If there was contact with ET, should we trust the United Nations to represent humanity?
No. Absolutely not.
The United Nations are hopelessly bureaucratic, as well as being grossly ineffective and inefficient. They couldn’t organise a proverbial piss up in a brewery, or even run a bath. I know this because I worked alongside several of their organisations for 25 years.
It’s often been suggested that the United Nations should be the body to deal with first contact if extraterrestrials showed up. In theory, it’s not difficult to see why. The name’s great: United Nations. But, at best, it’s a premature or naive concept. Different countries are a long way from being united. And the UN has done a dismal job in eliminating absolute poverty, stopping war or keeping the peace, tackling climate change or the many other threats to our environment, etc. It’s a talking shop - and a costly one at that.
The wastage is beyond appalling. How many more conferences do we need to have where clever speeches are made about world hunger, immediately followed by expensive meals costing hundreds of dollars per head? And why do the media rarely, if ever, report or comment on this gross hypocrisy? The UN is all about image, power, and having a well-paid cushy job towards the end of a dubious career.
For 25 years, I saw how they operate in the least developed countries - especially in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Nepal, but also in Somalia, Uganda, Bangladesh, and India. I’m specifically talking about the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), the World Food Programme (WFP), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and of course the World Health Organisation (WHO). They’re all a joke. I’ve seen their expatriate staff live like princes and princesses whilst doing a dismal job “at work”, sexually exploit and abuse local women and children, smuggle priceless antiques - using their diplomatic bag status - out of the poor countries they’ve been working in, and much more. Those who are in and around the UN, with experience, know this all goes on - but nobody wants to rock the boat, so it continues as an open secret. If the UN wishes to challenge me about these strong statements, they should know I’ve got numerous detailed examples from which I can easily back up my words. And I’ve barely scratched the surface in what I’ve started to say above.
Anyway, you’re hopefully getting the idea. Turning to the UN for anything would be stupid. It’s a non-starter.
UN General Assembly Credit: UN Photo
If any visiting extraterrestrials were willing to talk to the UN Secretary-General as humanity’s representative, then they can sod off back to whichever planet they’ve travelled from. Why? Because they’ll be more backward than us - and that’s saying something. We’re messed up enough without any intergalactic shit adding to our woes. Realistically, they wouldn’t approach the UN, any more than they’d be willing to talk to our governments. ET is not going to land on the White House lawn, step out of their spacecraft, then speak the immortal words of “Take me to your leader”. We’re not ready. It’s that simple. Human beings are too immature at present, underpinned by a primitive and dysfunctional psychology. Our behaviour - not least the countless instances and forms of suffering we inflict on ourselves and others - mirrors this antiquated mentality.
And if you want one single example of how dysfunctional we humans are, look at how much money we keep giving to the United Nations every year. Their total revenue in 2017, for example, was US$53.2 billion - roughly the same as Lebanon’s GDP that year. It’s bonkers. It would be kind to call the UN wasteful because they’re much, much worse. Again, I can easily back up every word with example after example that I’ve seen with my own eyes over a long period of time.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if advanced extraterrestrials were monitoring our development as an emerging intelligent species. But before we can look forward to any kind of formal meeting, we first need to take a long, hard look in the mirror - and then grow up.
Written by Iain Scott, 6th September 2021