I was watching The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson on Thursday night and he made a comment that I found a little surprising during the show. He was talking about the climate change summit in Copenhagen, and said quite sarcastically that whenever the UN tackles a problem, they succeed.
I remember visiting the United Nations when I was younger and dreaming about being a part of it all. I thought the idea sounded so perfect - maybe a little too perfect. The idea that all 192 countries involved would agree on every little thing and would look out for everyone's best interests was a little naive of me. As the years passed, I learned about the whole Sudan/China oil deal and the ineffectiveness of peacekeepers. But that was pretty much it.
So I googled the United Nations and saw on Wikipedia that there have been accusations of sexual abuse, rape, and the soliciting of prostitutes made against peacekeepers in numerous countries. I was so surprised, and I knew I had to find something more substantial than Wiki. In a fit of confusion, I googled "peacekeepers abuse" and found this essay or book about UN scandals (page 5).
I thought it was ironic and weird timing because I just commented on Mr. Bolos' latest blog post about if there are more males or females in the world. I said there were more males, maybe not numerically, but in Darfur and Congo, rape is used as a weapon of war - to take away social status and respect.
So, I was astonished to find that peacekeepers, of all people, that are being sent to help others are doing exactly what the oppressors are.
Did you know about this? What does it say about overall peacekeeping efforts? What does it say about a reputation that a certain organization (or even its name) holds and how it can cloud one's judgement?
"One article described a fourteen year-old girl
named Yvette who is called the “one-dollar girl” or the kidogo
usharati, “little prostitute,” in her community in Bunia because that is
what she charges U.N. peacekeepers for sex."
I didn't know about this horrific scandals, I thought that the U.N. was a peace-loving, slow moving system that tries to solve problems. Personally, I had already known about the situation in Sudan/China and the rape that occurs every day. I'd like to be optimistic and hope that government officials everywhere have realized that the happenings in Sudan must be stopped and they should take real actions and try to initiate peacekeeping efforts.
ReplyDeleteYour question about reputation reminded me about the whole Tiger Woods incident. I kind of assumed that Tiger would be innocent and acted as a role model just because of his talent and reputation but I was obviously wrong.
Yeah, I completely agree with you. We definitely were looking at how we perceive things should be rather than how they are.
ReplyDeleteLet me connect this post to American Studies more: How do the connotations between something good for the world and something good for a nation differ? Which one do we have more faith in?
What role can America play in fixing this situation while we share 1/192 of the United Nation's power? Is not such shame on the United Nations shame on us?