Tuffleyverse: UN

For those (like myself) who have some difficulty with the UN being anything
other than the "good guys", I respectfully submit the following:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,449436,00.html

Thank you for reinforcing my opinion of mankind. No hope remains.

[quoted original message omitted]

From: <KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de>

> From: "Alan and Carmel Brain" <aebrain@webone.com.au>

As any reply I'd make would be blatantly political and Off Topic, I will
maintain a dignified silence.

(Good Point BTW)

Shall we just say that the UN in 2190-something may indeed have
resemblances regarding ignoring of growing threats to the (he says trying to
keep it
non-controversial) League of Nations over Abyssinia in the 30s?

When it intervenes, possibly a bit more like UN behaviour in the Belgian Congo
( see http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/united_nations_congo.htm )
rather than its very successful and worthwhile behaviour in East Timor in
1999-2003.

Talking about the Congo, have a search on Operation Red Dargon / Dragon
Rouge. It would make a great SG2 scenario. (The Simbas were Not Nice People in
the same way that Uday Hussein and Idi Amin are Not Nice)
See http://members.aol.com/SamC130/menu3.html
" Some of the hostages later said they thought the Simba officers intended to
turn them over to the Belgians unharmed, but some of the Simbas, who had been
drinking and smoking Hemp all night the night before, decided to take matters
in their own hands. They shot their own officers, then turned their guns on
the hostages. They had

From: "Mike Hillsgrove" <mikeah@cablespeed.com>

> Thank you for reinforcing my opinion of mankind. No hope remains.

Read my post on the Congo.

Things have been a lot worse than now. The really depressing thought is that
in all probability, things have never been better. OTOH things are getting
better all the time, it's just that there's such a long way to go.

On Wed, 7 May 2003 13:47:04 +1000 "Alan and Carmel Brain"
> <aebrain@webone.com.au> writes:

1) It's nice to have someone around to balance my opinion (warped by the job I
am sure.)

2) In the Tuffleyverse there are no "good guys" it's only in (Beth's, yours
and mine for example) versions that somebody has to be the good guys.
Strangely enough, it's not the same people. <grin> And the level of "Goodness"
varies in a skewed manner.

I respectfully submit the
> following:

I'll try and read it at work ("research" you know - the 'know your
potential enemy' thing.) but basically I am with the "no hope for mankind on
it's own" school of experience.

Gracias,

> From: Alan Brain

<shrug> I'm one of those who has difficulty with the UN being anything other
than evil, although I'm willing to agree that sometimes it had good intentions
(such as the road to hell is paved with). However, I don't
think this is an example of it--I suspect if you left the bar unlocked
and unwatched at any hotel in any country, you'd get the same result. It would
be interesting to try doing that at, say, the cafeteria at Sun Microsystems,
or GM, or <insert company of choice> and see what happened.

I wouldn't confuse today's organisation with the
entity building / operating the FT-11xx range;
there is a historical link but that's going to be about it.

See the subject "GZGverse UN" in the list archives from late July last year.

For those who have recently joined the list, the archives are free to all at:

 http://lists.firedrake.org/gzg/

Keep up the good work, Roger!

--- "laserlight@quixnet.net" <laserlight@quixnet.net>
wrote:
--I suspect if you
> left the bar unlocked and

Seems to me at GM, it might reflect on your annual review.

Michael Brown

[quoted original message omitted]

Somehow I doubt the average salary is anywhere neer $100K. Much of the staff
is support staff from the US.

Roger

> On 7-May-03 at 20:02, John Leary (john_t_leary@yahoo.com) wrote:

Everyone at Sun makes 100k a year, has free medical and a limo? I think its
time to hit the hr web site and see what box I failed to check.

        -=- Matt

> On Thu, 8 May 2003 08:28:42 -0400 (EDT), Roger Books writes:

> Everyone at Sun makes 100k a year, has free medical and a limo? I

<grin> that was before March 01. By Sept01, their stock dropped from 95$
to $8/share and they'd trimmed down the benefits quite a lot.
(seriously, though, one project manager I dealt with there took something like
12 weeks
of vacation *plus* a sabbatical in Europe, between July00-July01)

> --- Roger Books <books@jumpspace.net> wrote:

Please read the story again, I do not think that the 'delegates dining room'
and the 'delegates lounge' are used or open to the 'support staff'. Bye for
now,

[quoted original message omitted]