Acts of Journalism (IV)
The Price of Standing By
Among the more ridiculous pronouncements of the far-right is this one (courtesy of www.ukip.org):
“Our forces are not world policemen or international social workers.”
In 1994, 800,000 to 1,071,000 innocent people were slaughtered in an African nation while the West did nothing. No, that’s not true, weapons from France and the UK firm Mil-Tec supplied weapons to those carrying to the massacre. The country was Rwanda, and the massacre has become known as one of the most terrible genocides of the late Twentieth Century.
And now it looks set to happen all over again. Despite continued pleas from aid agencies, news organisations and various human rights groups, the killing in Darfur, Sudan continues. Now, this calculated slaughter of innocents (ridiculously called a “conflict” by some) is spreading to neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic.
The UN is doing little, if anything. True, Kofi Annan has appealed to both sides to stop, and a mission is being contemplated, but while the situation is debated in the UN Security Council or the General Assembly, people are dying.
One would think that the US and UK, two nations who purport to be in favour of intervening in other nations for humanitarian reasons (known as “The Blair Doctrine”), would bypass the UN, as they did in Iraq, and save the people of Darfur. One would be wrong.
The far-right will claim that it’s not our problem. It doesn’t involve British interests and therefore we have no cause to act. However, this is both selfish and negligent. If you see a person being attacked in the street, do you shrug your shoulders and walk on by, ignoring the plight of your fellow man? Or do you step in?
It is extraordinarily callous of the far-right to say that these people do not deserve our help. Back in 1994, the West’s inaction condemned hundreds of thousands of innocent people to death. In saying that we should not help these people, we imply, at best, that we do not care whether or not they live or die, and at worst, that they deserve to die.The Monroe Doctrine of inaction, has no place in the modern world. A world that is interdependent. A world in which human rights exist. If we have the power to stop genocide, then we must act. We cannot pay the price of another Rwanda.
Among the more ridiculous pronouncements of the far-right is this one (courtesy of www.ukip.org):
“Our forces are not world policemen or international social workers.”
In 1994, 800,000 to 1,071,000 innocent people were slaughtered in an African nation while the West did nothing. No, that’s not true, weapons from France and the UK firm Mil-Tec supplied weapons to those carrying to the massacre. The country was Rwanda, and the massacre has become known as one of the most terrible genocides of the late Twentieth Century.
And now it looks set to happen all over again. Despite continued pleas from aid agencies, news organisations and various human rights groups, the killing in Darfur, Sudan continues. Now, this calculated slaughter of innocents (ridiculously called a “conflict” by some) is spreading to neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic.
The UN is doing little, if anything. True, Kofi Annan has appealed to both sides to stop, and a mission is being contemplated, but while the situation is debated in the UN Security Council or the General Assembly, people are dying.
One would think that the US and UK, two nations who purport to be in favour of intervening in other nations for humanitarian reasons (known as “The Blair Doctrine”), would bypass the UN, as they did in Iraq, and save the people of Darfur. One would be wrong.
The far-right will claim that it’s not our problem. It doesn’t involve British interests and therefore we have no cause to act. However, this is both selfish and negligent. If you see a person being attacked in the street, do you shrug your shoulders and walk on by, ignoring the plight of your fellow man? Or do you step in?
It is extraordinarily callous of the far-right to say that these people do not deserve our help. Back in 1994, the West’s inaction condemned hundreds of thousands of innocent people to death. In saying that we should not help these people, we imply, at best, that we do not care whether or not they live or die, and at worst, that they deserve to die.The Monroe Doctrine of inaction, has no place in the modern world. A world that is interdependent. A world in which human rights exist. If we have the power to stop genocide, then we must act. We cannot pay the price of another Rwanda.
posted by CJM | 10:30 PM
1 Comments:
Gah...such a sad state of affairs. :(
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