Zimbabwe and the UN

I remember being appalled the first time I saw Hotel Rwanda with my high school’s human rights club my sophomore year. I was amazed by the level of violence and inhumanity displayed by the film. (Granted, much of it was off camera, but the director did a very good job of getting the message across.) I figured that most of the violence was grossly exaggerated and dramatized for the “entertainment value” but the showing of the video was followed by a talk from a local journalist who was there through some of what happened. One of the points he kept touching on was how what was going to happen was so obvious and it just seemed like everyone was turning a blind eye.

Now, a week after watching the documentary in class, I find this on CNN.com:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/africa/04/15/zimbabwe.election/index.html?iref=newssearch

Though I consider myself a Ron Paul Republican and think the US Government should stay far away from such crises, something needs to be done about this! Almost all of the same warning signs are showing, and one of the leaders of the opposition not only hinted that “the party could not control the hungry and frustrated people of Zimbabwe” but outright said that there will be “Rwanda-esque” genocide should the international community stay quiet. Perhaps I’m far off here, but this would be a great opportunity for the United Nations to saddle up and prove that maybe they aren’t the inefficient, ineffectual body that they’ve been pegged as in the past couple years and take a stand on this matter. The United Nation needs to use the sway and manpower it has to get election votes counted, stop the striking, raise literacy and employment rates, and foster talks between the two volatile groups. These are the types of tasks which it was designed for, humanitarian and social aid, easily carried out by a multi-national team of trained individuals with no bloodshed and no further loss or damage. As much as I may disagree with the liberal worldview, I believe that this is the perfect situation for a body created with regards to this theory to thrive, and I’d love to see it do just that, rather than again turn a blind eye and allow tragedy to occur.