Stardate 20021126.1146

(On Screen): I've never visited the UN building, and in fact have little interest in doing so. But it's actually been there about fifty years, and apparently the UN has decided it's due for some major renovations.

Problem: renovations cost lots of money.
Solution: a zero interest loan for $1.3 billion from the United States.

Why us? Why only us? For crying out loud...

There are other problems with this grand idea.

Under the latest version of the U.N. master plan for refurbishing it, the city of New York would loan the United Nations a nearby park for construction of a new 30-story office tower that would temporarily house U.N. staff while the main U.N. secretariat building was gutted and renovated.

If this plan goes through, the people of New York City better take one last look at that park because they'll never see it again. No one builds a 30-story building for temporary use. (Why can't the UN lease office space in NYC or the surrounding area? Is it that hard to come by?)

Apparently the reason why they want the money from us is that that's how it was done the first time.

U.N. officials said the hope for a huge U.S. interest-free loan was based on historical precedent.

The original U.N. headquarters complex was built some 50 years ago with a $65 million interest-free loan from the United States, supplemented by an $8.5 million gift from philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr.

The situation isn't really quite comparable. The original building opened in 1952, and at that time the economies of the rest of the major nations of the world still hadn't recovered from the damage of World War II. The US financed the original UN building this way in part because at that time the US was far more committed to the UN as a concept, and in part because at that time no one else could afford it.

But considering how in recent memory it's been clear that the continued viability of the UN is far more important to certain other nations, because they hope to use the institution of the UN to obstruct and manipulate the US, why don't they pay for it this time?