About the life of Phyllis George
Die ehemalige Miss America und erste weibliche Sportmoderatorin im Usfernsehen galt für viele Frauen als Wegbereiterin und Vorbild.
ADVANCED US
Franklin D Roosevelt did as much as anyone to ensure the allied victory 75 years ago. … Yet biographers suggest the defeat of fascism took second place in Roosevelt’s mind to the postwar creation of an international organisation guaranteeing future global peace and security. At a White House meeting with Churchill … they agreed that their new alliance … should be named the “United Nations”.
A series of conferences led in June 1945 to the promulgation by 50 governments of the UN charter. … Since then UN membership has grown to 193 sovereign states. … Roosevelt’s … legacy … remains a vital resource for effective international cooperation in fighting global threats.
Why, then, is the UN not better used … in the present crisis? “Covid19 is the greatest test we have faced together since the formation of the United Nations,” António Guterres, UN secretarygeneral, said last month. … Yet a lack of leadership and differing national approaches had helped spread the virus, he said.
The UN is already heavily involved. It has established a … Covid19 “response and recovery” trust fund. Agencies such as the World Food Programme and … Unicef, are on the frontline. …
But many years of governments … undermining the UN are taking their toll. … In the US, successive Republican administrations have shown their hostility by withdrawing UN funding. … Donald Trump’s contemptible attempt to blame an admittedly imperfect World Health Organization for his Covid failures is the latest manifestation of a wider hatred of the multilateralism embodied in the UN.
Yet Russia and China behave little better. By … blocking UN efforts to halt the slaughter of civilians in Syria … and by ignoring international treaties and human rights, … they degrade the international … order which the UN crucially upholds. …
But at this time of truly global emergency, … when the pandemic threatens millions of lives and livelihoods … [a] well supported, well funded UN, as first envisaged by FDR, is needed as rarely before.
© Guardian News & Media 2020