<< CHINESE HATE RICE ~ MAIN ~ PHIFTIES PHLAG PHACT PHOOLS PHIL >>
ISSUE NOT IGNORED
“Ignore an issue and it fades,” announces the Sydney Morning Herald’s Alan Ramsey. “Look at Iraq. People are still dying there, every day, Iraqi and American alike. Yet who cares? Not many.”
Look at Ramsey (actual size). He’s still making profound errors, every week, Wednesday and Saturday alike. Yet who cares? Not his editors. Ignore an issue and it fades.
Of course, some observers have been paying a great deal of attention to Iraq. And to the UN’s oil-for-food and food-for-sex scandals, about which Ramsey’s paper hasn’t exactly been screaming. Former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans is among those hopeful of becoming the next UN High Commissioner for Refugees; meanwhile, it’s business as usual for our dovey pals abroad:
The reputation of United Nations peacekeeping missions suffered a humiliating blow yesterday as an internal report identified repeated patterns of sexual abuse and rape perpetrated by soldiers supposed to be restoring the international rule of law.
The highly critical study, published by Jordan’s ambassador to the UN assembly, was endorsed by the organisation’s embattled secretary general, Kofi Annan, who condemned such “abhorrent acts” as a “violation of the fundamental duty of care”.
The embarrassment caused by the misconduct of UN forces in devastated communities around the world - including Haiti, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Cambodia , East Timor and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - has become an increasingly high profile, political problem.
Allegations have recently surfaced that troops sent to police Liberia were regularly having sex with girls aged as young as 12, sometimes in the mission’s administrative buildings.
In the DRC, peacekeepers were said to have offered abandoned orphans small gifts - as little as two eggs from their rations, says the report - for sexual encounters.
More on eggs-for-sex here. No wonder Kofi Annan is depressed.
The UN are pretty particular about what is and isnt acceptable sexual conduct, a minor with sperm around his mouth is deemed to be unacceptable.
The Australian’s New York journo, David Nasan, is wringing his hands over Saint Kofi. The Left’s bedtime soft toy, writes Nasan, is at the mercy of investigator, Paul Volcker,
a humourless character who approaches his task with the same forensic zeal that Ken Starr brought to the Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky investigation .
Only a grim right wing flunkey wouldn’t see the lighter side of taking food from the mouths of hungry children in Iraq.
“Ignore an issue and it fades,� announces the Sydney Morning Herald’s Alan Ramsey. “Look at Iraq. People are still dying there, every day, Iraqi and American alike. Yet who cares? Not many.�
The issue only fades for those opposed to the war because the war is going well. Which is what all reasonable people of good and charitable faith should want. Certainly persons who want a change to democracy and an improvement of the standard and conditions of living for all the people are keeping close vigil on the daily events in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.
And yet those like Ramsey seem, shall we say, depressed about it. They would rather Iraq go up in explosions and mayhem than peace and stability come about.
That is a totally unacceptable position, one without conscience and compassion. May history judge such persons harshly.
Posted by wronwright on 2005 03 25 at 09:46 PM • permalinkBut dammit, Alan just cares so much…
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 03 26 at 01:15 AM • permalinkHm. If we ignored Alan Ramsey, would he fade…?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2005 03 26 at 04:29 PM • permalink
Page 1 of 1 pages
Members:
Login | Register
| Member List
I’d forgotten Kofi is a Nobel Peace Prize recipient. Well, with all these problems in the UN under his watch, Kofi is now in the same class as Wangari Maathai, Yassir Arafat, and Jimmy Carter.
Congratulations, Kofi. This is a heckuva legacy to leave the world.