In Other Words

Far away places

Went over to Banana's sister's house (better known as Fish) and spent out time annoying the kids/being annoyed by the kids and watching movies. Thats become a bit of special treat for us, what with us not even having TV for a couple of months there.

We watched 'Better by the dozen', 'Hotel Rwanda', 'Million Dollar Baby' and half of 'Gold Member' (not in that specific order). Of those movies I would have to advise you all to take the time to watch hotel Rwanda. It discussed the war in Rwanda from a perspective of the actual African people and how they coped with the war. I'm not exactly sure if it is a true story (it doesn't say so anywhere, but it does act like it) but even if it isn't, it is still a good movie that had banana in tears on two occasions.

Not only does it tell about the plight of the people of Rwanda, but it also shows how little the west actually cares about humanitarian missions. They back out to let a million people be slaughtered, refusing to help the people, while elsewhere they raise the humanitarian flag high for a handful of life, because they only have their own interests at heart.

A repetition of that happened last year, where the people of Iraq were liberated from a stable, though not very friendly regime, even while nobody did anything to help the millions of refugees being hunted down and shot in Sudan.

In some cases the humanitarian flag has just become another banner for war mongering and another Causus Beli for those that wish to conquer the lands of their neighbours.

I have to agree with the Americans. The UN has become an ineffective and blunted tool. Not because of the reasons they give, however, but because their funding makes them too vulnerable to blackmail from member countries. How can you be objective when the threat of blackmail hangs over your head all the time?

I bet you can guess who funds the UN the most, right? Thats right, the Americans. Even with the Iraqi war as illegal as it was the UN gave barely a peep. Kofi Annan, the head of the UN and the only one to make clear that he didn't agree, is now being investigated for fraud and a conflict of interest (because of his son's actions). I think the entire UN has a conflict of interests.

But I seem to have drifted off topic a bit here. We had a lot of fun with Fish and Co. and Hotel Rwanda is definitely a movie worth seeing.

posted by Symbol @ 11.4.05