Truth about the UN

It may be a comedy routine, but it's no joking matter.



After this post, my girlfriend and I had an interesting discussion about how a country obtains power and influence.

In Norway's case, it isn't particularly populated (being roughly the same population as Alberta and half the land mass), but it does have wealth by virtue owning it's own oil company (bank, aluminum production, electric generation, telecommunications...). It has remained officially neutral in both world wars and it's GDP ranks below the top 20 in the world. Moreover, Norway prefers to let issues be handled through institutions like the UN.

And therein lies it's problem. The comedy routine, while being amusing, isn't actually a joke. That's actually how it happens. So get enough tinpot dictatorships together, and you could deem the United States as a criminal state subject to having its resources confiscated by all the other countries. You can also have them deem Norway's oil wealth is criminal exploitation of the poor countries and as such, should be confiscated for use in lifting those countries out of poverty. Oh wait. Yeah, Norway probably wouldn't like that.

Fact of the matter is that having the top 20 economies of the world, encompassing 66-75% of the total GDP of the world, agree on non-binding goals and actions is much easier and more effective than trying to get all (or a simple majority) of the countries of the world to agree on anything.