Victims of Ineptitude: An Insider's Account of Injustice within the World Health Organization Firdu Zawide with Hilary Bassett Further info at www.victimsofineptitude.com Format ISBN Price Paperback (6x9) 9781425974077 $ 14.10 There are many organizations committed to the fight against ill-health, the best known being the World Health Organization, founded in 1948 and funded from the pockets of ordinary people and their governments. Consider the extraordinary battle the WHO waged against smallpox in the 1970’s and won. The latest and probably the toughest challenge so far, is that of AIDS, currently killing millions of people worldwide and leaving behind hords of tiny orphans. The WHO has been one of the leaders in this war which is being waged by its staff of international Civil Servants who take intense personal risks by undertaking heroic action to fight the deadly bacteria and viruses. Those facts and ideas are reflected in this book by a man who travelled for more than two decades in hostile places with scant regard for his own good health and security, in the fight for better health and living conditions among some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people. It comes as a shock therefore to discover that in the writer’s experience, the WHO can be a cold organization which shows little respect for its hardworked staff and considerably wasteful, misspending of its precious public funding to pay for errors and mismanagement. This is a story of human tragedy and massive disillusinment. It will page after page surprise readers of goodwill and reason who will surely find it hard to believe that the administration of such a large outfit with such great responsibility can behave in the way illustrated in the book. This is the saddening picture painted in this book by a long serving and highly placed official who writes movingly from his own experience. The writer and two valued professional colleagues venture to a remote part of Africa on humanitarian WHO mission. The story relates what becomes of them, the callous treatment they and their families receive, the legal lengths the WHO leadership-right to the very top of the Organization –has been prepared to go to evade their responsibilities to their long serving employees. It is a fight for justice which has at the time of writing yet to come to an end.

An investigative report on what happens behind the scenes at the United Nations, this title is the result of several months spent reporting on the UN and interviews with officials and others. In his investigation, the author, a seasoned journalist and reporter, amassed a considerable body of classified information. What he learned should help readers better understand how the UN works. It may also shock them, for, behind the noble ideas of peace, justice and progress, Izambert found a dark reality, one that drove one of his colleagues to comment, "the United Nations represents the ultimate in the violation of the rights of man".

The most recent chilling indictment of Kofi Annan and his complicity in the genocides at Rwanda, Srebrenica and Darfur--why did Madeline Not-So-Bright and Slick Willie make this guy Secretary General? A confirmation of the peter principle as well.

Hilarious--a must get for all those who have experienced first hand the pomposity, arrogance and incompetence of senior UN officials. A photo of the actual shirt can be found in our "Rogues' Gallery.