The 2002 vintage

The 2002 vintage reform lives up to its promises. Wrapped up in a matter of months, it opens up a royal avenue for the Organization. We now know exactly what will be expected of us over the next 10 years and even over the whole third millennium.

If you have the patience to read the masterpiece, you will find some incredible proposals that will undoubtedly change the face of the Earth. For instance, the cartographic unit will be moved from DPI to DPKO. The DESA dinosaur will henceforth have one more Assistant Secretary-General at its helm. In the name of decentralization, the New York library will have control over all UN libraries throughout the world, and by 2023 we will have such a simple budget that even the illiterate will be able to understand that zero plus zero equals a zero-growth budget.

All these measures, which are among the most exciting of the report, prove that the Organization is ready to take up the challenges of the Millennium Declaration, but above all that the UN is New York. And although they may be short of money in New York, they’re certainly not short of ideas for self-promotion. As for the other duty stations, all they have to do is clap their hands in applause.

There is, however, one excuse for this reform’s lack of « body »: the wet summer, which does not yield good, strong vintages. Yet another unexpected impact of climate change.

Editor-in-Chief, Jean Michel Jakobowicz