Sunday, October 26, 2008

UN hoping for Obama?

A Washington Post article indicates that many United Nations staff members and delegates are hoping that Sen. Barack Obama wins the U.S. presidential race.

An informal survey of more than two dozen U.N. staff members and foreign delegates showed that the overwhelming majority would prefer that Sen. Barack Obama win the presidency, saying they think that the Democrat would usher in a new agenda of multilateralism after an era marked by Republican disdain for the world body.


The United Nations is not popular with Republicans in general who often advocate a unilateral approach, although workers at the UN acknowledge that the administration has been more cooperative recently.

Out of 28 UN workers and foreign delegates surveyed, only two said they preferred Sen. John McCain for president.

The majority of people here believe in multilateralism. The Republicans were constantly questioning the relevance of the United Nations," said one UN worker while another remarked, "Please, God, let him win."

According to the article, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has a hankering for Obama, but officially he takes no position in the US election.

The United Nations has elected one black secretary-general, Kofi Annan, and Ralph Bunche, a UN mediator who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize was African American.