The man could very well be a lunatic. Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi stood before the podium in front of the United Nations General Assembly assailing the institution. His nation was also for the first time carrying the mantle of chairmanship at these proceedings. He spent an hour and a half ( far past the allotted length) of his life speaking to many who he knew were not listening to a damn word he said. Under attack from media and politician alike in the host nation because of past transgressions, instead of flying under the radar he decided instead to pitch a tent. No, really, like a real live tent. But after failing to get that tent pitched he managed to pitch one at the podium.
He pleaded with the body to insert itself more forcefully in issues like: the United States decision to go into Iraq, the Palestinian/ Israeli conflict, the unsolved Kennedy and Lumumba assassinations, the Kashmir / India / Pakistan / Afghanistan clusterfuck, and revising the structures of the body. The beauty of it being that he spoke to what he believes is a broken system to essentially fix its self. In reading the immediate reaction to is speech, much of the critique was on style and not substance. Most of the talk was on audaciousness of the man to come here how he did and to carry on how he did. Lost beneath the veneer of what may very well have been a rambling diatribe, the Libyan leader hit the nail on the head. The structure of the United Nations, the weight it gives to the Security Council and the lack thereof given to the rest of the General Assembly, make the institution non-representative of its constituents.
The topic du jour on the global stage is terrorism and terror will continue being abound whether from the inability to gain a consensus on actions or unbalanced actions. A world body so beholden to the whims of so few can never hope to garner enough credibility to make sure forever and lasting cooperation, forget peace. The United Nations as it stands is a wounded organization that is by design unable to correct its own structural inadequacies. Respect Gaddafi or not his words ring true. With the body being nothing more than a conduit for the worlds most powerful actors it is less likely to ensure security and more likely to guarantee insecurity, forever and lasting.
