A Controversial Move at the UN
Normally, I am a rather enthusiastic supporter of the United Nations. (I'm Canadian -- it's genetic.) But sometimes members do, well, such questionable things that it leaves you shaking your head in bewilderment.
The Daily Telegraph reports that the regime of Robert Mugabe, the president of Zimbabwe and one of the world's most controversial leaders, has been nominated by other African nations for the leadership of a UN body charged with "protecting the environment and promoting development." Other countries, including the U.S., have said they will try to block the move, but if the nomination is approved, Francis Nhema, Zimbabwe's environment and tourism minister, will lead the body that is charged with making sure signature nations keep the pledges made at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.
That could be a bit of a problem, because, as the Telegraph reports:
Zimbabwe's economy is collapsing, with inflation of 2,200 per cent - the highest in the world. Households can expect just four hours of electricity a day. This has encouraged deforestation, with large areas being stripped of wood for light and heating. Mr Nhema, 48, benefited from Mr Mugabe's wholesale seizure of white-owned land. The minister, who was educated at Strathclyde University, was handed Nyamanda farm near Karoi, a once thriving enterprise producing tobacco and maize. Most of its 2,500 acres are now lying idle.
Mr Nhema is also in charge of Zimbabwe's national parks, where wildlife has been decimated by poaching.
If Zimbabwe is allowed to assume the post, it's likely that it will take its place in right-wing infamy along with the election of Libya in 2003 as the chair of the former Human Rights Commission or the near-election of Venezuela to the UN Security Council. U.S. conservatives and GOP politicians have long argued that the UN allows authoritarian or dictatorial regimes to head committees for which their political practices at home make them vastly unsuited.
For instance, Ed Morrissey over at Captain's Quarters writes that the UN seems to be headed for "a career in comedy." The nation that has taken a thriving agricultural tradition, he writes, and "destroyed it in one generation" could be appointed to lead the world in discussion about how to sustain human populations without destroying the environment.
However, the Telegraph notes that the U.S. and Britain are determined to block the move. Both countries would be happy, they say, with another African nation appointed to head the committee.
1:32 PM ET | 05-11-2007 | permalink
