Tuesday,
July 8, 2014
Folks, the latest development is
that the United Nations has agreed to recognize and respect the rights of its
staff members who are gay/homosexual. It is reported that the UN will support
them in every way to live their lives as such, even within the premises of the
UN Headquarters.
Of course, every human being has
the right to determine what is good for him or her and to pursue it in the interest
of self-actualization and fulfillment. But that pursuit should be situated
within the context of that individual cultural and social origin and
preferences. At least, the human being has an origin to defer to. When too much
laxity occurs, a free-for-all situation arises to endanger the collective will
of humanity. That's what I know. Others know other things.
But the truth is that every
society has its own culture by which it is identified wherever it shows up,
regardless of what the individual members of that society may prefer or uphold.
No man is an island, we are often told.
What this position of the UN
means is that the world body has joined individual countries and systems that have
all this while granted gays/homosexuals whatever right they deserve (be it for
marriage or anything else that the traditional conservative notion of
relationships entail in strict compliance with male-female equations).
In effect, the UN has turned itself
into a safe home for gays and homosexuals. The signal is clear: Countries
opposing gays/homosexuals should be warned!!
The UN recognizes the right of
each country to assert its territorial integrity and sovereignty (which
translates into determining what is culturally and socially acceptable). No
imposition of anything by any country on any other country, it may seem to be.
Records show that Britain's David
Cameron and the US' Barack Obama have made attempts to threaten African leaders
opposed to gay/homosexual rights, going to the extent of tying aid to such
issues. Despite such threats, Uganda, Nigeria, the Gambia, and Ghana (in
Africa) have stood their grounds against gays/homosexuals. Other countries have
their own peculiar reasons for not supporting gays/homosexuals to operate
freely in their territorial integrity.
Now that the UN has given its
blessing to gays/homosexuals, a new wind will blow. How will member countries
adamantly opposed to gays/homosexuals fare in the ambit of the UN? Can they still
resist the urge or arm-twisting tactics to allow gays/homosexuals to operate
freely and still remain as members of the UN and rub shoulders with other
member states favouring gays/homosexuals whenever such issues come forth at the
UN?
Or by recognizing
gays/homosexuals in this context, is the UN itself sending a signal to threaten
those countries still opposed to gays/homosexuals and becoming irrelevant to
those countries as it panders to the whims and caprices of those powerful
countries supporting it and manipulating it to do their bidding? Any bias here?
What will be the fate of
countries stringently opposed to gays/homosexuals and depending on the UN for
support? Is the UN eventually reducing itself to a puppet status and,
therefore, losing its global appeal?
Of course, suspicion that the UN
is at the beck and call of the US is not new. It has been on lips since the US
threatened to take action against UNESCO over issues that made the late Libyan
leader (Muammar Gaddafi) advocate that the UN headquarters be relocated from
New York to the Hague in the Netherlands. And the US withdrew financial support
for UNESCO for some time in a clear show of disgust at such moves. History
teaches lessons. Now that the UN has gone this way, it adds more to that stock,
especially as far as human rights are concerned.
Human rights come in various
forms. What is the UN doing to ensure that all rights are respected without
becoming the puppet of stronger powers to undermine the rights of less powerful
countries bent on preserving their cultural values? Is the UN aware of the
right of each member country to do all in its power to defend and preserve its
peculiar cultural values?
Surely, the UN under the South
Korean Ban Ki-Moon is giving the wonder. Under no other UN Secretary-General's
stewardship has the UN faced so much controversy, hypocrisy, abject laziness,
clumsiness, and lousiness in dealing with crises.
The League of Nations that
emerged at the end of World War One served narrow purposes and flopped. So is
it with this United Nations Organization, which in our contemporary times is
teetering and tottering toward irrelevance!!
I have said it several times that
by its inadequacies in contemporary times, the UN has proved that it is
redundant and should be blamed if anything happens to destabilize the world
order and usher the world into another catastrophe.
There are storm centres all over
the world, where life and Nature are threatened or destroyed while the UN
remains reactive or missing in action. Whether in Africa, Eastern Europe or
anywhere else, there is trouble, but the UN isn't in any position to prevent
conflicts or resolve them expeditiously to restore normalcy. Where is all the
talk of conflict resolution that the UN (before the tenure of Ban Ki-Moon)
advocated?
Maybe, the time has come for a
new United Nations Organization, this one having proved that it is partisan in
favour of MIGHT as right and not neutral in world affairs.
I am Michael J.K. Bokor, and I
approve of this message.
·
E-mail:
mjbokor@yahoo.com
·
Join me on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/mjkbokor
No comments:
Post a Comment