Gone but not forgotten

As I'm sure you recall, the United Nations immediately jumped into action in the wake of last year's monster tsunami. It stuck its hand out for money.

In an effort to highlight the massive humanitarian effort that a disaster of this magnitude would require, Jan Egeland, its undersecretary general in charge of something-or-other, wasted no time in slamming the U.S..

First on site, however, providing actual assistance were India and Japan and the military forces of the United States and Australia. Although they were still sitting with their thumbs up their butts, a UN spokesperson was quick to criticize these efforts saying it lacked the UN's "moral authority."

Donations poured in to help those who'd been affected. Unfortunately, some of it went to that great bastion of "moral authority, the United Nations.

Jay Tea at Wizbang points to a UPI article with the headline, Overheads take up to 1/3 of tsunami funds.

The newspaper also found several U.N. agencies continue to refuse to disclose details of their relief expenditure in spite of earlier pledges of transparency by senior officials.

Jay Tea wondered:

[What] did the United Nations do with that over half a billion dollars they solicited from the nations of the world? In the face of this catastrophe, unprecedented in the modern world, the single greatest national disaster since the United Nations was founded?

The link to the Financial Times article cited by UPI seems to have expired as well as another one to a companion article. But while they may be gone, the The Diplomad, a short-lived blog written by "career US Foreign Service officers" should not be forgotten.

Their stellar reporting -- on among other things the UN's need for five-star hotels and 24/7 catering before it could possibly provide any actual services -- offers numerous hints.