Re: More future history questions

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Beth said:
UN - they didn't think it stood significant chance of being a power in
its
own right while still being dependent on member contributions

[Tomb] This is my most significant and lasting criticism of the UN's
situation. Even if it were not deeply corrupt (which it is), even if it
were not greviously inefficient (which it is), and even if it could draw
scientists and soldiers from countries freely without national rules of
operation or engagement (which it cannot), it cannot fund its operations
except via charity. There are, to me, two clear preconditions for the UN
as
a power bloc:

a) The UN must have sufficient revenue independent of donations which
may
be withheld by members at whim
b) The UN must have the ability to recruit and train military and other
sorts of staff and experts whose loyalties are not mixed or beholden to
other powers before the UN

Both of the above are, at least in some respects, a function of holding
territory [1]. Once you hold territory, you're just like every other
state.
Then you can no longer be the coordinating/negotiating/collective body
that
the UN is.

re Mexico v. Russia:

What I said about Russia is only slightly different than Mexico's
current
condition. Murders all over the place (police, government, judiciary,
innocents, media), a drug trade/organized crime that are running the
show
and are intertwingled with the political structure and government
(executive, legislative and judicial), law enforcement that in large
part
is influenced by money and power, an economy which may be making some
rich
but a lot of the money is going to drug czars or organized crime bosses
or
corrupt politicos (to the extent these can be separated), and generally
there aren't many signs that the attempts by the good people are winning
the day.

Mexico and Russia both suffer from the similar issues for different
reasons. Russia its a mix of drugs, oil, and weapons. Mexico its
probably
mostly drugs. There is so much money in the illicit economy and the
scumbags running that have so deeply inveigled themselves into the
political and governmental structures that rooting them out is an almost
unimagineable task. And nobody from the outside world is going to be
able
to help much.

You can always imagine Mexico pulls itself together, and I sincerely
hope
it does, but I think this one goes under the WAG not particularly
suggested
by current data category.

-- 
Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their
family; but to a solitary and an exile, his friends are everything.* 
*--
Willa Cather (1873 - 1947)Solitudinem fecerunt, pacem appelunt
-- Publius Cornelius Tacitus (from the book Agricola, attributed to a
speech from Calgacus)