering at a couple of NGOs that work with the UN. Since then, my impression on UN has never been lower. Now that the military coup happened a couple of months ago, and seeing the UN being the same old, I am not surprised. Most of Myanmar people, including my mother who is living there, are pinning their hopes on the UN to save them from this coup. I feel really sorry for them about believing in such a false hope.

jmiskovic 6y ago
I'd like to hear more, could you share about your experiences with UN at NGOs?
- programmertote 6y ago
  I have replied to someone who asked similar question [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26561860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26561860]. Hope this is helpful. Please talk to local/native workers of the organization (not as a stranger because they may not tell you everything at first) and see what their grievances are about the NGO that they are working for.
wp381640 6y ago
I’d like to hear more about your experiences with UNICEF. It’s one of the only places I donate to and I’ve heard many first hand experiences of where they’ve saved lives and provided opportunity
- jules-jules 6y ago
  I think UNICEF is a better one to donate to, so is OHCHR. More wary about UNDP.
- programmertote 6y ago
  I would say one has to volunteer as a native person (not a foreigner who usually "oversees" the projects and operations there) to see how lazy and incompetent the people there are. For example, the country director is usually not in the office (in my three months of volunteering there, I saw her maybe twice; mind you, she is not traveling to the project sites because we have logs showing exactly who is traveling where at what time), but she would show up though at the social events like the party hosted by the US embassy or the high-class society there. The pay disparity is very stark between foreign directors/managers vs. the local/native managers who actually have to do the grunt work. The foreigners are provided with very good housing allowance (my mom rent her home and she always says her dream is to rent it to a foreigner from an NGO because they pay the most money), car+driver, education support for their kids, plus a annual salary of $100K+ (that was 2004 when I volunteered) which is very good for the amount of work she actually puts in. In contrast, the average local/native manager's annual salary in the office ranges between $4000 and $6000 (maybe at most 2-3 local managers earned $6000 per year when I volunteered there). In my opinion, the foreign managers/directors never took the time to understand what the local population needs and make decisions on what projects to do based on their biases (and what will look good for photo-op). They sit in their air-conditioned offices or houses and do bare minimum. The most important thing for them is to look good in front of donors and to be able to move to a better country (new country director arrives every 2-3 years). Since donation is important to them, they spend more time soliciting money than actually doing the job. Please always keep in mind that these NGOs and UNGOs live off of donations and the more conflicts/issues they can conjure in the photos/news/media, the better it is for them. I volunteered at World Concern and World Vision as well. Same experience. My sister worked at a French NGO called ACTED [https://www.acted.org/en/ https://www.acted.org/en/] for 2+ years as a logistics and administrative staff. Same experience. That's why I never trust anything that the NGOs say and I always donate directly to local NGOs/groups.
jonny_eh 6y ago
How is the UN supposed to stop a military coup?
- shadowgovt 6y ago
  In the past, via a UN Peacekeeping detachment. https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/military https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/military Peacekeeping missions have operated as recently as 2004-2017 in Haiti to stabilize the country after a coup (MINUSTAH).
  - programmertote 6y ago
    Most Myanmar people are hoping that there will be some UN peacekeeping troops so that the military cannot just load up machine guns on the truck (e.g., https://scontent.fewr1-5.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/163001326_10102799034788779_4937951838886716922_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=iy379V_WB1sAX_CeeNz&_nc_oc=AQlb4qr6dZxzqo9QCgfOueXb6zRjoiM9yTy4nRmsK3Nrk3EUsdtye2cY4mSCfIWaKQA&_nc_ht=scontent.fewr1-5.fna&oh=b4a362acf4bf7c6077163b39417cf419&oe=607F7077 https://scontent.fewr1-5.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/163001326_10...) and shoot people randomly (e.g., NSFW image of a 7-year old boy shot and killed today https://scontent.fewr1-6.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/163537200_2455102444633112_3238175677216749690_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=TPaBOJ0G0pwAX8wCyzm&_nc_ht=scontent.fewr1-6.fna&oh=235ff4ea81372f48210b0b2843934b5c&oe=607E75F4 https://scontent.fewr1-6.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/163537200_24...). I personally don't trust in UN and don't think of them as an effective organization.
  - IAmEveryone 6y ago
    Peacekeeping , as the name implies, only works after a ceasefire is reached. The UN does not invade countries
- chmod775 6y ago
  When they say "I grew up thinking" obviously they're not referring to the recent coup or the time after. Myanmar was under effective military rule for a long time and only made strides towards becoming a liberal democracy in the last decade - until the coup happened.
cosmodisk 6y ago
As bad as it sounds but nobody's going to move a finger as long as they think it won't spread outside the country. Look at Ukraine- it's almost right in the middle of Europe and the conflict is still ongoing 5 years later. Many governments also understand how little their own citizens want their country to be engaged in some military conflicts thousands of miles away. The only chance for the country is its own people when they decide it's enough.
GekkePrutser 6y ago
The security council in particular is pretty much set up for a never-ending stalemate as all superpowers have a veto and usually at least one of them always has a finger (or at the very least some vested interests) in any kind of nastiness happening around the world. And sadly, the ones where really none of them have any interests, it's not on their radar to do anything about it. I do wonder if it really had a hand in preventing world wars etc.. Somehow I doubt it as these things tend to get sorted out in direct negotiations (like back in the day with Reagan and Gorbachev, and the Cuban missile crisis - which was the trigger for a direct hotline to be set up between the US and USSR if I remember correctly). I hope one day we grow up as a species... :(
- tim333 6y ago
  It kind of provides a distraction from countries attacking each other as they can argue for ages in the UN which may not achieve anything but is better than launching invasions.
illustriousbear 6y ago
The UN's main benefit is that it gets a bunch of nations around a table to discuss various issues. This is something that should not be underestimated. Unfortunately if the UN could directly exercise authority over nations, many nations would simply just leave.

jmiskovic 6y ago

I'd like to hear more, could you share about your experiences with UN at NGOs?

programmertote 6y ago
I have replied to someone who asked similar question [https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26561860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26561860]. Hope this is helpful. Please talk to local/native workers of the organization (not as a stranger because they may not tell you everything at first) and see what their grievances are about the NGO that they are working for.

wp381640 6y ago

I’d like to hear more about your experiences with UNICEF. It’s one of the only places I donate to and I’ve heard many first hand experiences of where they’ve saved lives and provided opportunity

jules-jules 6y ago
I think UNICEF is a better one to donate to, so is OHCHR. More wary about UNDP.
programmertote 6y ago
I would say one has to volunteer as a native person (not a foreigner who usually "oversees" the projects and operations there) to see how lazy and incompetent the people there are. For example, the country director is usually not in the office (in my three months of volunteering there, I saw her maybe twice; mind you, she is not traveling to the project sites because we have logs showing exactly who is traveling where at what time), but she would show up though at the social events like the party hosted by the US embassy or the high-class society there. The pay disparity is very stark between foreign directors/managers vs. the local/native managers who actually have to do the grunt work. The foreigners are provided with very good housing allowance (my mom rent her home and she always says her dream is to rent it to a foreigner from an NGO because they pay the most money), car+driver, education support for their kids, plus a annual salary of $100K+ (that was 2004 when I volunteered) which is very good for the amount of work she actually puts in. In contrast, the average local/native manager's annual salary in the office ranges between $4000 and $6000 (maybe at most 2-3 local managers earned $6000 per year when I volunteered there). In my opinion, the foreign managers/directors never took the time to understand what the local population needs and make decisions on what projects to do based on their biases (and what will look good for photo-op). They sit in their air-conditioned offices or houses and do bare minimum. The most important thing for them is to look good in front of donors and to be able to move to a better country (new country director arrives every 2-3 years). Since donation is important to them, they spend more time soliciting money than actually doing the job. Please always keep in mind that these NGOs and UNGOs live off of donations and the more conflicts/issues they can conjure in the photos/news/media, the better it is for them. I volunteered at World Concern and World Vision as well. Same experience. My sister worked at a French NGO called ACTED [https://www.acted.org/en/ https://www.acted.org/en/] for 2+ years as a logistics and administrative staff. Same experience. That's why I never trust anything that the NGOs say and I always donate directly to local NGOs/groups.

jonny_eh 6y ago

How is the UN supposed to stop a military coup?

shadowgovt 6y ago
In the past, via a UN Peacekeeping detachment. https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/military https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/military Peacekeeping missions have operated as recently as 2004-2017 in Haiti to stabilize the country after a coup (MINUSTAH).
- programmertote 6y ago
  Most Myanmar people are hoping that there will be some UN peacekeeping troops so that the military cannot just load up machine guns on the truck (e.g., https://scontent.fewr1-5.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/163001326_10102799034788779_4937951838886716922_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=iy379V_WB1sAX_CeeNz&_nc_oc=AQlb4qr6dZxzqo9QCgfOueXb6zRjoiM9yTy4nRmsK3Nrk3EUsdtye2cY4mSCfIWaKQA&_nc_ht=scontent.fewr1-5.fna&oh=b4a362acf4bf7c6077163b39417cf419&oe=607F7077 https://scontent.fewr1-5.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/163001326_10...) and shoot people randomly (e.g., NSFW image of a 7-year old boy shot and killed today https://scontent.fewr1-6.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/163537200_2455102444633112_3238175677216749690_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=TPaBOJ0G0pwAX8wCyzm&_nc_ht=scontent.fewr1-6.fna&oh=235ff4ea81372f48210b0b2843934b5c&oe=607E75F4 https://scontent.fewr1-6.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/163537200_24...). I personally don't trust in UN and don't think of them as an effective organization.
- IAmEveryone 6y ago
  Peacekeeping , as the name implies, only works after a ceasefire is reached. The UN does not invade countries
chmod775 6y ago
When they say "I grew up thinking" obviously they're not referring to the recent coup or the time after. Myanmar was under effective military rule for a long time and only made strides towards becoming a liberal democracy in the last decade - until the coup happened.

cosmodisk 6y ago

As bad as it sounds but nobody's going to move a finger as long as they think it won't spread outside the country. Look at Ukraine- it's almost right in the middle of Europe and the conflict is still ongoing 5 years later. Many governments also understand how little their own citizens want their country to be engaged in some military conflicts thousands of miles away. The only chance for the country is its own people when they decide it's enough.

GekkePrutser 6y ago

The security council in particular is pretty much set up for a never-ending stalemate as all superpowers have a veto and usually at least one of them always has a finger (or at the very least some vested interests) in any kind of nastiness happening around the world. And sadly, the ones where really none of them have any interests, it's not on their radar to do anything about it. I do wonder if it really had a hand in preventing world wars etc.. Somehow I doubt it as these things tend to get sorted out in direct negotiations (like back in the day with Reagan and Gorbachev, and the Cuban missile crisis - which was the trigger for a direct hotline to be set up between the US and USSR if I remember correctly). I hope one day we grow up as a species... :(

tim333 6y ago
It kind of provides a distraction from countries attacking each other as they can argue for ages in the UN which may not achieve anything but is better than launching invasions.

illustriousbear 6y ago

The UN's main benefit is that it gets a bunch of nations around a table to discuss various issues. This is something that should not be underestimated. Unfortunately if the UN could directly exercise authority over nations, many nations would simply just leave.