The Time article is certainly a piece of fluff reporting. Witness the “coffee for Kofi” and “The value of the missing silverware has yet to be estimated.” statements.
december, as usual, writes a headline that indicts the WHOLE by referring to the actions of the few. Time Magazine did the same.
Another non-event. <yawn>
The silverware thing is just bizarre; don’t people working in New York eat food with a knife and fork … I mean, they took the silverware to use to eat the food. Is it me … I’m usually such a Normal Norman kinda guy … ??
I admit that the OP was petty, and we’re moving downhill from there. However, I don’t agree with the above. If employees ate the food while at the UN, they would have eaten at a table in the cafeteria. They could have left the silverware there. If they took the food home, they wouldn’t have needed the UN’s silverware. The fact is, according to the report they stole the silverware. That may not be a big deal, but it seems to be what happened.
Dead Badger, I’m not embarassed to assume that Time magazine is accurate, when no contradictory information is available. If you have a different report of this event, please share it with us.
december, at the risk of of dampening you angry fire, is there any chance that the UN employees decided not to; or couldn’t eat in the cafeteria due to overcrowding, so they decided to eat at their desks? If I eat at my desk I too “loot” silverware from the cafeteria, only to later return it.
I’m a she by they way
I love the U.N. cafeteria. The food is decent and cheap by New York standards. (It’s subsidized.) I can’t believe december is serious about comparing this to looting of artifacts in Iraq.
Seems unlikely that it has anything to do with overcrowding. The cafeteria is big enough to accommodate everyone who eats there on a normal day. I don’t think take-away is very common. In fact, I don’t recall seeing take-away containers available (which supports Dead Badgers’s theory).
The article does say that the Cafe was “stripped bare.” The Cafe just serves coffee (in paper cups), muffins, and other cafe-type items, so it’s not surprising that everything got taken. That could not be considered stealing.
All I know is what I read in Time Magazine:
Well chula, I imagine if everyone on a 40 acre campus came running for lunch at once, it would be pretty damn crowded. The place would have to be fucking huge to handle that number of employees. We have 800 people here at any given time, but when we have all hands meeting, even our two huge cafeterias can’t handle the people. And we aren’t anywhere near 40 acres.
december you’re in good company. The NY Post, that bastion of journalistic excellence has declared: BAGHDAD-STYLE LOOTING AT U.N. EATERIES!
The Post article seems to be totally based on the Time Magazine article. It doesn’t seem to be an independent verification. The New York Daily News has a similar article, also based on the Time article.
OTOH Newsmax (who is more right-wing than the NY Post) does claim to have done independent investigation of the incident.
I am suspicious of Newsmax’s claim of independent reporting, because their report is almost identical to Time’s.
I thought the exact same thing when I read the NewsMax article. Unless there a single employee talking to the entire press corps, I have trouble with NewMax claims to independant verifaction.
Anyway, about the Post article. I just liked the headline. Then again, I always like the Pot’s headlines, they make me chuckle.
**What’s with all this talk of “independent reporting” and “verification”? This isn’t true news. It’s fluff. It seemed quite clear to me that TIME’s article was meant to be a light-hearted piece of entertainment, not an investigation into skull-duggery and mob action at the United Nations.
In fact, I can’t see how any reasonable reader would choose to take it seriously, as if this incident says anything at all about the UN’s ability**
**Unless, of course, he or she had a partisan wheelbarrow to push. Say it ain’t so…
I guess I wasn’t picturing it the same way. It sounded to me like the people who took the stuff were the ones who were there to have lunch anyway. This is all speculation, since we don’t have a reliable source.
Since the place was stripped clean of trays, silverware, and whatnot, they’ll have a hard time opening up on Monday, don’t you think? If my access hadn’t expired, I’d be tempted to pop up there tomorrow for a cheap lunch and some independent reporting.
Oh boy. december, you used to able to get a rise out of people with your ridiculous spin and misinterpretations.
Now, we’ve gotten to the point were people just point and laugh. You’re a circus animal that can no longer perform its trick, and is now the laughing stock of the crowd, as it stumbles through the circus ring.
It’s a bit sad and entirely hilarious at the same time.
Is this a slam on the United Nations, or just the excitable New Yorkers that are employed there?
Yeah, I can’t figure out what his point is either but I’m not asking since he probaby doesn’t have one or it is just plain stupid.
Actually, it’s mostly liberals who point and laugh. But then, that’s how they react to just about anything.
I don’t know, Lib. I’ve seen many a conservative vocally disassociate themselves from december’s approach. No matter what your political bearings are, someone with december’s debating “skills” is an embarrassment to have on your side.
No shit, sherlock. Wilful ignorance is just ace, innit. Is it nice to know that the only fallback you have is a literal interpretation of a hyperbolic sentence from a light-hearted news article?
Which says it all, really.
Read any posts of mine concerning the economy or free market issues and see if you can call me a liberal. I am as “conservative” as you can get (although I do think those labels are simplifications and nobody can be defined but a label).
sailor, Libertarian needs to know how you’d deal with an invasion of New York Harbor by giant sentient squid before he can assess whether you’re just another freakin’ liberal. 