I Love the U.N., but It Is Failing
Related article: Don&#x27;t be a UN Intern<p><i>First thing’s first. You should understand the objectives of the organization you’re trying to join. There are three primary objectives of the UN system today. The first one is to pay the salaries and the perks of its employees. The second is to give them a microcosm in which they can walk around in suits, look important, use buzzwords, and basically find some, however contrived, meaning. The third one is to make it seem like there is an international political system out there, a framework of rules that everyone respects. This last one is increasingly optional in the post-Cold War geopolitical climate.<p>...<p>Your globetrotting, world-saving dream job doesn’t exist. It hasn’t existed for a while. The world has been explored – it no longer needs explorers, and especially doesn’t need faceless bureaucrats. It needs people who do things. Even if, through blackmail, magic rituals or blind luck, you land a UN job somehow, you will not be part of the world elite – far, far from it. You will push paper watching your years go by; your sole obsession will be sucking up to your neurotic supervisor in the hope of seeing your grade increase by a small notch five years down the road; you will wake up at 55 wondering where your professional life has gone. And that’s even discounting the remote possibility that the funding countries come along and say “Ok guys, the show’s been great, now pack it up and go home, you’re not needed anymore.”</i><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;desertqueensarah.wordpress.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;08&#x2F;21&#x2F;dont-be-a-un-intern&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;desertqueensarah.wordpress.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;08&#x2F;21&#x2F;dont-be-a-...</a>