The late Dr. V. Ramalingaswami was special advisor to the Executive Director of UNICEF and authored the path-breaking study highlighting the damage to children from lack of iodine in their diet. This is his reaction to UN bureaucracy:
UN Employee Prayer
O Lord, Grant that this day we come to no decision,
Neither run into any kind of responsibility.
But that all our doings may be ordered to establish
New and quite unwarranted posts
For ever and for ever.
Here is another prayer he authored as head of a division in the UN system:
O Thou who seest all things below,
Grant that Thy servants may go slow,
That they may study to comply
With regulations till they die.
Teach us, O Lord, to reverence
Committees more than common sense,
Impress our minds to make a plan
To pass the baby when we can
And when the temper seems to give
Us feelings of initiative,
Or when alone we go too far
Chastise us with a circular.
Mid war and tumult, fire and storms
Oh, strengthen us, we pray, with forms.
Thus will Thy servants ever be
A flock of perfect sheep for Thee.
