Mugabe For World Progress?

Now Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media.This week’s item is from the Associated Press May 12, 2007, with a headline:Zimbabwe gets key UN position, the following are excerpts:Zimbabwe won approval on Friday to head a key UN body charged with promoting economic progress, and environmental protection despite protests from the US, European nations and human rights organizations.President Robert Mugabe, an 83-year-old who had ruled Zimbabwe since it gained independence from Britain in 1980, has been criticized by the West and domestic opponents for repression, corruption, acute food shortages and gross economic mismanagement that has driven inflation above 2000%, the highest in the world.Mugabe has acknowledged that police used violent methods against opposition supporters.We're very disappointed in the election of Zimbabwe as chair, said the US representative to the commission Dan Ricenider.We really think it calls into question the credibility of this organization to have a representative from a country that has decimated its agriculture, that used to be the bread basket of Africa, and can’tnow feed itself.Mugabe’s government disrupted the agriculture based economy in 2000, with violent seizures of white owned commercial farms, part of a program to redistribute land to poor blacks.On Friday, the Pan African Parliament, a body of the African union, voted to send a mission to Zimbabwe to investigate alleged human rights abuses relating to the arrest and detention, assault and murder of political activists and members of the media.Jennifer Winsor, executive director of the human rights group, Freedom House, said that it was preposterous for Zimbabwe to lead any UN body.Mugabi’s government clearly has nothing but scorn for the UN’s founding principles of human rights, security and international law.

Tom:

Dave, I wish the UN had principles for common sense.What are these people doing?Pick the worst case scenario, the worst individual.Well, but Dave, wait a minute, maybe we want to build his self esteem.Obviously, if they are as low as this article indicates there’s room for improvement, he’s going to improve the most. This is insane!

Dave:

Tom, it’s not just this, it’s all through the UN.The UN has a Human Rights Commission, they have a Universal Declaration of Human Rights.And if you wanted to read, for example, I think it’s Article 18, or paragraph 18, it’s a long time since I looked at it, and it guarantees all the members of the UN, 191 now, I think, something like that.They guarantee freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, you know.Who signs it?Saudi Arabia, I mean, they all signed it.Now they didn’t all sign every one, but they all signed it, and at that time it was the Soviet Union who signed this.It means nothing, Tom, truth means nothing to the UN, they make these statements, and what’s the point?So now we’ve got another—it’s a key UN body charged with promoting economic progress, and so forth, the worst example, as you said.We were over there a few years ago, and it was really wonderful what was going on, the blacks and the whites were cooperating.We stayed out on a farm or two, and everything was going fine, in fact it was better than South Africa.So what does Mugabe do?He’s got to have a scapegoat—well, it’s those white farmers.Well, actually the white farmers were employing tens of thousands of blacks. Now what happened?They came in and killed the white farmers, and they divvied it up.Well, you’ve lost the productivity, the people that you have given this land to, they don’t know how to farm it, and furthermore, they are all little individuals. Now what have we got?A bunch of little gardens for people, and you’ve destroyed the economy, you’ve destroyed—this was their major export.

Tom:

It was like a bread basket, wasn’t it, Dave?

Dave:

It was.It makes no sense, but the guy has to do something to keep the pot boiling; to show that it’s not his fault and that he’s making some progress for people.So Tom, this is just another instance of demonstrating the insanity of the UN.They don’t care about truth. I’m convinced of that.Look, what is the one—there’s only one nation out of the 191 nations in the UN, unless they’ve added another one recently, 190 of them can be on the Human Rights Commission, one nation is not allowed.I’ll give you three guesses.It’s the only democracy in the Middle East, it’s the only one of these nations that has human rights, where Arabs, for example, can be free, they can vote.In Israel they can be members of the Knesset.Now, you mentioned Sudan earlier, I think, Sudan was just voted in for its third consecutive term on the Human Rights Commission, and they’ve killed about two million blacks in south Sudan.Tom, this is an insane organization, they trample on truth, they care nothing for truth.I’m—well, I’m not going to say it anymore after I say this again—I get angry!

Tom:

Well Dave, we look at so many things that are going on in the world, and all we’re crying out for is, can’t we have a little common sense here, can we have a little bit of critical thinking?Maybe this doesn’t add up, you know, two plus two makes five, you try that a little bit and some people may make some money off of it but for a short term, and somebody is going to lose.

Dave:

A little truth, Tom, is what we need also, truth and honesty, and that comes from the Lord and from His Holy Spirit.

Tom:

Well Dave, this is a good example, you said in the last segment, God makes the rules.If we could go by His rules, if we were willing to go by His rules it would at least demonstrate how this is wicked stuff, how wicked it is.

Dave:

Tom, it has a common denominator with The Secret.The whole motivation behind it is selfishness.Why would I like to be the Secretary General of the UN?I can put some people in there, you know, I can get this and that.And why does this country, why are they for this, why do they want that?It’s all self, Tom, selfish, selfish, selfish.The United Nations is the same thing as The Secret.