The UN is useless
“We the peoples of the United Nations determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war … and to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth … of nations large and small … to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom ... and for these ends ... to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors … and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.”
This is an excerpt from the preamble of the UN Charter.
Following Typhoon Morakot, civilian and government aid, both local and foreign, poured in. The love and care from strangers in different parts of the world were underreported by local media and perhaps by the world. Almost all attention focused on politicians and their half-baked rescue operations, and unsurprisingly so.
The “Taiwan issue” has always centered on politics, never humanitarian issues nor the welfare of its inhabitants. It was reported that Taiwan will not be seeking UN membership in the upcoming UN General Assembly because of a shift in politics.
On the other hand, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has not yet extended any offer to aid the internally displaced persons in the southern parts of the island. [Editor’s note: the UNHCR does not deal with internally displaced persons.]
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), however, has offered to send a team of experts to offer views on reconstruction.
Ironically, neither the UNHCR nor the OCHA Web sites has an article on Morakot relief.
For an organization whose very purpose is to encourage world peace and humanitarian efforts, this is profoundly disgraceful and disturbing. This should allow the world to see how ineffective the UN has become and how irresponsible it is for us to continue to show support for and respect such a hypocritical construct.
In Chapter I, Article 1 of the UN Charter, it states the purposes of the UN are “to maintain international peace and security … the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace,” and “to achieve … in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.”
Article 2 says the members shall “refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or [behave] in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.”
Regardless of the rest of the world’s view on the sovereignty of Taiwan, mankind should at least acknowledge that ethnicity is independent of nationality. Humanity far surpasses the political intrigue generated by men. Thus the very idea that the UN rejects the notion of Taiwan’s sovereignty and the tardiness in disaster relief after Morakot has sent a crystal-clear message.
WU JEN-CHIEH
Hsinchu
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