No one can convince me that it is the ‘correct’ thing to do---to stone a women to death in Pakistan (While the police stand by and do nothing!) and to sentence a young mother to death, once she has ‘nursed her child for two years, because she married a man from another faith; this is Sudan-----nothing and no one will bring me to the conclusion that such practices belong anywhere. What can we do as individuals or a nation to change such a sad state of affairs? Does our Government remain silent? Does the world community carry on delivering aid to these countries that allow inhumane ‘religious’ practices?
Sure many voices around the world and even within those countries cry out in indignation, but still, there are deaths. Sometimes they are called ‘honour killings,’ and in others an interpretation of a ‘book,’ is put up as justification, with bearded men standing by encouraging the ‘murders, usually of women!
The UN is a toothless organization n if it allows these abhorrent actions to continue. It has it within its power to cut off all humanitarian aid, to withhold all forms of developmental assistance, until there is a change.
‘But, you are hurting those who need the help most, you say! Yes, I agree that in the short term this may be so, but this has been happening, along with the corrupt practices of the leaders of many countries that practice abuse of human rights---it has always been so. BUT---at what point do we draw a line in the sand and say—‘until you bring about change, then you are on your own.’
I have a great deal of difficulty in coming to the above conclusion, given that there will be a continuation of suffering while the UN enters into endless rounds of negation, while the major ‘players’ use the debate to push their own agendas, while rich industrialists and business men compete for contracts, creating yet more tensions.
It feels like we have not gone beyond the early days of the League of Nations and then the UN and its lofty ideals---it seems that nothing has changed. Why is it that human greed and political rivalries always gets in the way of real change; ones that benefit the majority of people and nation states?
Is it that base human behaviours underline all political actions but on a much larger scale than between small groups of individuals? Can we ever transcend this given human trait---to compete, to divide and to take over?
In the meantime the Pakistans and Sudans of this world will continue to ‘murder’ their citizens, sometimes via the political ‘machine’ and at others using a ‘book,’ to justify their actions.
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