Tsunami - UN determined to take lead

Take the money more like.

The Guardian is reporting on how the UN wants to take the lead, after nearly two weeks, in the tsunami relief effort.

Kofi Annan's appeal for $977m (£521m) to be channelled towards UN-led emergency aid programmes was welcomed yesterday as a sign that the organisation was getting to grips with the scale of the disaster.

Welcomed by whom? The same bureaucrats who stole millions from starving Iraqis under the UN administered oil for food scandal? Yeah, I bet they can't wait to get their hands on all this money now that the oil, er, money has dried up from their last scandal.

As for getting to grips with the disaster, it has taken them almost two weeks and still all they are doing is setting up shop.

So far, between $3bn and $4bn has been promised in aid to repair the devastated coastal communities around the Indian Ocean rim. A significant slice of that money, Mr Annan hopes, will be handed over to UN agencies.

Oh, I bet he does alright. While the UN is still embroiled in the oil for food scandal, not everybody is so sure the money will go where it is suppose to.

Then UK foreign secretary, Jack Straw, puts his foot in his mouth.

The foreign secretary, Jack Straw, who attended the Jakarta summit, agreed that "the ... difficult part is to ensure that the money pledged is first paid and secondly is then spent wisely and in a coordinated way".

"We have got a very good record on that," he told BBC radio.

The Iraqi people might disagree with that statement, Mr. Straw.
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