| |
| |
| |
 |
| |
| 23/12/2001 |
| ANOTHER DEATH, ANOTHER MEAL |
ON THE IMPOTENCE OF THE UN
|
| A number of innocent Pakistanis along with citizens from over fifty other nationalities are now interred in a communal grave on the site of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan. To those who will continue to grieve for them, that site will always be hallowed ground. For them, New York’s Ground Zero has become an east coast equivalent of Washington’s Arlington cemetery, a symbol of a sacrifice beyond the call of duty, if only because its victims were never given the time to hear that call. Should tomorrow something else be built by itchy-fingered property developers on that vacant plot of land, there will be no need to sacrifice anything living when its foundation stone is laid: blood has already been shed, human blood, sprinkled and mixed into its soil. |
| The dereliction at Ground Zero appears closer in many ways to that other necropolis in New York – the United Nations. If a cemetery is the final repository of human remains, the United Nations can be described as the graveyard of human hopes, of international norms, and of civilized ideals. If the United Nations once displayed gifts in its corridors and council chambers subscribed by its member states, today these should be removed and in their stead should be placed newer emblems – a tombstone each for the innocent victims of its member states, for the uncounted casualties in the Congo, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Kosovo, Iran, Iraq, Kashmir, Palestine, and now Afghanistan – conflicts that the United Nations was too blasé or too powerless to prevent. As the voice of moral authority in the international community, even the Pope can boast more divisions than the United Nations does. |
| It is ironical therefore that the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan – a diplomat who speaks many languages but is heeded in none – should have been awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. He has received only half a prize; his employers got the other half. Perhaps such a division was intentional. [EXTRACT] |
| Published in DAWN 23 Dec. 2001, and reprinted in WHEN BUSH COMES TO SHOVE & OTHER WRITINGS (2006). |
|
| |
| 23 December 2001 |
| |
| All Articles |
|
|
|
