UN Special’s horoscope

This year UN Special has decided to conform to tradition and to consult an astrologer to give its readers the predictions for 2002.

First of all, 2002 is extraordinary in that it will take another 110 years before we can again read the year both ways. On the international stage, the 190 (no longer the 189) Member States of the UN will agree unanimously on a long-lasting peace for the entire planet. All conflicts will end on 21st June 2002 at 7.50 p.m. In the second phase, all the armies will be destroyed and the soldiers retrained as social workers. The developing countries will see their income skyrocket. Finally, the world’s 1000 richest families will finance the United Nations’ annual budget to the tune of $1000 billion.

At the United Nations, a wide-scale human resources management reform will be completed. It will abolish the HR department and replace it with a simple computer program that will: recruit civil servants with an IQ above 145, promote each employee before he or she has five years of seniority and last but not least… give everyone a 13th month’s salary. The working week will be cut from 40 to 30 hours, putting the UN in the vanguard of social progress. All the bosses will become intelligent, competent and kind, and the troublemakers will be pensioned off.

"Wishful thinking!" I hear you say. "These predictions don’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell." Yet if we can’t dream at the beginning of the year, when can we?

To consult this horoscope on line, there’s only one address and it’s finally up and running: http://www.unspecial.org

Best wishes for a happy 2002 from the entire Editorial Committee.

Le rédacteur en chef, Jean Michel Jakobowicz.