Norway High School - Caduceus Yearbook (Norway, ME)

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30 THE CADUCEUS Is the United Nations a success? The United Nations has been organized for only eight years, and that isn't a very long time. Oh, yes, I agree that eight years sounds like a long time, but it is a short time for an organization to settle problems of world peace, to develop friendly terms among all na- tions and to achieve co-operation in the solving of the world's problems. In the eight years that the U. N. has been organized it has done much good, such as sending troops to fight in Korea and WHO IWorld Health Organiza- tionl, which has helped to raise health standards in other parts of the world by sending food, doctors .and nurses to feed people and vaccinate them against the diseases that are prevalent in some of these foreign lands. There is UNESCO. Its duties are reconstruc- tion, education, communication, and cultural changes. Because UNESCO covers a large field of purposes, you can see that this organization must be a strong one. It has done much to maintain world peace. The first line in UNESCO's constitution is Since wars began in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed. This means that if there is world organiza- tion, we can make this a world of peace instead of a world of war. To solve all its problems, the U. N. is broken into six different groups. These are: A General Assembly, a Security Council, a Secretariat, an Economic and Social Council, a Trusteeship Council, an Intemational Court of Justice. Each group has its work to do to try to keep this a free world, free from war and free from dictatorship. Besides these six main groups there are other specialized Agencies. Some of these are the United Nations Educa- tional, Scientific and Cultural Organiza- tion, International Labor Organization, World Health Organization. -Jeannette Blanchard, '57 Suppose you were at a gathering in your community of people from many different nations of the world. Pretend that they all spoke the same language so that you could understand, that they were people of all ages. This is proba- bly what you would hear: Have you ever heard of WHO, an agency in the United Nations organiza- tion? asks an elderly man from a Cen- tral American country. Do you real- ize what they have done to help my people? Why, in Guatemala and Cos- ta Rica they are fighting a war against insects that cause disease. In Costa Rica alone they have cut malaria cases in half by spraying the houses with DDT and by draining the swamps where the dangerous mosquitoes breed. Why, of course we have heard of it. In my country they are now fighting a battle against yaws-a tropical di- sease, replies ,a man from Thailand. A man from Haiti breaks in, What a coincidence, they are doing the same thing in my country. 'Tm a nurse from Thailand, says one young lady. If it weren't for WHO I probably would be in the same boat as I was before. Besides training nurses, they have tried to help improve the hospitals and check disease. It was UNICEF that helped mother and me, spoke a little boy from India. Yes, said his mother, we were very near starvation when that wonder- ful organization came to help us, and to feed us. It helped me, too, said a teen-age girl from the Philippines. When we

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THE CADUCEUS 29 Building. The front of the building is made of glass and marble. Atop its sloping roof is a copper-covered dome. It has seven bronze doors which Canada gave to the U. N. In the lobby is an information desk and book store. Stairways and elevators lead to the huge auditorium where the General Assembly holds its meetings. The hall is seventy-five feet high. The walls have window-like openings. In this room are newspapermen, translators and radio, and T. V. announcers. The auditorium has six hundred thirty-six seats for the delegates and places for eight hundred visitors. Each seat is equipped with a tiny switch- board, and a set of earphones. On the switchboard are tive buttons, one for each of the five languages spoken in the United Nations. The General Assem- bly needs a big room for its meetings. It is the largest of the U. N. divisions. Each of the sixty Nations belonging to the U. N. may send five representatives to the assembly, but the five representa- tives together may cast only one vote. The third building is the Conference Building. With three divisions-the Security Council, the Trusteeship Coun- cil, and the Social and Economic Coun- cil. The building has a garage for 1,- 500 cars, a fire-fighting squad, a print shop, a cafeteria, and a post oflice. The main part of the building is made up of three big rooms-one for each of the councils. The Security Council meets almost every day. Its big job is to keep world peace. Eleven nations belong to the Council. Nationalist China, France, Russia, Britain, and the United States are the permanent members. Six oth- er Nations are elected by the General Assembly to serve for two-year, terms. Present two-year members are Chile, Greece, Pakistan, Columbia, Denmark, and Lebanon. Turkey, Brazil, and -New Zealand took theiplaceof Chile, Greece, and Pakistan this month. Though 'it is small, it is the most powerful groupf- The Trusteeship Council meets twice a year in January and June, to help nations that cannot exist independently. Other nations take a weak country in trusteeship until it can stand on its own feet again. The Economic and Social Council has are elected by and serve for eighteen members who the General Assembly , three-year terms. They workdfor high- and education er standards of living around the world. ' Henry Cabot Lodge, the chief United States delegate, represents our nation in several branches of the U. N. Besides Lodge, nine other people are serving from the .United States in the General Assembly. They' are: Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, Governor James Byrnes, Representatives Frances Bolton, James Richard, Archibald Ca- rey, James Zellerback, Henry Ford, Dr. Charles Mayo, and Mrs. Oswald Lord. More women than ever before are attending this year's U. N. General As- sembly session. The present assembly has thirteen member delegates and thirteen alternates. India's Madame Pandit, the president of the Assembly, is the best known. Another of the women leaders is Mad- ame Paul Bastid of France, head of one of the U. N .'s courts. The largest number of . women come from Cuba, which has sent three. Most of the women have served at U. N. meetings before. Several are lawmakers in their own countries and hold government positions. ' ' -Betty Eaton, '57

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THE CADUCEUS 31 had a typhoon, my house was destroyed and UNICEF workers came to help us rebuild. They took care of us be- fore our homes were built, too. A very little boy from Columbia said, They came where I lived and stuck needles in me so I wouldn't get sick from diphtheria and whooping cough. A worker for the U. N. who had just walked in said, I think you may be in- terested in knowing that the UNICEF has provided vaccinations against tuber- culosis for four million children, that four million children have been protect- ed from malaria, and that three million have been fed. UNICEF is a very good organiza- tion, but so is UNESCO, said a woman from Bolivia. They have helped us, India, the Philippines and Thailand, all in the same way. They are training our teachers, and starting schools and libraries. They have helped us to train teach- ers, too, said a man from Egypt and a girl from Mexico at the same time. That is all well and good, said a man from India, but have they done anything for the farmers as the FAO does? They have been teaching us how to use the modern farm machinery. An Ethiopian man said, There has been an epidemic of cattle disease. Now it is practically over, for the FAO has been helping us to control it. In many parts of Asia they are showing farmers how to grow better rice and the fishermen how to catch larger amounts of fish, said a man from China. To end the discussion a teen-ager who has studied the U. N. says, There are many other agencies in the U. N. who help people in backward or helpless countries such as: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Civil Aviation Organ- ization IICAOJ, the International Trade Organization fITOJ. And then, if I were there I think I would ask you, Is the United Nations a success or a failure? Ask these peo- ple and see what they say. Jean Truman, '57 DESTINATION: UNKNOWN It all started when Mr. X arrived at our naval base on an island in the South Pacitic. Flown in from Russia by one of the fast pursuit planes at the base, no one except Naval Intelligence knew he had arrived. I Hrst saw him in the briefing room at the base, to which we twelve members of the Underwater Demolition Team had been summoned. He was a small man of medium build, about twenty-six years of age, although his small mustache and slightly gray- ing hair made him appear much older. On the desk in front of him was a small black portfolio, and hanging on the wall behind him was a large map which showed a detailed coastal area. Gentlemen, he said, on this map you see a port, shipyard, and the sur- rounding coast. Where this is located and in what country, I am not at liberty to tell you, but, because of its strategic location, this port and the ships inside it must be either badly damaged or completely destroyed. I want tive men who are willing to take a chance on never coming back. I must tell you, though, that this objective is heavily mined and is under constant surveil- lance. This job is too dangerous for me to appoint anyone, so I'm asking for volunteers. For a moment no one moved, then Dave O'Brian, an Irish lad, stood up, I'll go, sir, he said.