I have been following the lively debate that began with the reprimand of Kofi Annan for his apparent neglect of Africa to the Real Purpose of the UN, then degenerating into battles over the personalities of participants to the debate, then to truce and apology, and then back to gaiety. It was worth my while following the exchange, albeit impatiently for its ending, and now that everyone seems to be aware of his/her own significance vis-a-vis problems of continental proportion, I think it is safe to share my views. I concur with all who expressed disdain at Annan's apparent indifference to the plight of African countries only in this respect: Being Secretary General of the UN seems to me like the ultimate stage for any politician/diplomat-Symbolically speaking. Therefore, I don't think a Secretary General of the UN in his/her right mind would make/not make decisions with a view to influence aspirations to future political office. More often than not, It is a legacy of worth that UN Secretary Generals worry about more. If indeed Annan had prior intelligence reports and fair warning of imminent genocide of Rwandaic proportions, the least he could have done would be to bring it to the attention of the Security Council or use the bully pulpit to publicize it with the hope of averting it. Whether or not he will have the support of the US or other members of the Council is indeed irrelevant-Time was of the essence. Another value of a Secretary General is to communicate with individual heads of state outside of the context of the UN. Portugal, France, and Australia could have been approached with the information and their assistance requested with the hope that one of them would agree to lend a hand. With one nation on board, it makes the task of persuading the whole council into action or at least funding. I think Jabou and Yus' points were along this line-That Annan's capacity/office is too valuable to waste on silence. I had to think long and hard how such an intelligent, and diplomatically persuasive man can choose silence over trying to marshall all resources to avert the Rwanda atrocities and I thought it only fair to view the problem in more detail. I realised it was one of ethnic hegemony and the whole of Africa, parts of Eastern Europe, Fiji, Canada, and a whole host of other communities are rife with such eventualities. Therefore, maybe Annan thought about it in the context of sheer madness to begin such a trend and therefore unlikely, so he did not give much weight to the alarm. Or maybe because if such a war were to begin, there is no way any army (UN or otherwise) could have stopped (he did not have the luxury of NATO a la Kosovo Metochia) but surely he should have learnt something from Bosnia Herzegovina. I want to remind everyone though that as dissappointing as Annan's inaction may have been, We must lay the blame squarely on those who are responsible for the conflict. Ethnic problems are nurtured for years throughout the history of a community. The metamorphosis takes the form of intolerance in religious and linguistic differences, and other cultural/tribal apathy at different stages. It is manifest in unequal access to education, employment, and industry, and the uneven allocation of development funds. In fact as we speak, it is being nurtured in several countries and it is only in their infancy can such monsters be averted. The approach has to take the form of immunisation or periodic innoculations of reverse processes to the causes of the tensions. _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask] if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------