Episode Transcript
Welcome back to sort of sophisticated, the podcast where me or Amanda get some random bug up our butts sometime during the week about something in particular, and then decide we need to learn more about the thing that we just got a bug up our butt about. And then we do some research and get behind this mic and break it all down so it's not boring and hopefully sort of fun, I think. Yeah, that sounds about right. I am your host, Pete, and with me it, as always is Amanda. Hello everyone and welcome back from Hawaii. Wait, before we get into Hawaii, what if one day I said, and with me as always, is your host Amanda, and you just didn't say anything. And it was just like dead air. that would be funny 'cause you'd like, did you kill me Flex all over me? No, I'm just saying like I'm counting on you to say something at that exact moment. Oh. And you come through every time. What if you were just like snooze fest. Oh. And then you wouldn't say anything It would suck. You wouldn't be a good co. I guess you wouldn't be a good co-host. Yeah, I was like, that would just be awkward. Okay. It would be. Yeah, so everybody, Amanda and I went to Hawaii, well, not together separately. Like she went with her family and then I went with one of my children, um, and had a glorious time together on the big island. It was fabulous. It really was. Glorious. Palm trees swaying coffee beans. Roasting, I love. That's how your vision of the big island is. Okay. What's yours? It's like lava rock. Yes. And erupting lava rock erupting. There was a little bit of glow there. There's a lot of eruptions. I bet there was. Maybe in your hotel room. Oh man. Do you think we could travel together again or never again? I think so. What do we think? I think so. I'm a fun travel buddy. So were you, I, yeah. So folks, here's how this all went down. I stayed, oh, I don't know, about an hour away from, my dear co-host Amanda, who that was by your choice, who stayed in this bougie, I don't know, condo complex. I stayed at a friend's house, which was glorious and wonderful but every day Amanda planned. To drive literally two hours to some site. First of all, how is the big island that big that you could drive two hours to get to somewhere? But my point being like. Who wants to drive that far to go see something and then drive back. That's like four hours in a car every day. Peter said exaggerating in the sense that's, that's bullshit. You never planned over there. Okay. And you stop once and then you get back in the car and you drive back. That is not the case. Yeah. You spend the whole day. I understand that. On either the north part of the island. Yeah, the east side or all the parts that you, the south side, right. The parts where you aren't, like, why don't you just spend the day where you are, like in, in the place we are spending the day. You're saying spend the night. Whatever spend, because then you gotta keep all your stuff and hop around and unpack and No, all the things. No what, and it was every other day. What I'm saying is that we have to drive. It was not back to back days down, walk downstairs from the condo or press the button to the elevator, go down, hit beach level, walk out to the beach and sit down. Why is this so hard? Because it's the big island. The big island doesn't necessarily have beaches unless you're on the resort. Yeah, I know. Everything is all. I'm black sand. I understand and I know where you stayed. I came and visited. I know. Ours is very nice. We could stay there, but yeah. Uhhuh, then you wouldn't get to see the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. No, that's true. You wouldn't get to see the Black Sand. No, you're right at the Green Sand Beach. Okay, fine. Thank you for dragging me around. Oh, waterfalls. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Fair. We love Hawaii. We do, actually, we've done a lot of episodes on Hawaii. We have. So I should be more respectful. I mean, and while we were there, you said we should do another one. I know, but I, I mean then what are we gonna do Now? We're just gonna be like some white people doing a podcast on Hawaii. Nobody's gonna wanna listen to that. That's true. Not even Native Hawaiians. They're gonna be mad. I can't win. That's why you should probably just have a native Hawaiian on the podcast to give their perspective. You wanna do that? Yeah. All right, let's do that. Okay. But can we get started now? Finally? Yes. What are we talking about today? Like talking about all this Hawaii stuff today? We're talking about the un the UN because the UN just turned 80 years old this year and just finished off something called high level week. High level week, which ran during the last week in September. So it's been in the news lately, and it got me thinking about, uh, the fact that I know absolutely nothing about the un, the history of the un, how it came to be. And so here we are. That doesn't make me feel better because I don't know anything either except for like whenever I see a headline that's like Trump says he's, you know, leaving the un. Right. Which, I mean, maybe we will be. That's about all. I got fun. I got a fun fact about further down. Oh, there we go. Yeah. Uh, you know what we're gonna do today? We're gonna learn about the un damnit, like it or not. Okay? That's what's happening today. And who's part of the un? Everybody's part of the un. Everybody. A lot of people are part of the un, but not everybody. Not every nation. 190 countries out of how many countries in the world? That's a good question. Now you gotta Google that 'cause I do not know. Okay. Okay. So you Google that. Okay. Okay. Well, what's the official title? I'm okay. Here we go. You ready? Yeah. The world's biggest group project, the founding of the United Nations. hmm. Huh. So you said there's 190 nations? 190 plus, I don't know exactly. Okay, okay. Okay. Because the Olympic Committee recognizes 206 nations. Well, that sounds official. Okay. Right. I mean, I kind of would go with that. So out of the two hundred and six, a hundred and ninety five mm-hmm. Are recognized countries by the United Nations, uh, of which 193 are member states and two are non-member. Okay. So that means 11 countries are not part of it. Yeah. Okay. No, I'm curious. Do we need to know no or no? Yeah. Or can we keep plugging along? We can keep plugging along. Yeah. Yeah. This is where you tell us why we're gonna be more culture. Yeah, but you just spoiled the whole thing because now you looked up everything. My whole point of being culture was that like 190 plus countries still come together and talk about everything all the time. Okay. Fair. And that I would consider culture. So we're done. Check, checked, right? You just spoiled everything. Not intentionally. Okay. Whatever. But we're good. We covered that. Okay. Fine. Word of the day. Move on. Word to the day. All right, here we go. Word of the day today is Gibb. Us. Gibb, us. Gibb, us. Gib. Gib, Gib us. Gib us, us. Very gib like gab, gib, gab, gib, gib, jab. I don't, gib. Gib would be nothing. I can't even think of a word with Gib. I know. And you know what's so funny is I thought you were gonna do this, or glib. So I looked it up and I'm like, she's not gonna come up with anything. Nope. Oh, here we go. Thanks. That's why I picked it. Okay. So Gbb us comes from the Latin word Gibb us, uh, meaning hump. Or Humpbacked and it was adopted in a middle English in the 14th century to describe anything rounded, convex or protuberant protuberant people, they use it for when you explain the moon for some reason. So like you'd say, when the moon is more than half full, but not totally full, you'd call that a gibbous moon. Don't ask me why is it not a gibbes camel. Yeah, you could use it for Campbell. Okay. Absolutely. You could. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would argue one could use it for a pregnant woman. Oh, perhaps. Okay. Yes. Uh, a synonym of gibbes could be bulging or swelling. So, so now you're gonna call when you see somebody who has a round belly look at that gibbes person. I mean, I might say that. Yeah. I might be like, wow, dude, she's pretty Gibbs. Why is it a she? Why couldn't it be a He's pretty gibbous. Well, because he's not pregnant. Well, I said, do we wanna get into that whole thing? Well said. You said pregnant. I just had somebody with a big belly. Oh, no, no. Who? You kidding? I'm the first person to say I'm Gibbes. I thought we were talking pregnant. I apologize dude. Totally. No, I'm Gibb us number one over here. Alright, Gibbs, can I call you Gibby? Gibby? I'm call you Gibby. Call me Gibby for short. That's my new name. I like that. Oh, we're gonna move on from these big round moons and pregnant ladies. I'm about to give you my big round moon's. What's about to happen to go like the Gibb, US round tables of the un. If we weren't recording this on video, can I use, give this for a table? You could you shoot it for anything? Here's the beauty of our words of the day. We can use it forever, the hell we want. All right. Okay. So that's it. Anything that's bulbous or swollen Okay. Is gonna be give us, give us, all right. Let's talk about the Gibb US table of the un, then. Okay, let's do it. Ready? Ready. History. But you know how I do this, right? So, because if we're gonna do this, if we're gonna go back, right? We can't just start with the un. Oh, you, you can't start with the un No, I gotta started go before that. Right? Because there's all these prequels and all these things that exist before. Well, I guess it would be the reason why the UN was created. Do you remember the whole, what was it? The US democracy we did and how that was created. And then we went all the way back in time to like BC to come up with yeah, you went real far on that one. All right, here we go. I'm not gonna go that far. Deep dive. Go gibe. All right. So they had to pilot a bunch of shit first and like.. Figure out a whole rough draft, not to like blow themselves up or anything. So the first main one actually goes back all the way to 1815. Wait, full disclosure here, I'm not saying all these are actually connected. What I'm saying is one sort of informed the other, what we're gonna talk about here coming up. It's not like, okay, one specific thing led to the next specific thing, led to the next specific thing led to the un. Sure. Okay. It's just sort of like, oh, they had this thing and it didn't work, so let's do something better. Okay. Okay. So it's 1815, Napoleon. You remember Napoleon? Yeah. Trying to take over the world. Yes. Right. Little short dude. Little man. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He got his ass kicked. Uh, so a bunch of countries get together and start something called the concert of Europe. I dunno if you remember that. We have Napoleon to think for driving on. The right side, the road, you've, you've explained this before. Okay. On a podcast. Thank you very much. So I know you're saying that like, oh, I do not wanna be around you world. We are now like, I'm gonna hear all your stories over and over, but like you're saying that kill me. You know, a bunch of countries didn't like him, but No, they didn't. I mean that's right. Okay. We have to thank for one thing. Okay. Okay, that's fine. So now we have something called the concert of Europe, where a bunch of people got together, like all the big monarchies at the time, I don't know, whatever they were called. Monarchies Britain, Austria, Prussia back then Russia and Prussia, Prussia, Russia. They all looked around and they're like, Hey, no, we're not gonna let anybody do this whole world domination thing again. Kind of fuck Napoleon. Okay. Okay. That was the plan. So then what'd they do? Started the United Nations? No, they started, I'm just kidding. You are. 'cause you're trying to move me a long way too fast. Okay. They started the concert of Europe and the best way to explain this was like, let's call it a gentleman's agreement, which is basically code for let's meet up and drink some whiskey and try to fix all our problems together before we decide to go to war. Before we go to war. And to be honest, it kind of worked. I mean, Europe still had a lot of shit that happened in the 18 hundreds, but no real full blown war or anything until World War I. So like it kind of worked for a hundred years, kind of a big deal. So you're getting everyone in a room to talk about their problems, get drunk before Blowing things up loosely. Right. Okay. Okay. I mean, there was still wars and stuff, not just on a big scale. So the problem was there wasn't teeth behind it, like not real enforcement. If somebody didn't like the vibe, they just sort of M empty reps? Yes. Okay. They sort of ignored it. Okay. So concert Of Europe. Yes. Good. Okay. And then that ultimately led to World War I because who are we getting? Somebody else decided they wanted to take over the world. So you had Napoleon in the 18 hundreds. This time you had Kaiser Wilhelm the second in the 19 hundreds. Trying to take over the world. So, yep, that whole thing starts again. Here we go. World War I, boom, boom, boom. Uh, everybody gets together again. Beats their shit outta Kaiser Wilhelm. And what they call, all the central powers, which was basically the same thing as like the access powers all the bad guys, okay? In World War I, they, they were called the Central Powers. Just different countries except Germany. Germany was of course, always bad, but I mean, I don't mean bad. I shouldn't say that. Germany was always not on the same side as us. How's that? Okay, hence World War ii. Yes. Hence World War ii. Okay. So after World War I ends, Woodrow Wilson was like, all right, people, we really need to get our shit together this time. No more of this concert Europe crap, or this permanent court of arbitration. That was something they tried in between, we just didn't talk about. For a very small period of time, they were buckling down. They were gonna buckle, there was gonna be buckling. Okay. Right. Over their just like buckling down mean to like bunker down. They were gonna get serious hunker down. You mean they were gonna get serious, right. They had down, they had a really hunker down gibb us belly. They were gonna buckle, they were gonna buckle that shit down. Okay. Okay. Okay. So this is where the League of Nations comes in. Do you remember the League of Nations or no? No, no. It sounds like a superhero group name though. It kind of, right. Okay. Okay. So. If we're calling balls and strikes here, I think the idea of the League of Nations was pretty solid, not gonna lie. They wanted to create this permanent body where countries are required to talk things out instead of fighting. Okay. Except there was one problem. Wanna guess someone Didn't agree. Woodrow Wilson. Oh, the president of the United States decided he wasn't gonna join. He started it. He did? Okay. Mm-hmm. What did he not like? Yeah, right. That's what I was like, total dick move, whatever. Well, it wasn't really him. Oh. It was really the senate. Okay. He wanted to join the Senate, didn't wanna join. Listen, why did the Senate not wanna join? So he comes back to America after negotiating the whole Treaty of Versailles. Okay, that's World War I stuff, which included the League of Nations like building the whole thing. and all the United States voted against it because they were worried it would drag America into all the foreign wars by default. Like, 'cause they were now in this league of nation. They had to join the wars and it would take away Congress's power to declare war. 'cause they'd automatically have to get involved. I, that's a fair point, right? So kind of like we were required to defend our allies at any expense without voting on it. So Ugg that and since we're just an ocean away, uh, it just didn't feel good to our Senate. So they put the kibosh on the whole thing. They kiboshed. Kibosh. Kibosh, kibosh, Kosh. Kibosh. I say kibosh. It's a kibosh. It's a kibosh. Okay. Whether it's a kibosh or a kibosh, they shit on it and said, no, we're not doing it. Okay. Okay. But it does make sense, right? I mean it does. Okay. I would agree. Like those are our. Laws, those that Right. That's what we wanna follow. All right, so here's the deal. There was, kind of a problem though. So without the us, the League of Nations was like, Hmm, screwed. It's not gonna work. Because the US is the one who Yeah, they didn't have enough horsepower to exist on their own. So like 10 years later when Japan invaded Manchuria. This was pre-World War ii, and then Mussolini invaded Ethiopia. Also pre-World War ii. All the League of Nations could really do was just sort of say like, oh, don't do that. You can't do that, please. Right. In Japan, behave. Yeah. Yep. Japan and Italy were like, yeah, but whatever. But isn't the same today though. Isn't We're doing kinda like a stop on the wrist. We're getting there. Okay. Oh, we are. So gonna get there. You just stepped in it. Sorry. Let's go. No, it's excellent. No, no, no. We're gonna get there. I was doing the same exact thing. I'm like, well, wait a second. What does that mean? Feels like it's the same thing, but I was just doing this two days ago while I was fair researching this whole thing. Okay? So by the time Hitler invades Poland, then in 1939, enough of like all the bad countries had already called the League of Nations bluff basically, and shit started hitting the fan. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I mean like World War II goes off, oh, yep. Here we are. Not serious enough. We're getting close though. Now the consequence, now it's time enter the UN and their big give us belly. Okay. Okay. So. Hitler tries to take over the world. Spoiler alert, we all know he lost. thankful. Um, and if you don't know that, please listen to our D-Day episode to get some history on that subject, but I digress. Okay. So World War II ends. Everyone's like, okay, we gotta get our shit together now once and for all. So this time, instead of Woodrow Wilson, who is it? Roosevelt Roosevelt, thank you very much. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, him Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister of Britain and Joseph Stalin. Okay. Believe it or not, the leader of the Communist Party, like in Russia, Uhhuh, they all get together in a place called Yalta on the Caribbean Peninsula. 'cause like Crim was part of Russia at the time, and they basically start laying the groundwork for the United Nations. Okay. Oh, that. And also dividing up Germany, if you remember at the time after World War ii. Yeah. So. Then after that, like 50 countries all meet up in San Francisco. I didn't know that. In 1945, later that year at something called the United Nations Conference on International Organization and basically have a giant paperwork party and sign all the documents that started what is now known today as Amanda the United Nations Charter. So basically this is like the League of Nations 2.00. It is just with a bunch of upgrades. With a lot of upgrades. Okay. A lot of upgrades. Any teeth. A lot of, there's going two cause like it just feels like two very big different teeth. Okay. Two teeth. Okay. Only two. Two front different teeth okay. One first and foremost. Here we go. Are they say by side teeth or they chompers like a rabbit outta fat? What are they? What, what are they called? They be the incisors. Yeah. Are they, I don't know what they're, okay. Number one, the US joins. Finally. Okay. This time. Yep. Thank you. So that was kind of, you don't have to just be dragged into war. Yeah. Okay. Assuming that's one of the things that should have been enough, we joined. Okay. Okay. And then secondly, they gave the biggest powers, the United States, Soviet Union, Britain, France, and China. Okay. Permanent seats on what's called the UN Security Council. The part of the UN that deals with like war and global security and stuff. That way if one of those five disagreed with something, they could just veto it and it wouldn't pass or go through like. Ever at all. So instead of just leaving, if they didn't get their way, those five countries had a reason to stick around in League of Nations. They didn't. They just got up and left the table and never came back. Here. They get to stay because they have veto power. So all five of those big guys have to agree. If they don't, nothing moves along. So when does anyone ever agree? Because I feel like just the Soviet Union, China and us would just consistently not agree. Um. They don't always agree. You are absolutely right. but It like made it more sticky. So basically the world superpowers got together so they can boss around everyone else and the five top ones will stay forever because they get veto powers. Yeah, pretty much. and tough shit. 'cause it works. Yes, absolutely. I mean, think about it, in the last 80 years, I know we've had wars and conflicts and stuff and it's not perfect, but we haven't had World War ii. If the goal was to not have World War iii, let's be honest, it's working. I mean, I guess there's that. Yeah, there is though. I feel like we're just on the brink of it, but that's fine. So I get the whole idea. But now I think you have to give us like the details, like how does it all actually work? Um, especially apparently you don't think it works so well. It's not that I don't think I it works. I got all, just so you know. I got it all loaded. I'm ready. You know what I mean? We're gonna get to, we're gonna get to why it doesn't work, I promise you. Okay. I just feel like, but what's your question? Go the five big guys. Just whatever they want session with the five big guys. Yes, they do do whatever they want. We're, I know we're one of them. Yes. I don't understand how it ever works. Plays. All right. Here's how it all works plays because there's two separate, it's, it's like the House of Representatives in the Senate in the United States. Bear with me. Here we go. Good question. Which is currently, this is legit not working, working Well, I, it's all perspective. I'm with you. I understand that. Understand, and I get it. Checks and balance, right? So I'm not saying that it's not Yes. A good like position or the way that it was built. I'm just a little bit confused about how. To get anything done. Yeah, well 'cause you know, they're all just big. Give us men sitting in a room together probably okay. Alright. So basically, uh, they built a UN around two main bodies. So the first one was called the general assembly. The General Assembly is a place where every country that's part of the UN gets one seat and one vote. Okay. Doesn't matter the size of the country. Super simple. Okay. Country one seat, one vote. Yep. Right. So the United States and Luxembourg all have the same vote. In the ga. In the ga. Great. Let's go, Yes. That's the whole point. Everything's fair. Okay, got it. But then you said something about like a UN security council that had like the five Yes, yes, yes. Yeah. Okay. You have the other body, you're right, called the UN Security Council. That's where all the real power is, like you were saying. That's the part they built to not have any like. Hitler ish situation. Go on again. So it's 15 countries in total, and five of those are the same all the time. They never change, like we said earlier, US, uk, France, Russia, China, and then the other 10 rotate every two years. So there's 15 votes. Okay, got it. Got it. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So it's not the five, well the five have immediate veto power. Yes. But no one, none of the other 10 get veto power. Correct. They do not. Right. Technically, you could have. 14 countries vote on something and if one of the five main guys say, no, it doesn't pass, that's like bullshit. But if, but if you had 14 countries vote on something and all five of them, the big guys did say it passed, then it would pass. You don't need the 15 vote. But you could have just one person, one of those five. One country could say no one. One of it's the way to keep them coming back. I understand the purpose of the five, right? It just. Seems you're not, you're like a big power stick. That's all I'm saying. You, you are right. And that is the problem everybody has with it. Now you're right. Shit grinds to a halt. And I know you don't wanna believe me because from the beginning of this episode, you've already been knocking it. You haven't even, like, you don't even know all about the UN yet. But it does some good stuff. It really does. I don't disbelieve that it does good stuff. I know that they do some good, but I think you're gonna have to gimme some examples because I'm very stuck on this, uh, beetle power. Yeah. So was I. Okay. But then chat, GPT went to work and I was like, unlocked. Light bulb, right? Unlocked all this wonderful stuff. Okay. Okay, so let's start with the fact that the UN feeds millions of people every year through something called the World Food Program or the OPT Fund Right now. Right now, Amanda, as we speak, they're giving food and shelter to refugees in the West Bank, Gaza and Jerusalem, to the tune of millions of people. Not a small number. Not a small number. Mm-hmm. I do have a question, though. Yes. Who pays for all that? We do. Everybody does. So every country Yeah. Pays into the UN Food Bank. Yes. At the appropriate percentages. Oh, I have no idea. That's way too sophisticated. Sophisticated. You should look that up. No, seriously. I wanna know. Well, I, I only asked that question 'cause again, it was like a news. That's a good news article. That that is an was out there. Right. Excellent question. I'm gonna keep talking about other stuff they do. You listen with one ear while you're looking up. Who pays for all this specifically The World Food Program. Let's look that one up. Okay. Um, they also coordinate. All the big disaster relief efforts. You might as well look that one up too, when there's like an earthquake or a tsunami or hurricanes, like somewhere in the world. They just did that. If you remember, for the people in Afghanistan, like a month ago, I think it was like on September 1st, there was a 6.0 earthquake in the Kunar province out in eastern Afghanistan. They helped over 400,000 people affected by that earthquake immediately. Like immediately they did. Again, I have no idea who's paying for that. Look that up. And then they have unicef. Do you know unicef? The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. Uhhuh? Yep. Okay. Keeps millions of kids in school all over the world and gives them milk. 'Cause Margaret Thatcher denied them milk for so long. Who are we kidding? okay, I looked it up. Do you wanna guess how many children UNICEF is helping like right now in 2025? In 2025, 10 million, 10, 109. Wow. Million children in the world, UNICEF is supporting. That's a lot, isn't it? Ridiculous. That's amazing. Yeah. Okay. What do you got? Did you look this up? I did. What? So just for the food program alone? Yeah. The us uh, donates or contributes? It's all based off a donation. No one's required, but the us Oh, so it's not based off whatever, what we call, what's it called? GDP. GDP. Gross Domestic Product. That sounds right. Maybe, yeah. Yeah. It's not based off that, it's all donations. Yes. Okay. I mean, maybe it's partly GDP, but I mean, I'm sure that plays a factor. It, because it's Margaret Thatcher with the poll tax, where she just like made everybody give the same amount. Yep. Okay. So United States is about 7.2 billion. Holy shit. Okay. Germany is about 1.5 billion, but, but, but that's coming through our taxpayer money. Uhhuh, they're, they're offering it up, correct? Yeah. Okay. Alright, so we pay, uh, the EU is about 1.2 and then it drops off, wait to Canada's 600 million, wait second, Japan, 500000002nd, 402nd. If that goes to the UN and it's going to help all these people, shouldn't I get a tax write off? Mm, you would think so. As a donation, right? Right. Yeah. I what now? I got more question. What's happening? This is bs. Okay. Wait, can I keep going on good stuff so I don't Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Because otherwise I'm gonna get very angry. Yeah. We need, we, we can't go down that aisle. I need to start drinking. Okay. They also help with climate change, right? Like is that the whole Greta Thornberg thing? It is. That's what she does, right? She's got arrested again for I think, trying to get food into Gaza, but continue because she's a good person. Good for her. Alright, back to climate change. What are we kidding? like, So the UN's actually the one helping the countries either broker deals with each other or just help countries build their own program. And fun fact, they actually just finished one this year coming into effect in 2026. It's called the agreement on the conservation of sustainable use of marine Biological Diversity. Say that, that was really long, right? Oh my God. I don't even know what just happened there. I feel like Will Ferrell and old school. Okay. In normal person language, it's a global treaty designed to protect the parts of the ocean that don't belong to anybody like one specific country. Okay. So this is also the space international stuff that like China's trying to fight over, right? Yeah. Yeah. And we're like, and we're like making sure it's like biodiverse and all, all sorts of, of shit. Okay. And then they have who? You know who The World Health Organization? Yeah. The one who came out during the pandemic Uhhuh? Yeah. Oh wow. Okay. They also do a bunch of amazing work, I would argue. About like responding to pandemics even though you don't think they did Oh, they responded and what I just. Okay. Whole thing there. Can we, can we, like, we don't talk about pandemics, move on. Un Wow. I'm gonna argue the, who's still a good thing? Okay. Um, then they, they support militarily. Okay. Guys with blue helmets. Do we know the blue helmets, the peacekeepers? I don't. Have you heard of these guys? No. Okay. Uh, you've seen 'em on tv. You have whatever they, the batons from Uh, yeah, the French witches from potters. We'll just, yes, that's exactly what we'll call them. Oh my god. Kidding. You're hysterical. Kidding. But the fact that you referenced a movie quote, it's, it makes my heart full. You know what it does, it makes my heart gibb us. Oh, it makes it so bulbus. Yeah, bulbus and plump. Okay. So these, peacekeepers, they're not like, soldiers or anything, but they've gone into Namibia, they've gone into Sierra Leone. They just recently went into Liberia and they're helping with the violence there and providing support to the incoming government in all these countries. So while they're not like super, soldier people, they're there to offer a lot of strategic support. And then I save the best for last, like I'm rattling off are a bunch of shit here. They're doing good. Even though you didn't even like the whole, you know, world Health Organization piece. Even if we take that one out. All right. It's not that I don't like the who last one. Are you ready for this? I'm just still, you know, having Who doesn't love the Who I love the who. My Pandemic Teenage Wasteland, um, trauma comes, Tommy comes, just, comes probably one of the best albums ever. Okay. Sorry. Your trauma. I listen to you with trauma. All right. You ready for this last one? I'm ready. Human rights. You remember the Beijing declaration? Yes. On women's rights? Yeah. The UN did the same thing for like all of humanness. They developed and promoted something called the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted in 1948, only a few years after the whole UN was formed. 'cause that was like what, 1945. It still applies today. It's basically 30 articles, spelling out the basic freedoms and protections for every human being on earth and what they should have, like no matter their country culture, government. And it's still the foundation for most modern human rights laws today, food today. So, I mean, it's a big deal. They do real stuff. It's not just war stuff. 'cause everybody doesn't agree all the time. I get it. But the other stuff is good stuff, like really good stuff. Okay. But also I would argue, which you're not arguing is because we haven't had World War II yet. I think it's still working even with the hard stuff. Fair. I mean, I would say that generally very awesome. Really helpful on a lot of things though I may not agree how the money is spent or donated, but I do still feel kind like they're all barking. No bite. 'cause no one can ever really like pretty much in a nutshell agree. You okay, so, okay, but here's what I'm arguing. Pretty messy is better than chaos. That's what I'm arguing. Okay, sure. That's it. Listen, the UN's not gonna stop every war, but it's just gonna make the world run smoother behind the scenes and nobody wants to admit that or give them credit for shit. Okay? Like it's bullshit. Here's the thing, when you think about it, go back to the beginning when we were talking about, we looked it up, it's the only place where, what? 195 countries still come together all the time, sit down and talk about shit. Even if they're not fixing the shit, they're at least talking about the shit. Where else? If they didn't have it, what else would they do? Fair. It is fair that everyone come together as I feel like winning you over a little bit. I mean, a little bit. Yes. All right. But let's test this out. Okay. What? We're gonna do a test in like real time. Let's go. Let's test. Okay. Test this out. What are we doing today? Mm-hmm. Go ahead and give one example of how the UN is actually working right now. You're melting our brain as, I mean, we see it all in the headlines and it's very predominant in our culture where, you know, we talk about the UN and it left or right. It swings both ways. Right? But like in the last month, oh, it swings both ways. What is. Real stuff. Like what is one thing that is happening? This is not fair. You're putting me on the spot. That's realistic. No, no, but that's realistic. What the hell do I know about this right now? Mean? You just did all of this research. You know, I have to look this up right now. I mean, you're sort of sophisticated, so you should know I'm gonna cheat. Can I cheat? Okay. But it can't be like Gaza and it can't be like, not that that's not happening, but I feel like those have been in the, like the headlines, they're already in the headlines. They won't count. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So something else, find the headline, something that we wouldn't know. I love Chap T. I already found something. Alright, here we go. Okay, so Haiti. Just last month the UN Security Council approved a new gang suppression hole thing. So I dunno if you know, but gangs have basically taken over Port-au-Prince Haiti's largest city. Yes, I know. And people can't get any food or medicine there. So the UN literally just authorized 5,000 troops and police to help the Haitian government get rid of all the gangs. Real shit. Just a month ago. Look it up. They are not fucking around. Okay. So they're kind of like the blue helmet guys then. Because they're supposed to be like peace. No, they did not. No, not the blue helmet guys. No. Check this out. So actually Kenya, the country of Kenya volunteered to send in its troops and the UN is supporting them. Okay. Okay. So it's real soldiers fighting these gangs. Like no bullshit. I just looked this up, but did it work? It's, it's in the middle of working. It's happening right now. It's real time. I don't know, time's gonna tell if it's working or not. Okay. Fair. I asked for a real life example. It counts. So that's legit. It counts. Okay. It counts. It counts. So in all fairness, like I support that, right? Having you should the funds and ability to, and let's go Kenya support, right? Governments against uprisings, right? Or in this case, gangs. But there has to be something like a train wreck that's not working right now. Something that we're just like. Spilling money. Hemorrhaging, hemorrhaging. Hemorrhaging is a good word, Yeah. Syria in the Middle East. Okay. Okay. So a lot of people really don't know or care about everything going on in the Middle East because it's been dwarfed by Israel Palestine. And you said, I can't talk about Israel Palestine, but here we are. We're not going to, we're gonna talk about Syria instead. 'cause they've been in a civil war for the last 10 years. Um. No, actually it was like 2011, more like 15 years almost now. Okay. And millions of Syrians have been displaced in their own country. Or refugees now in other countries, and they're depending on help and humanitarian aid, but the only way the UN can legally deliver any help is if the security council agrees. Security council. The five guys. Mm, five guys. I think that's, they should they, you know what they should rename it. The five guys, they should rename it. Five guys, right? But this is again the problem. An example. My okay here it's you asked for one, it's real time right now. Russia and China, they keep vetoing everything. So nothing's getting done and the UN is totally deadlocked and it sucks and people are literally starving to death. Then why don't we get more headline? That's why Credit Berg's in jail. But why then in our headlines, does it not get explicitly said that Russia and China are vetoing humanitarian aid? I think it does get said. I don't know. What are we supposed to do about it? But like, they have their reasons why it sucks. Yeah. They're on the other side. Which again, I feel like deadlocks and blocks a lot of the good the UN could be doing. Like, it just, it seems like a conundrum. That's all I'm saying. You, you, you have children and this is what I would tell my children in this circumstance. All right. Offer me another solution. Offer me another solution. So I, I get it. I completely agree with you. Like I'm not talking shit. Everything you're saying is totally right. It makes perfect sense. I'm just as pissed as you are. But at the end of the day, what is the next step? What is the next solution? If you're trying to avoid World War iii, you wanna bring people to the table all the time. Maybe we have to talk more often. Maybe they're like, you can't leave the room until like, I don't know what it is, but my point being just, we gotta offer up something else then, because bitching about it are just saying our side's. Right? They have their own interests. They're not our interests. Dude, I don't agree with any of this shit. I'm just so interesting. What? It's so interesting. It's just, it's big. You just get mad at me that I I talk like this, don't you? No, no, no. It's just a conundrum. It's, and I don't think there's a, a simple solution or a way to, to fix it. There's not, or would've we would've solved it already. Right. And so, you know what the, you know how to fix it. God. Well, fair God. God fixes everything. If we could all just understand that Yeah. Right. Okay. Well, before we go down that deep, dark rabbit hole of things we wish we could or did or better. Right. Uh, X, Y, z, um, fun facts. Oh, alright. Zipping of fun facts already. I think so. I have so much more to talk about though. No, you don't. Wait and we kind of, we bubbled up like what the UN is, what it does, what the problems are with it, who's involved in it. I mean, you haven't even asked me if we think the UN's gonna exist in a hundred years from now. Okay. Peter, do you think the UN's gonna exist? I have no idea it's gonna exist in a hundred years. Now. I'm gonna go, is Trump in office? I am gonna go out on a limb and say yes, it will still exist. Okay. I will never know you. Nope. You won't know either. I don't even think your children will know. Maybe not. No. No. Yeah, they will not. Maybe they will not. It's been 80 years. I'll tell you what, let's look this up in 20 years when we're still doing this podcast to see if goes it made it to it hundredth anniversary. Let's go. Since we're on its 80th anniversary right now, put it on the calendar. Can we we'll go. Fun facts. Lemme get my cheat sheet out. Go. All right. Number one, the UN actually has its own passport and its own post office. Really? How do get that? Yes. So technically, if you work for the un, you can get a un issued travel document, and yes, you can mail a postcard from UN headquarters in New York with an official UN stamp. Okay. Yeah. Hmm. I think it's kind of cool. Uh, it's a little culty. Yeah. Maybe a little, maybe a little pompous. We're, we're our own country, like Right. A little po little pompous asses. I dunno how I feel about that. It's like Vatican doing their own thing. Right. Right. That's why they're kind of like a pseudo country. Yeah. Whatever. But anyways, who cares? Not pseudo, but you know what I mean? They're, they're one of the non-member whatever, whatever, who don't let women vote. Okay. Uh, number two, Eleanor Roosevelt, like First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. Okay. Wife of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, was the person who actually chaired the committee that wrote that Universal Declaration of Human Rights we were talking about earlier. And it wasn't like a bullshit job either. Right. She had to basically bully leaders from all over the world and strong arm them into agreeing on those 30 fundamental rights every human should have. She was the one behind it all in 1948. Wow. Like go Eleanor, right? Yeah. That's like serious heavy lifting. I mean, she did a lot of stuff. Yeah, she was a badass. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Number three. Even though the UN headquarters is in New York, it technically isn't US land. How do you like that one? It's international territory. So technically when you're inside the UN you're not standing on American soil. But isn't that technically any like, okay, fine. Embassy or, I still get a cool, fun fact. You are prep. Okay. Fair. As soon as you walk outside. Cut the shit though. You're back in the US baby. Right? It's happening. Okay. And finally, did you know that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that we've been talking about this whole time is considered to be the most translated document in the entire world? More than the Bible, huh? I know. I freaked out. I did the same thing. I was like, wait a second, I gotta look this up. So I did. It's been translated in over 500 different languages. I didn't even know there were 500 different languages in the world. That's insane. It's impressive, man. I thought so, But I guess if it's something that's so important as basic human rights mm-hmm. It's a big deal. Yeah. It's a separation of church and state when you think about it. Right? Yeah, that's true. 'cause uh, a lot of countries aren't Christian. It's true. Right? Yeah. Fair. For fair. That's all. That's all I had. I only had four. It was good. We got passports, international land in New York, uh, Eleanor Roosevelt being the total badass as she was, and the un somehow beats the Bible in a number of translations. So do we know if Eleanor Roosevelt was Gibb us or no? I don't know. Me neither. We'd have to look her up. Alright, until next time. I think that's enough trivia bombs for one episode. I think so. I think it's time. I think you're right. Okay. Boil it down for us. That way people don't have to read this 500 language declaration in order to sound smart. And maybe you can give us some takeaways, um, takeaway and if you know anything calls to action. Can I do call to action? Sure. And do my little sort of like recap. Great. All right. Here we go. Uh, so if we wanna learn more about the un, I mean, who wouldn't wanna learn more about the un right? Yeah. It's a snooze fest. I hope we made it mildly interesting. Do you think we made it mildly interesting? Yeah. Sort of interesting. Sure. Okay. Yeah. Let's start with a charter itself, so it's free to read online all 111 articles. Uh, I've been reading it every morning in the bathroom for the last month. I'm on article 88. It's really long people. Oh my God. Oh yeah. Um, but I couldn't believe it's actually available. I did look this all up. It's crazy. It's there. Okay. Uh, If you don't wanna do that, try reading The United Nations a very short introduction. By uc, Hanna Hamma, or if you want like a more human side, try Eleanor and Franklin by Joseph Lash. It covers a lot of Eleanor's work on the human rights stuff. Um, or you could watch the UN Last Station before Hell that came out in 2015. Gives like a real window into all the peacekeeping missions documentary. And if you like podcasts 'cause we're podcast people on this show, try either Global Dispatches for Smart Interviews with like diplomats and UN Insiders or Pod Save the World. That's a super famous one. If you want international affairs with some humor mixed in, kind of like what we try to do, but for international stuff only and they're not nearly as funny as we are. And then just remember these key takeaways to sound, well, I guess sort of sophisticated. Number one, the UN was born out of crisis crises. Crises, crises, crises, Christi, all of those things. It was created in 1945, right after World War II to prevent World War iii. The League of Nations had failed and the UN was born as sort of a rebooted version, bigger, tougher, and with the big powers bribed to stay at the table. People. Number two, it totally has a split personality. You have the general assembly, which gives every country a voice. And then you have the security council, which gives the big five strategic countries, the veto power, China, us, uk, France, and Russia. Fair, not really stable, more or less. Me and Amanda don't totally agree on this, but here we are. Number three, the UN gave us the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the committee in 1948, and it's still the most translated document in the world, more languages than the Bible people. Number four, from Namibia to Liberia, un peacekeepers have had real successes. Those blue helmets really do give global help. And beyond the wars, the UN is behind vaccines, sometimes food aid, disaster relief, and climate summits as well. All important for the sake of making our world better and safer. And finally, yes, the UN is flawed, but it's necessary. The UN can be slow and bureaucratic and gridlocked by vetoes. We get it, but it's still the only table where 195 countries sit down, argue and at least try to cooperate in one way or another. And on that note, it's pretty cool. Thank you. All right, and there you have a dear listeners, a hopefully not so intimidating dive into the United Nations from the failures of the League of Nations in 1919 to the signing of the charter in San Francisco in 1945. The UN wasn't just another post-war idea, it was the world's biggest group project, an attempt to keep the peace and make sure we never saw another World War ever again. And if we did our job today, you're leaving a little more curious, a little more confident, and maybe ready to drop a factor or two about vetoes Blue helmets or Eleanor Roosevelt at your next party. Whether you're watching headlines about climate change or peace talks, the big takeaway is this. The UN isn't just history to memorize. It's still happening even though it's flawed, frustrating, but it's very much alive and in its own way. It belongs to all of us, and we should care. And as always, if you like this episode, hit subscribe. Leave a review and share it with your smartest friend or your loudest one. 'cause then they'll get the word out. But let's go, Um, until next time, stay curious, stay inspired. And remember, being sophisticated isn't about knowing everything. It's knowing what still matters
