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We, as in the US? Yes, I don't think anyone would argue that we're doing pretty damn well in terms of freedom relative to the rest of the world.
jewels: Yes, on matters that are decided by the UNGA, each member country gets one vote. The thing to remember is that not all countries of the world are members of the UN - they have to be accepted in. I think that's a reasonable place to identify what went wrong. Accepting a country into the UN allows the other member countries to have more influence and provides a safe forum for diplomacy, but it seems they* forgot to pay attention to the balance of the organization while adding new countries.
*Of course, "they" is the already existing list of UN member states (candidate states are recommended by the UNSC and voted on by the UNGA), so this is somewhat of a chicken and the egg issue.
Derwood: Of course. Unfortunately, just like the US legislative branch doesn't always uphold its constitution, the UN can clearly lose sight of its goals as well.
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The UN has been going through some serious growing pains over the last couple decades as it shifts it has shifted its focus to peacekeeping. It doesn't help that the member countries which are most able to help the UN achieve its goals are also often the least willing to provide that help (US included). In short, I agree that the UN is broken (I don't think it's unfixable, but it does need an overhaul), but the US and other western nations bear the brunt of that fault, as much as we'd like to pretend that's not the case. This extends beyond our lack of willingness to participate our fair share, but also to our (and others') willingness to manipulate the UN system for our own interests (can you say vetoing any and every condemnation of Israel? - of course, that also has a lot to do with the flawed concept of a permanent veto in the first place).
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Le temps détruit tout
"Musicians are the carriers and communicators of spirit in the most immediate sense." - Kurt Elling
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