Monday, December 06, 2004
UNema time?
At the dawn of the 20th century there were 50 nation-states. Today there are 194.
Given such symbolic growth and change, does the United Nations need a makeover, or perhaps an enema?
A CNS News report seems to indicate as much.
Of 191 UN member nations, 56 are members of the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) and most OIC countries are also part of the 115-member Non-Aligned Movement, which constitutes an automatic majority in the United Nations.
Last week the UN General Assembly (where Brunei's vote, of course, carries identical weight to that of Japan or India or the United States) defeated a resolution condemning human rights violations in Sudan. At the same time, it adopted 9 resolutions condemning Israel.
According to some reports, a million people have been displaced in Darfur, Sudan - women raped, people abducted, their relatives killed, villages burnt and looted, torture carried out by security forces with impunity and with tacit and overt support from the Sudanese government.
Not a single resolution condemning human rights violations has ever been passed against 75 percent of U.N. members, including states like Syria, Saudi Arabia, China and Zimbabwe.
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One of the OIC's leading lights was former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, whose regime jailed Dr. Mahathir's old political opponent - former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim - after he accused the government of rampant cronyism and nepotism.
After Dr. Mohamad's recent retirement as PM, Ibrahim's 6-year-old conviction on charges of "sodomy" was finally quashed by the Malaysian Federal Court and, physically unwell, he was released from prison.
Dr. Mohamed remains defiant."My conscience is clear," the former prime minister said after the court's announcement. "As far as I am concerned, I'm convinced that what I know is right. I still believe he is guilty."
Also since his retirement Australia, who Mohamed aggressively regaled many times during his prime ministership, has started participating again in the ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) summit, of which Malaysia is an integral part, after an absence spanning the entire duration of Mohamed's tenure.
Malaysia's twin towers in Kuala Lumpur are now the world's largest, following the immolation of the World Trade Center in NY after the 9/11 attacks.
Over a number of years several terrorist attacks are believed to have had connections in Malaysia.
Given such symbolic growth and change, does the United Nations need a makeover, or perhaps an enema?
A CNS News report seems to indicate as much.
Of 191 UN member nations, 56 are members of the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) and most OIC countries are also part of the 115-member Non-Aligned Movement, which constitutes an automatic majority in the United Nations.
Last week the UN General Assembly (where Brunei's vote, of course, carries identical weight to that of Japan or India or the United States) defeated a resolution condemning human rights violations in Sudan. At the same time, it adopted 9 resolutions condemning Israel.
According to some reports, a million people have been displaced in Darfur, Sudan - women raped, people abducted, their relatives killed, villages burnt and looted, torture carried out by security forces with impunity and with tacit and overt support from the Sudanese government.
Not a single resolution condemning human rights violations has ever been passed against 75 percent of U.N. members, including states like Syria, Saudi Arabia, China and Zimbabwe.
***********
One of the OIC's leading lights was former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, whose regime jailed Dr. Mahathir's old political opponent - former deputy prime minister, Anwar Ibrahim - after he accused the government of rampant cronyism and nepotism.
After Dr. Mohamad's recent retirement as PM, Ibrahim's 6-year-old conviction on charges of "sodomy" was finally quashed by the Malaysian Federal Court and, physically unwell, he was released from prison.
Dr. Mohamed remains defiant."My conscience is clear," the former prime minister said after the court's announcement. "As far as I am concerned, I'm convinced that what I know is right. I still believe he is guilty."
Also since his retirement Australia, who Mohamed aggressively regaled many times during his prime ministership, has started participating again in the ASEAN (Association of South-East Asian Nations) summit, of which Malaysia is an integral part, after an absence spanning the entire duration of Mohamed's tenure.
Malaysia's twin towers in Kuala Lumpur are now the world's largest, following the immolation of the World Trade Center in NY after the 9/11 attacks.
Over a number of years several terrorist attacks are believed to have had connections in Malaysia.
