abVanmoer

In yet another of the UN's more bizarre episodes, somewhat akin to its appointment of Libya under the Quadafi regime to the Human Rights Council, the UN has decided to honour Robert Mugabe by appointing him as a United Nations International Tourism Ambassador - allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: President Appointed UN Tourism Ambassador
The Tourism Ambassador status will be made official later this week when a signing is set to take place at the Victoria Falls Bridge (definitely bucket list material if you have the opportunity). Where a full compliment of UN bureaucrats will be feeding from the trough taking advantage of the wonderful travel opportunities that are part and parcel of the gravy train their gruelling jobs.

Zimbabwe one of the Africa's most fertile countries was until recently also one of its most productive. Often described as the "breadbasket of Africa" it has now been reduced to a festering pit of disease and starvation. Unemployment is around 80% and about 15,000 people die each month from HIV/AIDS alone, with countless others dying from cholera, typhoid, malaria, starvation etc.

This once prosperous nation and poster child for racial harmony was destroyed single handedly by Robert Mugabe, a brutal dictator who should be left rotting away in some jail cell, but instead the corrupt UN decides to reward him with accolades.

__________________
Vendors, Tipjars, teleporters, clocks, gadgets, etc.
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/stores/8878

Jahar Aabye

Letting Mugabe rot in a jail cell would be too kind. Importing Candiru from South America and dumping them in his private swimming pool would be too kind. Is it possible to train an elephant to impale him on a tusk, or would that be unfair...to the elephant?

The sad part is that Mugabe is almost a parody of everything a leader shouldn't be, between wrecking his economy with exponential inflation, managing to create a famine in a breadbasket, preventing his citizens from receivng anti-retroviral therapy (even under Thabo fucking Mbeke, South Africans at least eventually gained access), and managing to win "re-election" by organizing "community activists (read: amateur death squads)...

Seriously, how in every hell in Jainism did anyone at the UN think this man deserved any sort of accolades other than 5.56mm of lead? Is he like the dictator that other aspire towards? What next, Vladimir Putin being nominated to lead a civil liberties committee? Dick Cheney being asked to rewrite the Geneva Conventions?

It's almost as if there are people who want to turn the UN into the League of Nations all over again.

__________________
He pulled a Captain Ahab and Jaharpwn'ed her. - Trout

Innula Zenovka

Everyone, including, apparently, Robert Mugabe himself, seems to think his retirement is rather overdue. So maybe someone's taken the view that he's more likely to be encouraged to take that step if the personal outcome for him is a well-paid sinecure with a diplomatic passport attached, as opposed to a prison cell.

A chap I know in our Foreign Office once said that the great thing about the UN is that it's there to take the blame for things governments want to do but can't be seen to be initiating, and I think that sometimes explains a lot.

__________________

Void

the appointment is political appeasement theatre.... if it works, :: I'm not adverse to promoting problem people out of relevance for the benefit of everyone else... but I grew up military, and there it's an unspoken standard, because it works.

__________________
- These eyes can do more than see

Richie Waves

It's hardly anything new. They Gave Blair a cushy euro gig after he left his post as PM.

Friedman got all sorts of awards. GHB got a presidential medal of freedom.

Tyrants are celebrated all the time on this planet.

Disgraceful, indeed.

Arkady Arkright

Almost as good as the Nobel committee giving Obama the Peace Prize..

Richie Waves

"
1 User Disagreed:
Jahar Aabye"

Natch, atrocities carried out by Americans can never be compared to those of black african leaders.

Void

different category of wrongness.... Obama got if for kissing a lot of ass, but I agree that it was premature. but it wasn't about shutting him up, it was (theoretically) about encouraging him to continue doing what he was doing.

in the OP case it's not about encouraging positives, but rather limiting nagatives...

both are bits of manipulative bribery rather than honest rewards if you ask me... but then when has politics been much else unless it can be used for those things?

Innula Zenovka

To my mind, it's in everyone's interests if Mugabe retires sooner rather than later. Something that must weigh on his mind, though, is what happens to him after he steps down, because obviously he's going to have concerns about his eventual fate if he sticks round in Zimbabwe. A lucrative post-retirement package that keeps him out of the country, with a diplomatic passport, may well go some way to allaying his concerns, and -- distasteful though it clearly is -- may very well be a better solution for everyone else in Zimbabwe than his either being removed in a coup or dying in office and leaving a power vacuum.

abVanmoer

The only person who may disagree with that would be Mugabe.
Despite the article you linked to earlier, Mugabe really has no interest in retiring.

For example earlier this year BBC News - Morgan Tsvangirai: Zimbabwe 'not ready for elections'
In fair elections, Morgan Tsvangirai the opposition leader would have long since been president. Mugabe could have retired gracefully to South Africa where he was offered safe haven. But Mugabe is going nowhere, he will eventually die in office, probably from natural causes.

Arkady Arkright

Why the groan ? Which definition of 'peace' has President Obama promoted during his years in office ? Admittedly he hasn't nuked anyone yet, but he seems to have done enough other things to enough innocent and not-legally-proven-guilty people in various other countries to justify my comment.

Arkady Arkright

Which was my point, actually - I'll remember to be more literal in future.

Void

it helps to be specific when changing contexts... and not insinuate that it's even more stark a contrast in opposites =P

Arkady Arkright

I'm not sure I was changing contexts - wasn't the context 'undeserved awards' ?

Richie Waves

African leader v American one.

Void

the clue was in the second statement... the context of getting an award for doing the exact opposite

Arkady Arkright

Sorry, still don't get it...

Jahar Aabye

Well, there's a deeper issue with Mugabe, because it is difficult to compare him to most other world leaders. I'm no fan of the autocrats who have been in power in Iran or Syria, but I probably wouldn't argue if someone said that Mugabe's reign in Zimbabwe is worse.

So that's one context, awarding people who rule through violence and intimidation and destroy their country and bring death and suffering to their own citizens in the process.

The second context is that the award itself osn't just undeserved, but fundamentally ironic. That's why I compared it to asking Vladimir Putin to cbair a committee on civil liberties (since Putin's government arrests or assassinates journalists who criticize him) or Dick Cheney being asked to rewrite the Geneva Conventions (since Cheney was one of several members of the Bush administration who attempted to redefine torture in such a way that almost anything short of murder woukd be acceptable).

In Mugabe's case, I'd list Robert Mugabe as my number 1 reason for not wishing to visit Zimbabwe, so giving him an award for tourism is idiotic.