How much could one piece of paper cost? Feature photo: Foreign & Commonwealth Office; Photo: Bekathwia
The United Nations… it’s a great idea. But the logistics of holding the world together is messy… and expensive.
A few years back, I took a tour of the United Nations.
I stopped by the information desk and noticed a stack of booklets, each stamped with the date. The UN publishes information about its proceedings and resolutions in a daily brief that rivals the page count of many towns’ newspapers. Produced in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish, any official UN document requires the work of many minds and hands.
It also requires a lot of money.
According to an article published in The New York Times a couple weeks ago, “it costs the United Nations an average of
$2,473 per page
to create every single document in its six official languages….”
Outside contractors could produce the same page for what seems like a bargain basement price in comparison: $450.
Obviously, the UN can’t keep its members in the dark about what’s going on with respect to decisions related to peace-keeping, aid, and development missions around the world. The cost of being uninformed is just too high.
But with a single UN committee producing more than 10,000 pages of documents a year, the organization is facing a few tough questions: What information is truly critical, how can it be presented in the most concise way possible, and who needs it?
Is there a solution to this costly form of communication? What are your thoughts about documents costing an eye-popping $2,473 per page? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Community Connection:
In addition to its peace-keeping, aid, and development operations, the UN performs vital functions like designating World Heritage sites, a status which confers protection on important historical sites around the world.
Read about 13 of Asia’s Most Spectacular World Heritage Sites or check out Hal Amen’s round up of Overlooked World Heritage Sites.
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9 Comments... join the discussion!
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Google Translate: It’s Free!
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Yeah, Google Translate :p “good quality”
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For that price, they should just subsidize kindles for UN members. It’d be cheaper and more eco-friendly.
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Hmmm yes to google translate! Seriously get with the 21st century and put it online. No need to spend that much for a single piece of paper. Save the trees!
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@Joel: I don’t have much experience with Google Translate,but I used it recently just because I wanted to check my own translation against Google’s. I was pretty surprised how utterly non-sensical the Google version was. Have you had better luck?
@Abbie: Your suggestion was the first one that came to mind for me, too, but the NYT article suggested that a considerable number of UN members have limited Internet access or tech exposure. Personally, I wondered how true that was– a lot of the representatives are educated abroad and tend to come from the higher socioeconomic strata, so… who knows?
But with all that paper and money, something’s gotta give!↵ -
@Julie
It was more of a tongue-in-cheek comment
My experience with google translate has been hit & miss. From my experience, the words are usually translated correctly, and in simple language Google Translate is allright, but it breaks down in the more complex uses (subjunctive, conditional, etc.)
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Someone should let the good folks at the UN in on the whole internet secret. I’ve heard rumors that it could revolutionize the way we share and create information.
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Surely it’s the translation that cost, not producing it on paper. So even if everything is online, it would still need to be translated by extremely qualified translators.
I used to work for the government and represented my country in various UN-committees and working parties. Getting just 2 countries (let alone 200) to agree on the wording of a document could be a painstaking process. Considering how, say a UN resolution is interpreted (and misinterpreted) in one language, just think – with the translation off by just a nuance, the effects could be enormous.
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