Guarding the guardian

I wanted to read a sentence about the U.N. like this: "In a major step forward in addressing worldwide sexual exploitation of children, the United Nations…[did such and such]."

Instead I stumbled across this sentence: "In a major step forward in addressing sexual exploitation and abuse by United Nations personnel,…" ("UN News Centre," December 19,2007)

It reminded me of the scariest thing that happened to me in Mexico in 1971. A uniformed police officer stopped my friend Lenny's van for no reason and quietly --- and with the casual demeanor of a routine act --- shook us down for baksheesh, then sent us on our way. It was scary because in my naivete I had thought of police as corruption-fighters, not corruption personified.

U.N. peacekeepers --- 200,000 people from over 100 countries --- blow into a country to fix other perpetrators' corruption. But according to at least a decade of allegations, these beleaguered host nations often learn the mixed blessing of their savior's presence, and the truth of Amos's proverb:

"It is darkness, and not light, as if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him, or went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall, and a serpent bit him" (5:19).

Gita Sahgal of Amnesty International said it best to the Christian Science Monitor: "Even the guardians have to be guarded."