The United Nations is not working

and whether it will survive the war in Ukraine is anyone's guess.

It may well still be there as an organisation but it is likely to end up being even less effective than it already is. We may not have had another "world war" in the military sense but there have been conflicts between nations and within nations. 

Any conflict should be of concern. While some of them may have been short lived skirmishes there are others which are still ongoing and there seems to be no end in sight to these.

The war in Ukraine is the most serious right now. It is serious because the effects of that war are being felt far beyond the borders of that country.  Many people are unaware of what the real consequences are. It is not simply one country which is being destroyed. What is being slowly destroyed is the global economy. 

Putin says he has nuclear weapons and that he will use them. Would he? Perhaps.  At present his military will do as he orders. The loss of life on not just the Ukrainian side but his own is something he apparently just accepts as "necessary". The idea that all this destruction might also cause a disruption to energy supplies in Europe is something he simply shrugs off. The idea that world food supplies might be disrupted is of no consequence. Putin believes he can keep his own country under control. He believes that when (not if) he wins the war then Russia will be bigger and stronger than before. He believes that former countries under Russian control will simply fall into line and rejoin the union. 

Of course the reality is different. Putin clearly believed he was going to simply move in and take over with minimal resistance. That has not happened. He blames some of his senior most military "advisers" for this. They are, at very least, under house arrest - for telling him what he wanted to hear. If they had not told him this they would have been under house arrest or worse. He is being supported by that tiny minority of very wealthy and very powerful group of "businessmen" who have so much to lose. 

None of that will be new to anyone following the news media. But there are things going on behind the news that most people will never know about. There are people working in extremely dangerous situations with minimal amounts of sleep. They are going deep into the battle zones to try and negotiate without knowing if they will be taken hostage or even killed. These are the negotiators we never hear about, that we will never even know about via the news media. It is part of their role to remain as anonymous as possible.

In the course of my work I have once in a while come across such people. They aren't always what they appear to be. They are not "spies" or "undercover agents". These people are simply there to do an extraordinarily difficult job. They are risking their lives to protect entire nations. I have enormous respect for them.

The United Nations has to change or die. It will die without these people and most of them do not even work for the United Nations - or even believe in it.

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