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29th July, 2005, The Irish Times
The time has come to accept that the UN is not, and
cannot be, the fire brigade of the world,writes John O'Shea
GOAL's chartered airlift to Niger today constitutes a shocking
indictment of the international community's sheer inability to cope
with natural disasters.
Last week, GOAL was busily trying to meet humanitarian requests
in the Congo, northern Uganda, Sri Lanka and Darfur as well as in
many other trouble spots. Our resources were stretched to the outer
limit.
But the appalling indifference and apathy of the international
community towards the plight of four million starving inhabitants
of Niger has caused GOAL to dig deep and effect a meaningful response.
Rank and file people in this country, and indeed throughout the
civilised world, must be showing signs of bewilderment at the tragic
sights of emaciated children from the second poorest nation on earth,
being beamed into their television sets each evening.
Isn't it true that the rock stars got millions to march against
famine recently and that the G8 - the most influential group of
individuals on earth - met to discuss and ultimately decide on aid
to the poorest?
Shouldn't everything be okay now for the most vulnerable populations
in Africa and elsewhere? Sadly, this is not the case.
Reality has kicked in - and for those forced to eke out a precarious
living in Niger, it has kicked with the ferocity of a mule.
Food is at the very core of the Niger nightmare and the body charged
with the responsibility of providing nutrition for the helpless
in Niger - the United Nations - has once again failed to deliver.
Predictably, the UN blames member states for not responding generously
to its requests for cash; the international governments respond
by claiming they have more pressing priorities on their purse.
The reason that the people of Niger will die of starvation in the
coming weeks and months is due wholly to the lack of accountability
on the part of the international community. If they had shown some
integrity, GOAL and other aid agencies wouldn't be desperately trying
to avert another prodigious humanitarian disaster.
Who is actually responsible for the aid effort at the moment? Is
it the UN Security Council, is Kofi Annan or is it every member
state of the Council? The truth is that nobody is willing to take
responsibility; hence we have plenty of activity in the blame game
- aid agencies blaming one another and the UN blaming the international
community, because ultimately, no one is answerable or everyone.
The international community refuses to acknowledge the fact that
we do not have the mechanisms in place to prevent famine, or deal
with it when it happens. Sadly, it may be too late for the stricken
people of Niger but the time has come to accept that the United
Nations is not, and cannot be, the fire brigade of the world. It
is time to take control and deal with this scandalous lack of commitment,
which should have us hanging our heads in shame.
To even a person with the vaguest interest or knowledge of Third
World affairs, it's blatantly obvious that the world lacks a mechanism
to respond adequately to famine situations.
Those of us who have toiled to try to alleviate the suffering of
the poor for the last 28 years are acutely aware of this shocking
gap in the system, but our calls to have it filled have fallen very
much on deaf ears.
Mind-blowing though it is, the international community continues
to ignore the obvious.
What is needed is a rapid-response force that could rush into a
beleaguered area at a moment's notice. A crack unit of doctors,
nurses, engineers and logistical staff, who are able to commence
emergency strategies as soon as a crisis is identified.
Any forethought should also involve the pre-positioning of food
silos in endemic famine countries, for such an eventuality. The
concept of a rapid response force is easily achievable - after all,
haven't we visited the moon on more than one occasion? Let's take
some of the energy and good will we saw at Gleneagles and filter
it away from debt relief and into the right direction - towards
those who are starving to death on barren wastelands - those who
really need our help.
Can we, in heaven's name, set the blame game aside and concentrate
on one single issue - the saving of the lives of those affected
by famine? I refuse to believe that the international community
cannot devise a strategy which can cope with the aftermath of a
drought or locust attack, the root cause of the Niger famine.
Expecting the non-governmental agency sector to provide the panacea
is seriously off the mark and grossly unfair, especially to those
in need. Non-government organisations have a significant role to
play - both in the advocacy area as well as in the practical delivery
of support to the forgotten.
But their very size militates against their being able to reach
all of those who require our help. And every human life is precious.
Selfishness presents itself in curious ways. One would have hoped,
even expected, that a government would have taken unilateral action
and decided to send in thousands of tonnes of food and people to
deliver it to the inaccessible areas. Some would have thought that
France, with strong colonial links to Niger, would have jumped the
queue. Again we were to be disappointed.
Above the deafening silence of the international community we heard
the faint but definite thud of the buck being passed.
It is now pretty clear to this observer that the international
community hasn't yet reached the point where it cares sufficiently
about the lives of black women and children caught up in the famine,
to take the action which can save their lives.
True, they will continue to relieve debt and talk about trade regulations
and might even cut down on the prodigious amount of weaponry which
they sell to the governments of the Third World. But discovering
the courage and the love to rescue millions of children from famine
situations seems as far away now from their thinking as it was on
that day when I stepped off a plane in Cambodia and witnessed some
of the genocidal horror which Pol Pot had wreaked on his population.
John O'Shea is chief executive of GOAL |
