Welcome to Zimbabwe. By the way, the currency is worthless, there’s no food and there may not be enough gas to get you to Victoria Falls and back. Enjoy your stay.
For Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s UN-critical caucus, this was sweet vindication. Mugabe is a poster boy for corrupt, brutal misrule. He has run Zimbabwe into the ground, turning Africa’s breadbasket into a wasteland. Millions are jobless, hungry and ill. And he’s under a travel ban in the United States and Europe. How can the UN have been so perverse as to make him the face of global tourism? It seemed to make the Tories’ case that the UN has lost its way.
An indignant Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird fairly leapt to his feet in Parliament on Wednesday, after Tory MP Joe Daniel conveniently asked him how Canada intended to respond to the news that “Zimbabwe’s despotic leader . . . was named as a UN envoy.” Baird denounced the “appointment” as “outrageous.” He said it shows how “out of touch . . . with reality” the UN is. And he announced that Canada would pull out of the UN tourism agency.
But after this grandstanding, it turns out that the Conservativesare the ones who look out of touch. There was no appointment. The UN World Tourism Organization hasn’t named Mugabe to be its “tourism ambassador” for the excellent reason that it doesn’t have a tourism ambassador. The story was hyped by the media, and the Tories give every sign of having been suckered in.
The only nod Mugabe got from the UN was a form letter that goes to leaders of all the 155 countries that are members of the agency. It reminds them that tourism is now a $1 trillion global business and job creator in poor countries, and invites them to help encourage travel. On Tuesday, UN officials handed Mugabe and Zambian President Michael Sata their copies at Victoria Falls, where the 155 countries agreed last year that the pair should co-host a tourism conference next year. That’s it. No ambassadorial appointments.
Despite these inconvenient truths, Baird wasn’t backing off. This was the “last straw,” he said. The Tories had already served notice that they’d pull Canada out of the agency. And anyhow, the UN shouldn’t be canvassing the likes of Mugabe for support on anything.
That’s pretty feeble. Whatever the Tories’ reasons for bailing out of the tourism agency, this was a bogus uproar. It looks like amateur hour down at Foreign Affairs, where $1.4 billion of our hard-earned tax dollars will be spent on diplomacy this year. You’d think the UN desk would know better. Africans are having a laugh at our expense.
Hasn’t the Harper government done enough damage to Canada’s image at the UN without needing to invent pretexts to look foolish? The PM’s disdain for the UN helped cost us a Security Council seat. We’ve forfeited our reputation for even-handedness in the Middle East. We’ve given up on peacekeeping. We’ve squandered what respect we once had as a generous aid donor and green activist. We’re now known more as carpers than contributors.
After the Mugabe pratfall, it’s easy to see why.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: editorial
No comments:
Post a Comment