I really hope blogger is jacked right now because I just spent 30 minutes looking through my archives to make a list of highlights of 2004 by month. I posted it, but it's not showing up in my post listing. Please tell me I didn't start 2005 out with a stupid user error! *sigh*.
Well, if I did, Happy New Year to everyone. Thanks for visiting & putting up with my ridiculousness (there was a reason I named it "rantings & other non-sensical thoughts" after all! :)
U.N emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland suggested today that the world's richest nations were "stingy", a suggestion that irritated the Bush Administration, especially when U.S. aid for Asia's earthquake is expected to eventually rise from the missions to more than $1 billion.
While we are always near the top in total humanitarian aid dollars - even prior to private donations being counted - we are near the bottom of the list of rich countries when that money is compared to gross national product.
"We were more generous when we were less rich, many of the rich countries," Egeland said. "And it is beyond me, why are we so stingy, really.... Even Christmas time should remind many Western countries at least how rich we have become."
The thing is, for 40 years our country has never accepted these European standards of basing it on percentage of gross national product. We've always based it on actual dollars spent. The reason behind this, according to Andrew Natsios, chief of USAID, is that our GNP is so enormous. And our growth rates are so much higher than other wealthy nations.
This whole thing kind of pisses me off. While Egeland claims he wasn't referring to any particular nation, the inference was quite clear. Who the *hell* is the U.N to talk about how much money we donate for relief? The U.N is an institution full of corruption and total lack of accountability. Kofi Annan is so far out there it's ridiculous. The Oil for Food scandal? In theory it was set up so Iraq could sell limited amounts of oil & in return use the money generated to purchase needed commodities such as food & medical supplies for it's population. It started in 1996 and continued under U.N. supervision until Coalition forces toppled Saddam last year. While looking for WMDs, etc., files were discovered that detailed the Oil for Food program. Saddam used it as a way to get around economic sanctions, bringing in huge amounts of money, some of which was used on himself & his henchman, all the while bribing certain U.N. officials to look the other way. Saddam's regime made more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting the U.N. Oil for Food program through these kickbacks
Even today the U.N. is so secretive that it can't officially verify the actual amount of money that went into the program! The fraud represented in the Oil for Food program, encouraged and virtually administered by the UN, gave Saddam funds to continue to procure missile technology from North Korea, pursue WMD research and development programs, and funnel money to his own thugs and terrorist groups like Ansar al-Islam, Islamic Jihad and suicide bombers. In short, the UN kept in power the very dictator they professed to condemn in the Security Council chambers.
The U.N., like it's predecessor, the League of Nations, is an idealistic concept but a dysfunctional reality. Virtually every U.N. peacekeeping mission has gone bad because of ineptitude and corruption. Take this for example:
~ During the 70s and 80s, the U.N. was responsible for running a large aid program in the former Somalia estimated at billions of dollars in order to sustain the lives of hundreds of thousands of artificial refugees from eastern Ethiopia on Somaliland soil. While this huge assistance was being given, UN officials knew that the influx of people from Ethiopia was actually instigated by dictator Siyad Barre who promised them a better livelihood through UNHCR support. After arming them to the teeth, Barre however used those "refugees" to terrorize the local population or join his government's fight against the SNM [Somali National Movement] rebels. The "refugees" did so in great numbers and of course this considerably contributed to the prolongation of the war of resistance and the suffering of the civilian population in Somaliland. It has also eventually led to the uprooting or flight of 2.5 million Somalilanders from their homeland to escape Barre's genocide. Disgustingly enough, the UN chose, then, not to tell the world about how international humanitarian aid was being utilized by a dictator pursuing ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses. Few courageous UN voices disclosing the truth about what was happening could have been detrimental [as received] to saving thousands of Somalilanders from death. (from
Somalia Watch)
~ This came to light in 2001: The U.N. quashed an investigation earlier this year into whether U.N. police were directly involved in the enslavement of Eastern European women in Bosnian brothels, according to U.N. officials and internal documents. The decision to halt the investigation came when the U.N. Mission in Bosnia was reeling from the disclosure that several of its police officers had been dismissed for sexual misconduct.
David Lamb, a former Philadelphia police officer who served as a U.N. human rights investigator in Bosnia until April, said that in February he began to look into allegations against six Romanian, Fijian and Pakistani officers stationed in the town of Bijeljina.
The most serious charges, he said, were that two Romanian policemen had recruited Romanian women, purchased false documents for them and then sold the women to Bosnian brothel owners.
Within weeks, Lamb said, his preliminary inquiry found more than enough evidence to justify a full-scale criminal investigation. But Lamb and his colleagues said they also faced physical threats and were repeatedly stymied in their inquiries by their superiors, including a senior Ukrainian police officer who ordered an end to the investigation of the Romanians' conduct.
"I have to say there were credible witnesses, but I found a real reluctance on the part of the United Nations . . . leadership to investigate these allegations," Lamb said.
U.N. officials respond that they are committed to combating trafficking in women, but that a U.N. oversight team concluded there was insufficient evidence of systematic police involvement in the sex trade. They say it is difficult to penetrate the murky underworld of the Balkans and note that the responsibility for prosecuting U.N. police officers belongs to their home countries, not the United Nations.
According to some human rights advocates and former U.N. employees, the episode demonstrates the unwillingness or inability of the U.N.'s International Police Task Force (IPTF) in Bosnia to discipline its 1,600 officers from 48 countries.
The Washington Post reported in May that in the five years since international police officers were sent to help restore order in Bosnia, the U.N. police mission has faced numerous charges of misconduct, corruption and sexual impropriety. But in nearly every case, U.N. officials handled the allegations quietly by sending the officers home, often without a full investigation.
Two Americans also have filed whistleblower lawsuits alleging that they were fired by DynCorp, a private contractor that selects U.S. police to serve in Bosnia, because they had complained that fellow officers were patronizing brothels and purchasing women. DynCorp denied that the workers were fired for that reason.
But Lamb's investigation involved the most serious allegations yet: that some members of the IPTF directly participated in trafficking in women for forced prostitution. (from
The Washington Post)
~A senior UN official was cleared of sexual harassment earlier this year because the secretary general rejected the verdict of an internal watchdog. High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers, 65, a former Dutch prime minister, escaped censure in July when Kofi Annan dismissed a complaint. But a revised report issued by UN watchdogs on Thursday revealed that investigators supported the allegation. Mr Annan refused to take action, saying the allegations were "not sustainable". Mr Lubbers was cleared of improper conduct after a 51-year-old woman on his staff claimed he had groped her. The UN's Office of Internal Oversight Services investigated the complaint and backed the woman's complaint, it has now been revealed. In addition, the internal investigation recommended that "appropriate action" was taken.
Despite the recommendation, Mr Annan dismissed the complaint, but instead wrote to Mr Lubbers stressing his concerns "in the strongest terms". (from
BBC)
*yawn* I'm too tired to find more examples, but the point is that perhaps the UN should monitor itself instead of trying to shame nations into offering more money for Aid in Asia. Please don't misunderstand - the tsunami's devastation was catastrophic and yes, we should send assistance, but the amount of assistance should be up to us, not a corrupt organization.
I've noticed by looking at the unresolved IP addresses that visit this site that there are a lot of people who come here from states where I don't really know anyone. :) At least, the provider you have is in a state where I don't know anyone....like Vermont. So, I've added a guestbook. Perhaps it's just bots trolling the site, perhaps it's people who got here by accident, perhaps I'm crazy (well, actually, I know I am). Anyway, please take a minute to sign the
guestbook. Just for the fun of it. I promise no flaming!
P.S. -
Odd Todd has a new holiday cartoon up! It's hilarious! Well, the first one isn't, but the second one had me laughing out loud, so go watch them!
Do you even *know* HTML?
I tried to be a good little girl & copy all of my pre-holiday design HTML so that when it was time to go back to the usual design things would be nice & simple. But could it work out that way? No, of course not! For some reason the left side column took up 80% of the page. After searching the HTML for 30 minutes (even comparing it to the original designer's HTML), I still couldn't figure out what the heck was wrong.
Finally I decided to remove the Doodleboard & the XML Feed and the Blogsomethingorother hit counter. Hmm, the columns were back to normal. Added the Doodleboard & XML Feed back (since Evan can't live without them) and still normal. Put the hit counter back. Totally jacked. Ah well, my hosting provider gives me a free web stats program anyway that is *much* cooler than anything I found for free. Just don't understand why it got messed up in the first place & *why* it took an hour to fix.
I made my very first turkey today! Luckily, it came out fabulous & it was a lot easier than I anticipated. The only mishap was the fact that I put it in the roasting pan upside down. Oops. :)
So Tom & I had turkey, stuffing, scalloped potatoes, corn & rolls for Christmas Day Dinner. YAY!
I wish I could have been home with my family for Christmas. I hate missing Christmas at my Grandparents' house. Hopefully next year we'll finally get there. We haven't been home at Christmas since December 2001 - the first Christmas without my dad. Since then either Tom or myself (mostly Tom) have been newish at jobs and haven't had the ability to take off.
I hope everyone had a great Christmas!
I got the cosmetics of the guestbook fixed last night. Now I feel like I should be doing something with the site, but there are no new news items, so it's just sit back & wait. :)
The weather in TX sure is ridiculous! It was 73 on Monday. Today was snow & sleet and the roads were *horrible* on the way home at 7:30pm. Well, they were horrible in Dallas County, where I work. In Tarrant County, where I live, they were dry. Tomorrow's high will be 32. The cold snap breaks on Saturday when we're back in the 40s and Tuesday is predicted to be 68. I hope it stays like that! I read that the high in Denver, CO today was 6. The normal is like 40 or something crazy like that. Dang ol' mother nature!
I finally got the guestbook at edko (much easier than typing the entire thing) working. Turns out Network Eleven has this neat little script that does all the work for you! All I had to do was edit the colors. :doh:. And the book has some SUPER COOL smilies! :) I'm still tweaking the cosmetics, but at least people can sign something now.
Why am I telling ya'll? I'm sure you don't give a lick, but since once again, ED is the MAN and this is the best free gig I've ever been part of, you get to hear about it! :) Don't let that stop you from coming to visit - once the newness wears off I'm sure I'll move on to a new topic.
6 Days until the DOODLEBOARD is back! :0
I finally have edkowalczyk.com moved to the new servers. Almost everything seems to be functioning except the damn guestbook! I don't know a lick of PHP so after an hour of messing with it (I don't think my ADD ever tweaked as badly), I gave up. I emailed Neila, the previous owner, begging for help. She's been sick so hopefully she feels better soon. There were a lot of recent comments too because they just wrapped up in Norway (or somewhere). *sigh*. Nothing can ever go smoothly, huh?
Sorry for the lack of updates - I spent all weekend playing Sims 2 :) The geniuses at modthesims2 discovered how to recolor objects so I spent a large portion of Monday night downloading fabulous new bedspreads :)
Tuesday & Wednesday I was sick. I must have slept over 24 hours in that 2 day period. It's only 9:12am, but I feel a lot better today - hopefully that keeps up.
BIG, BIG News: I am now the SOLE Webmaster of edkowalczyk.com! Neila is moving on to a new webpage & has given the files and everything to me. God love her, I know I do!
Ok - time to get ready for work. Christmas cards are being mailed today (finally). If I don't have your address, you can email it to me at liveedk "@" yahoo.com .
Welcome to the Holiday design. I wanted to use this template last Christmas but went with the snowy one instead. There's no doodleboard (sorry, no room), so you'll have to post in comments, which I promise to keep up with. Hope you like it!
As I'm sure you noticed, the quitmeter is gone. *sigh*. What kicked off the descent into cancer-dome was the fact that on Thursday almost my entire department got laid off. I didn't and the majority of my team didn't (we did lose 5 people), but about 40 people got laid off. It sucked big time. That started it. I'll try again, maybe as soon as next week, but I just couldn't handle the stress. :(
I went to the Dallas Psychic Fair on Sunday. It was pretty fun. I had a psychic reading by a lady who must have been making stuff up as she went along because she said I was going to be a work at home mom with a little boy & a little girl, in that order. She asked if twins run in Tom's family and I said no. Of course, when speaking to him later he said they did. She said a headhunter was looking for me and that I had had a business idea that I should look more into because it would be successful for me. (Odd, because I did have an idea a few months ago). She said I would come into a lump sum of money at the end of the year. Pfft - I wish. She said that I would be taking a driving trip with my husband in February - somewhere a few hours away where there are pine trees. She said I would be getting a white car, not a color I'd normally choose (true). She said that one of us will need a water pump (about the only thing not fixed on either vehicle in the last 3 months). It all seemed hokey or just generic enough that it could fit anyone.
Then I had a past life reading done. She said I was in a merchant shipping family in the 1600s. My family shipped goods, not weapons. I was also a cloistered nun (which Emily said explains a lot about me!) and that I have a very powerful elder watching over me. She said that my mother is very protective of me (Good lord that's so true!:) ) . Anyway, it was a fun way to spend a Sunday and of course I bought lottery tickets today because you just never know! Lol.
I think I have some exciting (for me anyway) news coming up. I don't want to spill the beans too soon, so keep a lookout for an announcement - hopefully by the end of this week.
To NANA: I would never use a ouija board or have a seance, so don't worry about me being indundated by the dark side.
To GINA: My mom loved the Christmas card you sent her - it was so thoughtful of you!
I'm sure by now everyone's heard of the free ipod deal that's online. I thought it was a scam, so I never wanted to try it, although I was dying for an ipod. Well, our local
Fox station did an investigative report on this deal last week (click on the link to Fox, then on the left side click on "One Your Side", then click on "Steve's Story Links" and it turns out it's legitimate! All you have to do is sign up for one of their offers and then have 5 friends sign up too and you get a free ipod! The reporter and 3 other people did it & all received their ipod as promised. The terms and conditions state that it could be a refurbished ipod, but the ones they received in the report were brand new. They took it to an Apple store & they confirmed that not only were they shipped direct from Apple, but they were brand new!
freeipod.com offers a 20GB ipod! That's 5000 songs! I just signed up and the deal I chose was a 2 week free trial to Blockbuster's online movie rental thing. I have to keep my membership for the full 2 weeks. I'll probably forget to cancel on that last day, but it's only $17.95. Then I'll cancel. :) We've belonged to netflix for over 2 years now, so I don't want to leave them, but I think a 20GB ipod is worth $17.95! This is a $299 ipod!!!!
Now, here's the catch:
I *WON'T* get my ipod unless 5 friends sign up **and** complete an offer! Please, please, please sign up! I'll do for you if you do for me!!!!! You have to use
this special link so I get credit for your sign-up. You may get spam, so sign up with a non-work address. I used my Yahoo address.
Let me know when you join so I can start salivating over my ipod! They also have freedesktoppcs.com, freehandbags.com, freeflatscreentvs.com and I'm sure others. Hmmmm a dell dimension desktop for the price of a blockbuster online membership? Sounds fabulous, even if it isn't a top of the line computer. For someone w/o a computer, *any* computer is good for $18! lol Wonder if they have freerefrigerators.com or freehousesiding.com --- good lord, imagine the possibilities. :)
Thanks, guys!!!!
In less than an hour I will have hit the 1 week no smoking mark! It feels like it hasn't been nearly that long, which is strange. I expected it to feel like it's been longer than that. Perhaps the reason is because I know that any minute I could be in the midst of a nicotine fit without even realizing what happened. Anyway, each day is getting better and I'm so thankful for all the support and encouragement I've gotten from near and far away friends. Even friends from the past who I never in a million years expected a comment from (Chip!). :)
