A Sane Voice Alone In the Breeze
Three cheers for Dennis McNamara, special UN advisor on internal displacement, for speaking truth. He points the proverbial finger at the G8 for continuing to supply arm to African nations:
From CNN:
“Guns are at the heart of the problem … There is one slogan I would like to suggest for 2006: No Arms Sales to Africa. Zero. Not an embargo, not a sanction, a voluntary cessation of all arms sales to Africa,” McNamara told a news briefing.
“The kids on the streets of Nairobi, Khartoum, Abidjan and Monrovia have guns in their pockets or up their sleeves … We provided the arms. We the West, we the G8,” he added, referring to the Group of Eight industrialized nations.
In a free society, we are free to distribute arms to the underclass for a profit. Never mind the immorality of the deed: If it’s good for an industry, we do it. Then we can look the other way as corporate leaders give thousands to candidate who promote the selling of more weapons to impoverished children. This is capitalism. Folk, and there’s something deeply un-American in the criticism of it. Better we should host giant entertainment blitzes for western audiences, to capitalize on the plight of others, without actually addressing the underlying problem:
“The pop concerts save the kids for a short period of time. They do nothing about the underlying problems,” McNamara said.
“Twenty years after Live Aid, the farms of the Ogaden of Ethiopia are as impoverished and likely to have famine as 20 years ago. Nothing has changed on the ground, in fact it has gotten worse,” he added.
All good intentions aside, the real issue needs saying, and Dennis did just that:
“The rape victims of eastern Congo don’t give a damn about debt relief. They want to know who is raping them, who has provided the guns and can they get HIV tests.”
Kudos, Mr. McNamara: Too bad no one in position of power sill do anything about it.