Africa is in a Catch-22 situation when it concerns the issue of foreign
assistance/help.  Simply put, try as we may, we do not have the resources to
stand on our own two feet on many issues.  We cannot defend ourselves against
internal or external aggressors, natural disasters or economic problems, to
name a few.  The whole purpose of organizations like the Red Cross, OAU, NATO
is to help maintain a sense of normalcy and stability in countries that are
hit with catastrophes like that of Mozambique.  However, this is not always
the case.

Case in point, I watched this documentary called "A Genocide Foretold." And
it detailed a very interesting perspective of the genocide that happened in
Rwanda from two perspectives, that of the UNAMIR (mostly Belgian) peace
keeping forces and the citizens of Rwanda.  The perspective that is most
relevant to this topic is that of the UNAMIR peace keeping force since they
are affiliated with the UN.  Despite their peace keeping objective, once the
Interhamwe killed 10 Belgian peace keeping forces, Belgium promptly withdrew
its forces and, shortly after, UNAMIR followed suit, leaving the hapless
Tutsis at the mercy of blood thirsty murderers.  This, in my opinion, along
with the negligence of UN peace keepers that led to the abduction and
assassination of Patrice Lumumba, are very serious blemishes in the history
of their peace keeping operations.  These are just a few examples out of many
that show a pattern of negligence and protection of self interest on the
West's part when it concerns any kind of assistance to Africa.

The same theory applies to more benign organizations like the Red Cross etc.
It seems as if they are also motivated by the self interests of the powers
that provide the bulk of financial to these organizations. When Tornadoes
devastate large sections of the Midwest, it seems as if there is an immediate
mass mobilization of the Red Cross to the afflicted areas.  However, when a
natural disaster hits Africa, help is usually very slow to arrive as
evidenced by the problems in Mozambique of late and the terrible drought in
Ethiopia.

I guess, the rambling has to stop, and the telling question has to be
addressed: What are we, as a community, supposed to do to redress this
imbalance in the level of priority that international organizations give to
Africa's problems?  Well, my opinion is that this situation has to be
addressed at the highest level the UN.  A dialogue has to be initiated with
the West as to how to redress this situation?  I don't think that, up to this
point, this issue has been raised by any of our leaders.  If so, I have not
heard of such a thing.  Furthermore, in addition to this extreme dependence
on the West for help, our governing bodies, like the OAU, have to anticipate
that situations like this and form peace keeping and "disaster prevention"
bodies much like the Red Cross and UNAMIR.  We need to anticipate such
disasters.

To conclude, it is obvious that we have been shortchanged a lot by these
international bodies, whether it is the UN, IMF or the Red Cross.  In fact,
after the Rwanda situation, my view of Kofi Anan has been soured forever.
But as long as the situation does not change, we will continue to depend on
these organizations for help.

Yus

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------------