Imagine if a multinational company went to one of the world's most impoverished countries and, while saying it was there to help, contaminated the water supplies, unleashing a new disease that killed thousands of people. Hundreds of thousands more develop a hideous sickness, suffering such debilitating loss of liquid their eyes sink into their face, their skin wrinkles, their body shivers uncontrollably. Then there is a cover-up as the firm evades responsibility and, when finally taken to court, it simply refuses to play ball with the legal process.
Such a story sounds like something created in the febrile mind of a Hollywood scriptwriter, which in real life would lead to a huge and justified outcry. But this is precisely what has just happened to the people of Haiti, except with one big difference – it was the United Nations at the centre of events, not a multinational. And there was no furore, just a few murmurings of mild concern.
Yet such behaviour is worse coming from the body that is supposed to serve as the conscience of the world rather than a profit-hungry firm. The UN purports to exist in order to guard human rights, to spread the rule of law, help the poor and defend them from conflict and disease. It has all too often fallen woefully short of these noble ideals, but rarely has it shown such willful contempt for them in its own actions. Full story...
Related posts:
Such a story sounds like something created in the febrile mind of a Hollywood scriptwriter, which in real life would lead to a huge and justified outcry. But this is precisely what has just happened to the people of Haiti, except with one big difference – it was the United Nations at the centre of events, not a multinational. And there was no furore, just a few murmurings of mild concern.
Yet such behaviour is worse coming from the body that is supposed to serve as the conscience of the world rather than a profit-hungry firm. The UN purports to exist in order to guard human rights, to spread the rule of law, help the poor and defend them from conflict and disease. It has all too often fallen woefully short of these noble ideals, but rarely has it shown such willful contempt for them in its own actions. Full story...
Related posts:
- How the UN caused Haiti's cholera crisis but won't be held responsible...
- UN soldiers raping 18-year-old boy in Haiti...
- 51 Indian soldiers accused of rape while peace-keeping in the Congo...
- Pakistan UN peacekeepers jailed for Haiti sex abuse...
- Did Nepal's UN soldiers infect Haiti with cholera?
- Haiti charity scam: relief money never got to the earthquake victims...
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