A modest proposal for the UN
My recent trip to New York gave me an idea of how we can modernise and make relevant the United Nations for the forthcoming millennium. Clearly the institution plays very little role in preventing wars, or even fostering dialogue between nations. And by and large its large-scale humanitarian programmes are hit & miss.Thus something more modest is required. I suggest it decides whether businesses can refer to things as 'world famous'. It's a worldwide problem, for example there is a sign just by my house which says 'Welcome to the world-famous Portobello Market'. But America appears to have taken it to the extreme, with everything world-famous. For example world-famous cheesecake, or world famous Maine lobster roll. Here there is even a world-famous 'talking bear'.
I expect, like me, you haven't heard of any of these things. But that's not to say no-one has heard of them. So put simply, the UN General Assembly could spend it's days voting on various products that are put up for discussion. If half of the General Assembly had heard of the product, then it can be termed 'World Famous'. You could also have sub-categories such as 'American Famous', or 'European Famous'.
Objections can be dealt with easily. Libertarians could be squared by making it voluntary. Companies who had a 'world-famous' product that didn't have the UN logo next to it would be shunned by the market. The vote could be weighted by population, or income, if it was thought more representative.
posted by Matthew @ 2/04/2005 10:20:00 AM
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