Today I used my passport inside of Wien to get into international territory. In other words, I went to the UN today!
It is a treat as a political science minor to be able to visit the United Nations in the Wien International Center. We were able to have talks with representatives from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Well get to that later though...
I really liked the architecture of the UN building because of how unique it looks. Apparently the architect started building from the top down to make the curved shape, which I think is incredible. The courtyard has 193 representative flags for its members which includes Vatican City, which I think is rather strange. The tour guide gave us the generic tour at first, pointing out other official bodies that are located at the UN. I wish we had a tour guide from the one that focuses on space exploration because I would have asked when Star Trek is actually going to happen in real life! (I really would have asked...) We were taken into the conference room that the respected countries meet to "talk business".
I could get used to this desk job!
Our guide from the IAEA was politically correct, which I understand but pisses me off. I know there were questions that he answered from the standpoint of the UN rather than his own personal feelings. It was frustrating because it seemed like he was reading off of slides rather than answering our questions straight up. I asked him about the possibility of a nuclear attack with missing material from Russia and he cut me off by saying that all weapons were accounted for. What I was trying to ask was about nuclear waste or materials of that nature, which I know is a different story. Oh well, he was a nice guy anyways. I do understand that once an individual becomes a member of the UN than they have to go by the vote of the charter. I just wish he could have been more up front with us. It seemed like a lot of our questions were not applicable for the discussion because we were asking questions about disarmament of countries. Apparently that is something that the IAEA does not handle. There were a lot of questions from different students and I wish I had been able to ask if there were any medical advances with nuclear power that we might be able to expect in the future. One of the major goals of the organization is to make sure that nuclear power is used for productive means rather than destructive. I also liked when he said that just because a country has the means or capability to house a nuclear program does not mean that they will get the funding for it. It makes me feel like we are not out there putting a potentially destructive power in some terrorist’s hands.
After the talk with the IAEA we met with two interns who told us about what we would need to do to apply. I thought it was cool that they took the time to go over the application process with us since it is so extensive. Unfortunately you have to have your BA to apply, so now everyone is out of the running (at least for now). Speaking English is a huge plus because it will eventually be the language of the world (meaning everyone will know it). Most people that work at the UN have a master of 2-5 languages though, if not more. One again I feel inept compared to my bi-lingual and tri-lingual counterparts giving us the tour. If I could start my education over I would have taken both Spanish and French and SERIOUSLY studied.
After a break for lunch we met with a representative from the UNODC. She was a fill-in but I felt that her presentation was more compelling than the first. I think the reason for this is that you could tell she felt strongly about the cause of drug prevention and treatment centers, and that she really felt like she could make a difference. I, of course, asked the pessimistic questions.
1. With only $20million dollars (their budget) how do you expect to stop drug cartels that are making 2-5 times more than that individually?
-- you can't.
2. When you change a person’s crop from opium to something positive (i.e. food), how do you guarantee the safety of the person who has probably been caught up in the drug wars?
-- you can't.
3. What is the UN doing about the drug problems in Mexico?
-- not enough. (there isn't enough funding.)
See a theme here? There were more questions than these, but these ones were my major focus. It made me feel bad that the speaker felt so strongly about a cause that I see as futile to fight without more money or aid. She made the point though that no person should be forgotten about because of lack of money and no country is beyond help.
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