It’s been a rough week for the United Nations, and I just want to spare a thought for those who have lost family members, friends and colleagues in Afghanistan or the Congo.
In case you missed it, 20 UN staff were killed by a mob in Northern Afghanistan:
Afghan protesters, angered by the burning of a Koran by an obscure U.S. pastor, killed up to 20 U.N. staff in Mazar-i-Sharif on Friday in the worst attack ever on the United Nations in Afghanistan. - Reuters
And on Monday, a UN plane crashed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing over 30 people, all UN staff.
It is a timely reminder that while it is not helpful to see humanitarian work as a sacrifice - the reality is people do risk their lives regularly in an effort to improve the world we live in.
And I sincerely thank them for it.
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"Actually, the biggest problems I saw were innumerable broken promises by UN agencies and NGOs. If you want to give unemployed young men a grievance, try promising them something worth their annual income and then fail to deliver for 12 months. Are UN procurement problems and bureaucracy the greatest enemy of peace in fragile states? I might say so."
— Chris Blattman criticises the UN and NGOs in the threat broken promises play in fragile states.
My regular readers may have noticed I have not been blogging much about climate change lately. It’s definitely time to declare this is not reflective of how I feel about “The biggest moral challenge of our time,” to quote a former Prime Minister ousted partly for his inaction on the issue (ahem, Kevin Rudd).
Climate change is still something I think about on a daily basis. It’s just that my day job at The Wilderness Society gives me plenty of opportunity to explore and research and write about the topic that, after hours, I find myself focusing on the things I get to spend less time on now.
And yes, that was a long-winded way of me saying I’ve momentarily dropped the ball on that one.
But here’s something to redress the balance a bit. I’ve been following the Initiative for Peacebuilding’s analysis of the links between climate change and conflict, and really like this blog post which takes a closer look:
Whether or not you believe climate change is caused by man-made global warming makes little difference; major weather patterns are currently disrupting areas where peace is fragile at best or where war may already be full-blown. Massive death or displacement of people, combined with state fragility, means overwhelmed security services and government systems, and a lot of angry people who feel completely abandoned. The impact is felt the greatest among the poorest and most vulnerable members of society…
- Rebecca Sargent
The whole post is worth reading, so don’t stop at that snippet.
One only needs to consider Haiti, or Pakistan, to see the truth in these words. While we quibble about climate change (is it real? is it man made? do we need a price on carbon pollution? who would pay this price? and my personal fave - who goes first???) - there are countries who right now simply don’t have the luxury of debate.
And still we talk.
The Make Poverty History Summit in Canberra, Australia, has introduced me to two awesome Australians, and in the interests of paying it forward, here’s an introduction for you too.
Jarrod McKenna, Founder of Empowering Peacemakers in Your Community (EPYC) and winner of the Donald Groom Peace Fellowship. One of the best public speakers I’ve seen in a while (which says something at a summit packed full of them) - Jarrod managed to keep a group of very enthusiastic young Australians silent at the end of his speech. He’s a non-violent social activist, and is being talked about in corridors as a ‘young leader to watch.’
Samah Hadid, currently a 2010 Youth Representative at the United Nations (UN), Samah offers an informed voice on things like what women wear (a tip - it’s their business), multiculturalism and social inclusion and she received the Community Relations Commission Young Volunteer of the Year in 2008.
But don’t take my word for it - discover them for yourselves.
