There were five American editors at my dinner table that evening. As the coffee was being served, I tossed a question: "If a great tidal wave rose and washed away the entire United Nations system, what would you miss? What agencies would you like to rebuild?" I was agreeably surprised that they didn´t deflect my question in a flurry of smart wisecracks as journalists are apt to come up with when faced with anything that sounds "worthy" or heavy. This group took my question seriously and offered a thoughtful list of UN agencies that would be missed if they were washed away.
WIPO, the World Intellectual Properties Organisation, which deals with patents and copyrights; ITU, the International Telecommunications Union, which allocates airwaves for message transmission; JCAO, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, which sets and maintains standards for international airlines; WMO, the World Meteorological Organisation, which watches over and interprets weather patterns; IMO, the International Maritime Organisation, which monitors the world´s shipping lines.
That was it Those are the functional bodies of the international system. The business of the world would grind to a halt without them. The general public — most of the 5,6 billion who constitute that hydra-headed mass — take those functions for granted and do not know that such organisations exist. But the international media, international traders, and the international transport companies are quite aware of the value of those relatively small and unpublicized United Nations agencies.
The man from The New York Times read the disappointment, even chagrin, on my face.
"Maybe Unicef too," he suggested. "Because I´m from Unicef? I asked. "No. Because children have no advocate. Children have no votes, no power," he replied. It was a good, humane thought worth dwelling on. But I let it go and asked; "What about the United Nations proper? The UN´s peacekeeping functions?"