Time Magazine reports that during a brief cafeteria workers’ strike at the UN, a decision was made to make the cafeterias into “no pay zones”. According to various witnesses
The mob then moved on to the Viennese Café, a popular snack bar in the U.N.'s conference room facility. It was also stripped bare. The takers included some well-known diplomats who finished off the raid with free drinks at the lounge for delegates.
When asked how much liquor was lifted from the U.N. bar, one U.S. diplomat responded: “I stopped counting the bottles.” He then excused himself and headed towards the men’s room. :o
How in the world can the UN be expected to maintain order in war-torn and under-developed countries throughout the world, when they can’t even maintain order at their own building? :mad:
Do we need to send in the marines to East 42[sup]nd[/sup] Street to maintain order.
Is it looting if the stuff is free? The UN declared it a free lunch day, so people had free lunches. Except for the silverware, and the amount taken isn’t known, this really doesn’t seem to be looting to me.
I can’t imagine what would happen if the cafeterias at my company were declared “no pay zones” we’ll take anything if it’s free. You should see the way we strip the vendors clean of their knick-knacks.
But Guin, didn’t you read the bolded sections of december’s OP. Eyewitness said it was like a war zone.
I bet when the UNICEF administrator’s secretary showed up in fatigues and started smashing the salad bar sneeze guard with the butt of her rifle, it wasn’t pretty.
Our staff canteen loses cutlery on a regular basis. This is hardly unusual. On the other hand, I can see why the connection between forks and mesopotamian clay tablets is made. Heck, the latter can’t even be used for lasagna; no contest, I know which I’d take.
So you’re saying it was officially turned into a free lunch, which turned into a free-for-all food fight. That’s it ?
Nothing stolen … nothing “looted” … nothing amiss, 'cept people taking full advantage of the situation as would seem to be human nature …
And from there you get to … wherever you get to – you lost me soon after.
Still, I guess you might get to make a false impression (about the UN) with some quick readers, as per your usual gameplan so, well done, another success for misinformation and lies !
I gotta admit december, you take the damn cake. anything, I mean anything to make your post in GD look good. Why don’t you just eat crow and be done with it?
Perhaps you read the OP too hastily, LC. At least light strand noticed that they looted all the silverware. Although s/he had a different excuse: the employees actually didn’t steal anything – with the exception of all the stuff they stole. Note that thecafeteria was “stripped bare.”
Nor does it speak well for the senior dimplomats to have drunk up uncounted bottles of liquor. Shouldn’t they have been busy saving succeeding generations from the scourge of war, instead of getting drunk on swiped UN liquor?
Dead Badger’s “they-all-do-it” excuse is always unappealing, and it doesn’t come close in this case. The employees took every bit of silverware, and apparently anything else that wasn’t nailed down. That’s nothing like the just losing cutlery on a regular basis.
What does this say about UN employees? How would you feel if your co-workers looted the company cafeteria – in a manner that was “chaotic…something out of a war scene.” How would you feel if your top management joined the chaos, and got drunk on bottle after bottle of the company liquor? Would you do this to your employer? Would you do this to the United Nations? I don’t think so.
For those of a mind to minimize this episode, note that Time Magazine considered it to be newsworthy. They’re certainly not right-wing or anti-UN.
I rather think my point was that the article sounds like wild hyperbole. It’s utterly unclear from the context that the “stripped bare” remark refers to anything other than food, and my point was that if thousands of people take away free lunch to eat, they’re going to need some cutlery (which I doubt is “silver”). At my canteen we have plastic cutlery for takeaway. Maybe the UN don’t.
As for your “Time think it’s newsworthy” argument, the “no coffee for Kofi” line makes it seem to me that this is intended as a light-hearted article, not serious news. Of course, if taking it as the latter helps your worldview in some way, it’d be churlish of me to deny you the pleasure. Just don’t expect me to fall to my knees and cry “oh my gosh, these incompetents must never be allowed near Baghdad” because it’s got absolutely fuck all relevance.
I read it fine. So, an ‘Executive’ of the company who can’t conduct decent employee relations says “They took everything, even the silverware” – is he claiming the New York employees of the UN are thieves or that UN Diplomats thought they’d like to eat their free lunch with a knife and fork – or something in between cos, you know, it’s wonderfully ambiguous.
You got anything else that actually relates facts, rather than this nonsense of what an ‘Executive’ is going to put on his insurance claim or what a security guard was encouraged to say.
Maybe you could help us out with a list of all the criminal charges (those security guards must have been doing something besides becoming correspondents) … anything at all to clear up the ambiguities … nah, didn’t think so.
Yes it does. But, why shouldn’t we believe that the event was wild, rather than the account of it? AFAIK Time is a big supporter of the UN. A few years ago, Ted Turner, who has been AOL Time Warner vice chairman, pledged to donate one billion dollars to the UN.
One of the witnesses said, “even the silverware.”
The word “silver” has a meaning of “Tableware, especially eating and serving utensils, made of steel or another metal.” I didn’t mean to claim that the UN silverware was made of silver.
Thank you. I do think that by and large, the UN has poorly motivated, unreliable employees. I agree that this “food fight” wasn’t an important incident, but it was telling. When the UN has serious responsibilies, they often screw them up royally.
Right, like falling blindly into step with whatever the United states says. :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
It’s clear that the only solution is for the United States to declare war on the United Nations. They must be wiped from the face of the Earth!!!:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
You know, december, for you to compare the destruction of priceless historical artifacts to people being greedy hogs at a free luncheon shows just how far off the deep end you’ve gone.
:rolleyes: By all means, pick an assumption that suits you. The rest of us will get on with our lives while you rearrange things upstairs.
Not the one that used the phrase “stripped bare”, I note. Nice misrepresentation, though.
Oh, you’re welcome. I’ll be happy to point out any other false implications you “inadvertently” make. Just give me a shout.
Well, since you base this opinion on such in-depth, relevant and deeply significant reportage, I shall bear this in mind when giving weight to your opinions in future.
Yeah, extrapolation is such fun, isn’t it. Tell you what, you stand outside McDonalds some day yelling “free food!” and we’ll make some assumptions about pedestrians, eh?
Forget what Guinastasia said December, don’t look for help. At this point it is probably pointless and besides your absurd comparisons and wacky interpretations are pricesless.
