“For, of course, WHO is not a stand-alone organization but, rather, a part of the United Nations. As such, it is afflicted by many of the same illnesses, so to speak, as other U.N. agencies. Like them, WHO is by definition not accountable to voters, and it is rarely scrutinized by the press. Its leaders are chosen according to the opaque rules that govern top U.N. appointments. (If too many Africans have top jobs, then the director-general has to be an Asian, etc.) Though it does occupy itself most of the time with concerns such as flu pandemic preparedness, some of its other priorities reflect its members’ political agendas. For example, a large chunk of money is devoted every year to tackling the “social and economic factors that determine people’s opportunities for health,” such as poverty, education, and climate change—all worthy issues that would nevertheless seem well beyond the scope of an organization that should primarily be concerned with infectious disease.
“It gets worse. Like their other U.N. colleagues, WHO bureaucrats also spend much unnecessary time writing papers on legally dubious notions like the “right to health”; others are scheming to create an international bureaucracy that would regulate all drug research and development, while still others get sidetracked by issues such as obesity and automotive safety. WHO’s 2008-13 strategic plan speaks of promoting “programmes that enhance health equity and integrate pro-poor, gender-responsive, and human rights-based approaches,” whatever that means. WHO is not exempt from other aspects of U.N. politics, either: Taiwan’s repeated attempts to join WHO are always vetoed by China, for example, and U.N. officials (speaking of human rights-based approaches) routinely refuse Taiwanese journalists permission to cover WHO events. When the next epidemic starts in Taipei, we’ll be sorry.
“I am not trying to bash the World Health Organization.”
Well, I offer it as my opinion that everything that Anne just said is true, and that WHO totally, totally deserves to be bashed, for being a typical over-budgeted, over-fed, tediously politically correct, incompetent, anti-Israeli UN bureaucracy, more interested in its limousines than in humanity. Oy vey!
