Condemn the US funding cut to UNESCO

If you've seen any news site in the past 24 hours, you'll know that the members of UNESCO - a major UN organization with responsibility for educational, social and a host of other matters - just voted to admit Palestine as a member. This was a brave move given the US Department of State's petulant threats to eliminate its funds. It's preposterous for the US to be pushing democracy-building in various parts of the world, at least in rhetoric, while it refuses to abide by the democratic process of an institution as important to global culture as UNESCO. The US's economic embargoes have proven to be arbitrary, unhelpful and ultimately harmful to ordinary people, and this type of politically motivated, supposedly ethical embargo looks set to be the same. Yes, the decision to end funding is based on a decades-old law. But that doesn't mean that we shouldn't bombard the State Department with angry phone calls about these hypocritical displays of moral isolationism in the hope, however slim, that the law will eventually be overturned. http://contact-us.state.gov/app/answers/list has a list of phone numbers, and there's also an email message form. Happy bombarding!

Effort involved: all you need is a phone or, if you're Skype-ishly inclined, a computer.


Image from: http://heartsandminds.org/quotes/anger.htm