Bravo l’Onu. Ma poi mica tanto

Attendevo questo sondaggio da un bel po’ di tempo. Un sondaggio su quello che i musulmani pensano del comportamento delle Nazioni Unite. Il risultato, pubblicato dal World Public Opinion, è di quelli che fanno pensare, perché le risposte hanno varie facce. Da una parte, c’è ancora il riconoscimento (e la riconoscenza) di quello che l’Onu fa a livello umanitario: un lavoro a volte misconosciuto, e senza il quale milioni, decine di milioni, centinaia di milioni di uomini e donne sarebbero ancor più affamati, o ancor più disperati. Detto questo, però, anche l’Onu sta cambiando. Magari non se ne accorge il pubblico meno attento, o l’opinione pubblica occidentale. Ma in quel grande pezzo di mondo in cui l’Onu interviene, il cambiamento è molto più evidente. E il sondaggio condotto in paesi a stragrande maggioranza musulmana lo testimonia.

“At the same time Muslim publics distinguish between a United Nations that they feel in principle should be a dynamic actor, and the existing UN which they tend to perceive as dominated by the United States and as achieving mixed results in its current efforts.
In all but one nation the most common view is that “the US basically controls the UN and can almost always make the UN do what the US wants” as opposed to the view that “through its veto the US can stop the UN from doing things, but the US cannot make the UN do things the US wants.” The view of the UN as controlled by the United States is endorsed by 68 percent of Egyptians, 63 percent of Palestinians, 59 percent of Jordanians, and 53 percent of Turks. In Indonesia, 43 percent agree, while 13 percent say the US can only stop the UN from doing things (44% did not answer). The only exception is Azerbaijan, where a plurality says the United States can stop the UN, but cannot make it do what the US wants (49% to 36%).
Respondents were also asked to assess a variety of UN efforts, rating them on a scale with 0 meaning “not all helpful” and 10 meaning “extremely helpful.” Ratings are generally lukewarm at best.

The lowest ratings are for UN efforts in “working to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” The mean response is 3.7 with the lowest ratings coming from Jordanians (2.5) and Palestinians (2.6). Only Azerbaijanis are above 5 (5.3). Low ratings of UN performance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are highly correlated with the perception that the US controls the UN.