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t
notice of withdrawal , effective the
end of 1985. And in a rather sud–
den .announcement, issued Decem–
ber 28, 1984, the prosperous
Southeast Asían island-nation of
Singapore said it too would with–
draw at the end of 1985, citing the
escalating cost of membership.
Severa! other Westero nations
have announced they are seriously
reviewing their membership status.
Twenty-four nations have de–
manded reforms inside UNESCO.
Their leverage should be consid-
July/ August 1985
erable since eight of these nations
pay a large proportion- 72 per–
cent-of the agency's annual $375
million budget.
UNESCO is the largest of 15
U.N.-specialized agencies. lt began
in 1946 with 28 nations (and a
US$7 mill ion budget) lo share the
Western industrial states' ideas and
know-how with the developing
nations. Reducing world illiteracy
was a major objective. Another task
was the preservation of endangered
cultural landmarks.
Over the years, however,
UNESCO, like the United Nations
itself, has c hanged, especially as it
has added new members. Jt num–
bers 161 (two more than the
United Nations itself) and has
become, say critics, more involved
in the same política! controversies
as the United Nations itself, rather
than in education and culture.
U.S.
to
Leave U.N.?
What is often overlooked in exam–
ining the United Nations today,
especially by critica! Americans, is
that they unwittingly reject what
were, at the inception of the U.N.,
the lofty ideals of its major found–
er, the United States.
For instance, after World War
Ir,
the United States leaned beavily on
its Western world friends such as the
British, the Dutch, the French and
the Portuguesc to give up their
cmpires. The hope- long sincc
dashed- was that the liberated colo–
nies would join their former over–
lords in the common bonds of world
cooperation. lt hasn't entirely
worked out that way.
"Wbat has happened in the
United Nations and UNESCO,"
wrote Will iam Pfaff in the January
2, 1984,
Jnternationaf Hera/d Tri–
bune,
"is thus the d irect result of
things long sought and finally
obtained by the U .S. govern-
ment. ...
"The United Nations and
UNESCO, these world organiza–
tions of nations- one vote for each
nation, universal self-determina–
tion, with every política) entity,
however minuscule, set up as a
proper state having its place in
these world councils-represent
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