What is the UN?

There is the popular expression "unless you've been living in a cave" and its' variant "Unless you've been living under a rock". Each one means that you are ignorant of something that everyone else is aware of.

There are a lot of things that some people do not know about the United Nations. This week, Jay Leno discovered this on his usual Jaywalking segment.

Jay: Where is the U.N. Headquarters?"
Jaywalker: Switzerland.
Jay: How many countries are in the U.N.?
Jaywalker: Eight?

What interests me is not so much how Jay finds these Jaywalkers, but in how he keeps coming up with unexpected questions that reveal their lack of awareness of the world around them.

So the correct answers would be: UN Headquarters are in New York City, and there are currently 192 countries that are members of the United Nations. (Answers that would also have been accepted "1. America and 2. All of them") But actually, there are some sovereign nations that are not part of the U.N., Vatican City, Palestinian territories, and Western Sahara. Also some other "countries" are excluded because they are claimed by a recognized member of the UN. For example China says Taiwan cannot be accepted as a separate country, although it actually is.

Switzerland did not join the United Nations until 2002, when it became the 190th member.

Now here is a quiz to test your further knowledge, and hopefully to promote the cause of world peace through awareness.

1. Who is the Secretary General of the United Nations and is he the AntiChrist?
Ans. Ban Ki-Moon, and no.

2. Does the United Nations have a standing army, navy or air force?
Ans. No. The United Nation relies on member nations to provide peacekeeping soldiers and equipment under their own national command, to help monitor war zones where both parties agree to guarantee safe passage and recognize UN neutrality. When engaged in these operations, the "UN soldiers" wear the internationally recognized blue helmets. These soldiers are generally authorized to use force only for self defence.

3. How does the UN make decisions?
Ans. On peace and security matters, there is a "Security Council" consisting of 15 member states, of which 5 are permanent. The five permanent members are (at the present time) China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States. Each one of the permanent members has a veto, no other members have a veto.

4. Are Israel and Palestine part of the UN?
Ans Yes and no.

5. Is the very existence of the U.N. a sign of the final coming of Jesus?
Ans. No. Although, to be fair, the prophesy was that the land of Palestine was to be parted (partitioned) by all nations before Christ comes (Joel 3:2). This was fulfilled May 15, 1948, when the United Nations divided Palestine between Jew and Arab. So, the longer answer is the UN is not a sign, but the partitioning of Israel was a precondition, according to the prophesy.

6. Did the Bible prophesy the UN?
Ans. No, unless this sounds like the U.N. to you:

Revelations 13: "And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. He had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on his horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority. 3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was astonished and followed the beast. 4 Men worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can make war against him?”

7. Is the UN part of the Axis of Evil?
Ans. No, that would be Iraq, Iran and North Korea. Although they are all members of the UN, they do not really have enough clout to turn the UN to their own evil purposes. I also wonder if Iraq is still part of the axis of evil, since Saddam was executed.

8. Is the UN an enemy of the United States?
Ans. No. The US is a veto-wielding member of the UN, so unless the US abstains from a UN Security Council vote to declare war on America, it would be impossible for the UN to become an enemy of the United States.

9. Does the UN want to take our guns away?
Ans. No. The UN does not try to get involved in internal politics of member states, and the US has a veto anyway. This myth might have been started by the sculpture of the knotted gun barrel outside the Headquarters. The "Knotted Gun" Disarmament sculpture (Non-Violence), was created by Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd and given to the United Nations by the Luxembourg government in 1988. Proving once again that Europeans are tone deaf to the National Rifle Association pro-gun lobby in the USA. The cowboy revolver was a poor choice of a weapon to tie a knot in, a better one would have been the Kalishnikov AK47, but maybe the Russians vetoed that one. Also the Russians supplied some UN "peace" art too, which may also scare some Americans.