U.N.Diplomatic in New York

September in New York brings many things: cooler weather, the start of the school year, the football season. It’s also the time of the United Nations General Assembly, which brings diplomats and heads of state from all over the world.

The U.N. General Assembly is a useless exercise in pompous self congratulation that brings few results beyond tying up traffic on the East Side of Manhattan and costing New York taxpayers millions. It brings New York incompetent diplomats we don’t need to listen to their leaders give speeches few will listen to and fewer care about.

Having worked at J.F.K. airport for two years, I can tell you first hand that diplomats are some of the most arrogant and obnoxious people you will ever meet if you’re unlucky enough. Many of them have diplomatic immunity, meaning they can not only get away with serious crimes like murder and assault, but they can park wherever they like and never pay a parking ticket or have their cars towed. They are rude and boorish, and they’re getting worse.

There are countries that owe the city millions in unpaid parking tickets and fines. Mayor Giuliani raised a stink about this a few years ago, but got nowhere with this.

And what has the United Nations really accomplished? The U.N. can only do what its most powerful member nations allow it to do. Can you name anything that the U.N. has done that individual countries could not have done on their own?

If these privileged ambassadors and self-important diplomatic staff would leave their bubble and live life like the rest of us, they would see ordinary people of many different nations getting along in ways they could never figure out.

People from many different nationalities manage to get along and get by in New York City, not because we like each other, but because we’ve got shit to do.

The common struggle to survive in a tough environment creates an unspoken understanding among working people. Your average immigrant in New York would make much better use of free parking than any diplomat, and has a much better work ethic and character too.

If the United Nations wants to remain in New York, the U.N. staff should start abiding by the same rules as the rest of us. Let them surrender their diplomatic immunity, pay their parking tickets and accept the rule of law as it applies to anyone else. It would be the diplomatic thing to do.