Edith Coliver regrets my lack of enthusiasm for the role of artists in the United Nations. She correctly condemns the horrible egos of the men who run and ruin the world. That is why I recommended women. Artists in public life have not been a great success. Music, an international language, is the art which best unites the world, as Yehudi Menuhin showed. An extraordinary example is the way Japanese have mastered classical music, which is the most universal of all. It can perform an uparalleled role, with UNESCO as the approrpiate international organ. The United States should rejoin it; Great Britain has.

As for the U.N., the U.S. debt to it is $1,294.2 millions, followed way down by Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Although the U.S. is assessed 30% of the U.N. budget, Western Europe in total is assessed considerably more. The U.N. contributes heavily to the business of New York. In all, it is a good deal for the U.S. Too bad that men like Jesse Helms prevail.

Ronald Hilton - 03/18/99

More on UNESCO

Robert Gard sends this clarification:

"I was told by a foreign service officer that our arrears are in the peacekeeping assessments, and that we contributed nearly $2B last year to the operating agencies which are not funded by the regular UN budget but are required to raise their own funds. While I'm no fan of Helms, by a long shot, I'm told he had signed off on paying the arrears, but an even more conservative Congressman threatened to campaign against him as "supporting"abortion by not agreeing to requiring the UN to cease funding population programs in countries allowing abortions. Apparently Helms was running scared and folded."

My comment: Budgets are used to confuse people like me, as was evident when European governments doctored them to meet the U.E. criteria. The figure I quoted came from a U.N. publication, which did not mention the budgets of those agencies. My guess is that other countries contributed more than the U.S. Can our U.N. expert Lary Pippin clarify this?

Ronald Hilton - 03/19/99