 8-23-66 Suppose God is Black BY SEN. ROBERT F. KENNEDY South Africa's dilemma: a bright future weighed down by dark cruelty. Here is a personal report on the land of apartheid, where even the churches are segregated. AT THE SOUTHERN TIP OF AFRICA, the mountains rise up and then fall sharply to the sea. The beaches are washed in turn by the harsh Atlantic and the warm, slow waters of the Indian Ocean. There, perched on the rocky slopes of the Cape of Good Hope, stands the proud city of Cape Town, a monument to the remarkable fortitude and vigor of the Dutch, British, French, Africans and others who have built one of the richest and most energetic societies in the world. As our airplane banked over the city, strikingly beautiful in the bright sunlight, all of us smiled and talked, warmed by the shared pleasure of beauty and of pride in human accomplishment. Then a voice said, "There is Robben Island," and the plane went silent and cold. For Robben Island is home to more than 2,000 political prisoners in South Africa-black and white, college professors and simple farmers, advocates of nonviolence and organizers of revolution, all now bound in the same bleak brotherhood because of one thing: Because they believe in freedom, they dared to lead the struggle against the government's official policy of apartheid. Apartheid, the Afrikaans word for "apartness," rigidly separates the races of South Africa-three million whites, twelve million blacks, and two million Indian and "colored" (mixed-blood) people. It permits the white minority to dominate and exploit the nonwhite majority completely. If your skin is black in South Africa: You cannot participate in the political process, and you cannot vote. You are restricted to jobs for which no whites are available. Your wages are from 10 to 40 percent of those paid a white man for equivalent work. You are forbidden to own land except in one small area. You live with your family only if the government approves. The government will spend one-tenth as much to educate your child as it spends to educate a white child. You are, by law, an inferior from birth to death. You are totally segregated, even at most church services. During five days this summer, my wife Ethel and I visited South Africa, talking to all kinds of people representing all viewpoints. Wherever we went-Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Stellenbosch, Johannesburg-apartheid was at the heart of the discussion and debate. Our aim was not simply to criticize but to engage in a dialogue to see if, together, we could elevate reason above prejudice and myth. At the University of Natal in Durban, I was told the church to which most of the white population belongs teaches apartheid as a moral necessity. A questioner declared that few churches allow black Africans to pray with the white because the Bible says that is the way it should be, because God created Negroes to serve. "But suppose God is black," I replied. "What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response?" There was no answer. Only silence. In Rome a week later, when Ethel and I met with Pope Paul VI, we discussed South Africa-the loss of individual rights, the supremacy of the state, the growing rejection of Christianity by black Africans because, as one of them said, "The Christian God hates the Negroes." Distress and anguish showed in the Pope's face, the tone of his voice, the gestures of his hands. I told the Pope about our visit to the Roman Catholic church he had dedicated a few years ago in Soweto, the section of Johannesburg set aside for black Africans. He remembered it well. The church is not permitted to own the property on which it is built, and the priests there are under constant government pressure. As with all black Africans, the lives of the people of Soweto depend upon the symbols written in their individual passbooks. These must be carried at all times, like an automobile registration- but for human beings. To be caught without one, or with one lacking the proper endorsement by an employer, could mean six months in prison or exile to arid, forbidding places designated "native homelands." Except in one small area, a black African's wife must have a special pass to live with him-unless both happen to find work in the same town. She can visit him for up to 72 hours, but for a stated written purpose, and then she must stand in line to request her pass. Arrests abound under the passbook law-more than 1,000 every day. To date, there have been five million convictions among the nonwhite population of fourteen million. Occasionally, the tortured cry out eloquently, as one did when convicted of inciting a strike (illegal for black Africans). "Can it be any wonder to anybody that such conditions make a man an outlaw of society?" he asked. "Can it be wondered that such a man, having been outlawed by the government, should be prepared to lead the life of an outlaw?" That man was now below, on Robben Island, sentenced to lifeimpriso-nment. And as we turned back to the bright bustle of Cape Town, I pondered the dilemma of South Africa: a land of enormous promise and potential, aspiration and achievement-yet a land also of repression and sadness, darkness and cruelty. It has produced great writers, but the greatest, Alan Paton, who wrote Too Late the Phalarope and Cry, the Beloved Country, can travel abroad only if he is prepared never to return. It has a Nobel Peace Prize winner, Chief Albert Luthuli of the Zulus, but he is restricted to a small, remote farm, his countrymen forbidden under pain of prison to quote his words. It has some of the finest students I have seen anywhere in the world-intelligent, aware, committed to democracy and human dignity-but many are constantly harassed and persecuted by the government. Some of these young people, members of the 20,000-strong National Union of South African Students, crowded Cape Town's Malan Airport as we landed. The NUSAS - through its president, a courageous senior at the University of Cape Town named Ian Robertson-had invited me to make the 1966 Day of Affirmation address. The annual Day, June 6 this year, formally affirms the 42-year-old organization's commitment to democracy and freedom, regardless of language, race or religion. Robertson was not at the airport. Nor would he be at the university that night. At the moment of our arrival, he sat in his apartment in Cape Town, forbidden to be in a room with more than one person at a time, to be quoted in the press in any way, to take part in political or social life-prohibited, although he is studying to be a lawyer, to enter any court except as a witness under subpoena. He was thus "banned" for five years by the minister of justice, who alleged that, in some unspecified way, he was furthering the aims of communism. But it was generally accepted that young Robertson's only offense was to invite me to speak. That afternoon, I visited my host at his apartment. I presented him with a copy of President Kennedy's book, Profiles in Courage, inscribed to him "with admiration" by Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy. I recalled my dinner, shortly after arrival the day before, in Pretoria with politicians, editors and businessmen, all genuinely puzzled that the Western world found fault with South Africa when South Africa was so staunchly anti-Communist. "But what does it mean to be against communism," I asked, "if one's own system denies the value of the individual and gives all power to the government-just as the Communists do?" They said South Africa's "unique problems" were internal. "Cruelty and hatred anywhere can affect men everywhere," I said. "And South Africa could too easily throw a continent, even the world, into turmoil. "But you don't understand," they said. "We are beleaguered." I could understand that feeling. The Afrikaners, people of Dutch stock who make up 60 percent of the white population, struggled against foreign rule from 1806 until 1961. The Voortrekkers (literally, fore-pullers) opened up vast new areas in ox-drawn caravans during the last century, and their descendants fought the Boer War. Yet, who was actually beleaguered? My dinner companions, talking easily over cigars and brandy and baked Alaska? Or Robertson and Paton and Luthuli? And the Indian population being evicted from District 6, an area of Cape Town, after living there for decades -its leadership "banned" for five years for protesting? For the minister of justice can deprive a person of his job, his income, his freedom and-if he is black-his family. The minister's word alone can jail any person for up to six months as a "material witness," unspecified as to what. The prisoner has no right to consult a lawyer or his family. Without government permission, it is a criminal offense even to tell anyone he is being detained. He simply disappears, and he may be in solitary confinement for the entire six months. No court can hear his case or order his release. And-a final touch-he may be taken into custody again immediately after release. Many people held under this law and its predecessor committed suicide. The capstone to this structure of repressive power is the "ban." On his own authority, the minister of justice can ban people from public life, from leaving their villages or even their homes. His victims are prohibited from contesting the order in court. Once a person is banned, it is illegal to publish anything he says. A factory worker may be prohibited from entering any factory, or a union official from entering any building where there is a union office. A political party can be destroyed by banning its leaders-which is exactly what happened to Alan Paton's Liberal party. They cannot legally communicate with each other, and the police watch them constantly. And all this power is in the hands of Balthazar J. Vorster, the minister of justice, who, incidentally,was interned in South Africa during World War II because of his activities in a Nazi-like terrorist force that harassed the British allies. These things were on my mind as I walked through 18,000 students at the University of Cape Town that evening. In the speech, I acknowledged the United States, like other countries, still had far to go to keep the promises of our Constitution. What was important, I said, was that we were trying. And I asked if South Africa, especially its young people, would join in the struggle: "There is discrimination in New York, the racial inequality of apartheid in South Africa and serfdom in the mountains of Peru. People starve in the streets of India, a former prime minister is summarily executed in the Congo, intellectuals go to jail in Russia, thousands are slaughtered in Indonesia, wealth is lavished on armaments everywhere. These are differing evils-but they are the common works of man. They reflect the imperfections of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, the defectiveness of our sensibility toward the sufferings of our fellows.... And therefore they call upon common qualities of conscience and of indignation, a shared determination to wipe away the unnecessary sufferings of our fellow human beings…." In a response afterward, John Daniel, vice president of NUSAS, was eloquent and courageous: "You have given us a hope for the future. You have renewed our determination not to relax until liberty is restored, not only to our universities but to our land." The next day, I spoke at the University of Stellenbosch, which has produced all but one of South Africa's prime ministers. Nestled in a green and pleasant valley, the first center of Afrikaner independence, it is the fountainhead of Afrikaner intellectual-ism today. Everyone expected a cool, if not hostile, reception. But we were greeted in the dining hall by the rolling sound of thunder-the pounding of soup spoons on tables, the students' customary applause. It was clear that, although many differed with me, they were ready to exchange views. At the question session, they defended apartheid, saying it eventually would produce two nations, one black and one white. Had not India been divided into Hindus and Moslems? But, I asked, did the black people have a choice? Why weren't they or the "colored" people consulted? The black Africans are 70 percent of the population, but they would receive only 12 percent of the land, with no seaport or major city. How would they live in areas whose soil was already exhausted and which had no industry ? And they are not being prepared educationally. Black children are not taught in English or Afrikaans, but in tribal tongues, thus cutting them off from modern knowledge. Education is compulsory for whites but not for nonwhites; thus, one of every 14 white students reaches the university, while only one in every 762 blacks makes it. Indeed, one in three gets no schooling at all, and of those who do, only one in 26 enters secondary school. And what about the two million "colored" people, neither white nor black? They are in limbo, somewhat better off than the blacks, but far worse than the whites. There is no plan to give them land of their own-no future except more subjection and humiliation. Earlier, I had asked a group of pro-government newspaper editors to define "colored." They considered and said, "a bastard." I asked if a child born out of wedlock to a white man and white woman would be colored. They said the whole area was difficult. Then one of them said it was simply a person who was neither white nor black. A South American, yes; an Indian, yes; a Chinese, yes-but a Japanese, no. Why not a Japanese? Because there are so few, was the answer. It developed, however, that South Africa trades heavily with the Japanese, and perhaps it was more profitable to call them white. Afterward, at the University of Natal, the audience of 10,000 included, for the first time, a large number of adults. I talked about the importance of recognizing that a black person is as good, innately as a white person: "Maybe there is a black man outside this room who is brighter than anyone in this room-the chances are that there are many." Their applause signaled agreement. A questioner raised a point made over and over: that black Africa is too primitive for self-government, that violence and chaos are the fabric of African character. I deplored such massacres as those that had taken place in the Congo. But I reminded them that no race or people are without fault or cruelty: "Was Stalin black? Was Hitler black? Who killed 40 million people just 25 years ago? It wasn't black people, it was white." The following day, we spent three hours in the black ghetto of Soweto. We walked through great masses of people, and I found myself making speeches from the steps of a church, from the roof of a car and standing on a chair in the middle of a school playground. Many of the homes there are pleasant, far more attractive than those in Harlem or South Side Chicago. But Soweto is a dreary concentration camp, with a curfew, limited recreation, no home ownersllip and a long list of regulations whose violation could cause eviction. For five years, until our visit, the half-million people of Soweto had no direct word from their leader, the banned Albert Luthuli. My wife and I had helicoptered down the Valley of a Thousand Hills at dawn to see him at Groutville, about 44 miles inland from Durban. He is a most impressive man, with a marvelously lined face, strong yet kind. My eyes first went to the white goatee, so familiar in his pictures, but then, quickly, the smile took over, illuminating his whole presence, eyes dancing and sparkling. At mention of apartheid, however, his eyes went hurt and hard. To talk privately, we walked out under the trees and through the fields. "What are they doing to my country, to my countrymen," he sighed. "Can't they see that men of all races can work together-and that the alternative is a terrible disaster for us all?" I gave him a portable record player and some records of excerpts of President Kennedy's speeches. He played President Kennedy's civil-rights speech of June 11, 1963, and we all listened in silence- Chief Luthuli, his daughter, two government agents accompanying us, my wife and I. At the end, Chief Luthuli, deeply moved, shook his head. The government men stared fixedly at the floor. As I left the old chief, I thought of the lines from Shakespeare: "His life was gentle, and the elements/So mix'd in him that Nature might stand up/And say to all the world, 'This was a man!'" That night, in the final address, I spoke to 7,000 at the University of Witwatersrand on the battle for justice. I was thinking of James Meredith, the courageous "freedom walker" who had just been shot on a Mississippi highway, when I said: "Let no man think he fights this battle for others. He fights for himself, and so do we all. The golden rule is not sentimentality but the deepest practical wisdom. For the teaching of our time is that cruelty is contagious, and its disease knows no bounds of race or nation." I stressed that it was up to South Africa to solve its racial problems, that all any outsider could do was to urge a common effort in our own countries and around the world and show that progress is possible. "My own grandfather had a very difficult time," I said, "and my father finally left Boston, Massachusetts, because of the signs on the wall that said, 'No Irish Need Apply.' "Everthing that is now said about the Negro was said about the Irish Catholics. They were useless, they were worthless, they couldn't learn anything. Why did they have to settle here ? Why don't we see if we can't get boats and send them back to Ireland? They obviously aren't equipped for education, and they certainly can never rule…." They laughed, and I could not resist adding: "I suppose there are still some who might agree with that." But the final question was the most difficult: How can there be genuine dialogue, and therefore a hope of solution, when your adversary also makes the rules and acts as referee with the power to destroy you at will? I said I recognized the terrible problem they faced, but there were basically only two alternatives: to make an effort-or to yield, to admit defeat, to surrender. In my judgment, the spirit of decency and courage in South Africa will not surrender. With all of the difficulties and the suffering I had seen, still I left tremendously moved by the intelligence, the determination, the cool courage of the young people and their allies scattered through the land. I think particularly of the gay and gallant student, about to speak at Durban, who said to the Special Police there: "Please don't listen to me too closely, but, if you do, you'll find this is a real swinger." And I think of Martin Shule*, another student, who spoke after me at Witwatersrand and said: "We must now cast off all self-protective timidity, and we must now willfully and deliberately descend into the arena of danger to preserve the independence of thought and conscience and action which is our civilized heritage. We must now set ourselves against an unjustifiable social order and strive energetically and selflessly for its reform." They are not in power now, but they are the kind of people who make a nation, who may one day make South Africa a land of light and freedom and allow it to take its full place in the world. Theirs is the spirit of which Tennyson wrote in Ullysses: One equal temper of heroic hearts, Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. |
Sunday, 7 June 2026
Suppose God Is Black
Saturday, 24 January 2026
Do You Remember Something in Particular From Your Primary School Days?
Trinity College Dublin Librarian, Therese Mulpeter, does
She wrote an article about one specific experience in 1969 from her primary school days to accompany documents she was donating to the Research Collections at Trinity which is connected with this experience.
The article recalled how the then six year-old[!] Therese was told to become a ‘god-parent’ to an African girl who was to be given the name Anne.
Below, is an extract from the article as it appeared online:
“We all recognise 1969 as the year that man first stepped on the moon but few would recall that it was also the year that Pope Paul VI became the first reigning pope to step onto the African continent in Uganda.
At that time there was a practice in Catholic schools for children preparing to make their First Holy Communion to make an offering to become ‘god-parents’ to children in Africa so that they could be baptised into the Catholic faith.
At Belgrove National School in Clontarf, my teacher Miss Heid, told us to choose a name for our ‘baby’. I was only six years old and I came up with the name Anne.
In my young mind I thought that all these babies would be brought to the school and I would get to bring mine home.
I puzzled over where she would sleep.
The penny [literally] dropped when I received my god-parent card with my name and Anne’s name handwritten on the back……we would never meet.
It was simply a very successful fund raising effort to support mission work in Africa.
Try explaining that to a six year old!
The only tangible connection I had with Anne was the card.
In 1969 the Catholic population of Uganda was approximately 3 million and no one batted an eye in Ireland at holding a collection for the ‘black babies’ or of referring to an unbaptised infant as a pagan. Today the catholic population of Uganda stands at around 13 million.”
The god-parent card issued to Therese and the other pupils bore the title: Crusade for Rescue, Baptism and Catholic Education of Pagan Children.
Sammy the Plaster Figure Black Baby
In his contribution to the subject published in the Irish Independent in November 2006 and titled The Little Black Babies, Rory Egan wrote as follows:
“In many schools around the country a mandatory collection of a shilling a week was made for the 'Little Black Babies' for which one was given a small card showing a crying child. It is incredible to think that many a young schoolchild thought that it was some sort of instalment scheme and that some day they would be the proud possessor of an African child.
The ultimate lasting memory of poor taste and misguided marketing was something that could be found in many schools and convents and was called 'Sammy'. Sammy was a plaster figure of a black baby whose head nodded every time a penny was placed in the slot of the box upon which he knelt.”
Remote and Alien Pagan Babies
In a blogpost dated 26 November 2018 and titled Remote and alien pagan babies, John Grenham posted a notice originally produced by the Pontifical Association of the Holy Childhood “On behalf of the Myriad OUTCAST PAGAN BABIES” and which had been published in the Irish Independent edition of April 1, 1939.
This notice asked for “at least a little crumb from your LENTEN ALMS”.
“For the modest donation of 2/6 (two shillings and six pence) you can help to save one of these hapless dying babies from the cruelest of fates.”
Other Countries
More childhood schooldays recollections about ‘pagan baby’ programmes in the 1950s / early-1960s in other countries can be found online.
There are testimonies from Scotland, while from the United States of America, stories from the Adopt A Pagan Baby drive have been recounted.
The following is from ABCtales on the subject of Black baby
“The St Stephen’s Digestive biscuit test was much more exacting. At school break time in the morning we could buy a Digestive biscuit off Mrs Boyle for one old penny. Some, like myself, were often excluded from this experiment because they had lots of brother and sister and too few pennies. But unlike the Stanford experiment Mrs Boyle didn’t offer two -or more Digestives for delaying, or not eating a biscuit we couldn’t afford - she offered salvation, for an old penny. She gave us the option of eating a Digestive, or buying a black baby.
If we bought a black baby for a penny it was ticked down on a sheet and when you got to a shilling eventually you got to own a black baby and you were given a picture of it. For giving up Digestive biscuits you were sent to heaven. Now that’s what I call delayed gratification.”
Pagan Baby Contests
Here is another recollection on Pagan Babies, this time from Telling Secrets blogspot:
I went to Roman Catholic School, so we also had Pagan Baby Contests.
It went like this: You had to bring in a dime every week (some of the nuns allowed you to bring in pennies or nickels which you could save up and exchange for a dime) which would then fit into a slot on a poster which had your name on it. When you got to $1, you were allowed to 'name' your Pagan Baby and the money would be sent "to the missions" so "Father" could baptize one of the little Pagan Babies with your name.
Sister told us that we were saving the "little savages" Africa or Laos or Cambodia or Viet Nam, baptizing them in the name of Jesus. I know. Hard to believe that we once talked that way - and, meant it.
There were 30-40 kids in my class. We had Pagan Baby Contests every 10 weeks. Not a bad fundraising scheme, eh? I used to imagine that there was a village in Viet Nam or Africa somewhere with lots of girls named "Elizabeth".
Anyway, even the Pagan Baby Chart and the Pagan Baby Certificate you got were all written in Cursive
Does anyone remember giving your change for pagan babies?
This is the question posed on Facebook and which also received quite a number of responses; perhaps, an indication of how much this childhood memory persisted into adulthood?
The Unanswered Questions
So many questions arise from the childhood recollections of those who are now adults today; and who were told to be a ‘god-parent’ to a ‘pagan baby’ during their schooldays.
“Try explaining that to a six year-old”, was how Therese Mulpeter summed up her own ‘god-parent’ experience in that October 2017 article.
Therese Mulpeter’s question certainly throws a challenge to all of us to examine and reflect on something which has had quite a profound effect on children’s lives and how, perhaps, it might have shaped their attitudes towards other people; Africans, for example?
These will be the focus of discussion in the next blogpost.
Monday, 5 January 2026
2026: South Africa’s Year of Human Rights Anniversaries
06 June 1966: Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s Day of Affirmation Speech
16 June 1976: Soweto Youth Uprising
09 August 1956: Women’s March Against the Pass Laws
This year will mark three significant anniversaries in recent South African history.
In June 1966, the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) invited the late US Senator Robert F. Kennedy to deliver the keynote Ripple of Hope speech for the annual NUSAS Day of Affirmation event.
Ten years earlier in 1956 on Thursday, the 9th of August, the Women's March was led by four women: Lillian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Rahima Moosa and Sophia Williams to protest against the proposed amendments to the Apartheid Group Areas Act of 1950, commonly referred to as Pass Laws .
The organisers had collected 14,000 signatures which more than 20,000 South Africans of all racial backgrounds staged a march on the Union Buildings in Pretoria to present to the then Prime Minister J. G. Strijdom.
In June 1976, Black South African high school students in Soweto protested against the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974 demanding all black schools to use Afrikaans and English in equal terms as languages of instruction.
The protests resulted in the deaths of protesting youth, including twelve year-old Hector Pieterson. seen carried by Mbuyisa Makhubo after being shot by the South African Police. Pieterson was rushed to a local clinic, where he was declared dead on arrival.
Sam Nzima's photo showing Pieterson's sister, Antoinette Sithole, running beside them, became an icon of the Soweto Youth Uprising.
All three anniversaries are Human Rights-related; they are also significant events in South Africa's history during the difficult Apartheid era, and which contributed in no small measure in helping to dismantle the system.
Articles 1, 2, 3 and 13.1 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) are particularly relevant to these events.
The UDHR is based on the principles of dignity, equality, and inalienability of human rights.
1 | Born Free & Equal All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. |
2 | Freedom From Discrimination Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. |
3 | The Right to Life Everyone has the right to life, liberty and the security of person. |
13 | Freedom of Movement 1. Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each State. |
Monday, 9 May 2022
Ukraine’s Tragedy: An Economic ‘Atomic Bomb’ for Hungary?
Why Are We Focused on ‘Economies’ While Humans Are Being Slaughtered? Can We Put An Immediate Stop To ‘Self-Interest’ Attitudes?
Where’s Our Sense of Empathy?
“An Economic ‘Atomic Bomb’: Hungary Threatens EU’s Latest Sanctions Against Russia, Including Oil Embargo”
“The war in Ukraine is supercharging a food, energy & finance crisis that is pummeling some of the world’s most vulnerable people, countries & economies.”
Secretary-General’s press conference at launch of Report entitled: "Global Impact of War in Ukraine on Food, Energy and Finance Systems" --
“Ukraine focus diverts food aid from other crisis-stricken regions”
“Ukraine war contributes to ‘perfect storm’ for famine in Somalia”
The quotes above are just some of the commentary to be read, and the focus of discussions since Ukraine was attacked on the 24th of February.
Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance is the title of a press release by the UN on 13 APRIL 2022, NEW YORK:
The war in Ukraine, in all its dimensions, is producing alarming cascading effects to a world economy already battered by COVID-19 and climate change, with particularly dramatic impacts on developing countries. The world’s most vulnerable people can not become collateral damage.
World on brink of “perfect storm” of crises, warns UN Chief calling for immediate action to avert cascading impacts of war in Ukraine
Dire consequences of the war on global food, energy and financial markets could upend millions of lives
Dire Consequences?
The only real consequences anyone can or should be thinking of, as far as Ukrainians are concerned, are those from the images and sounds transmitted into living rooms (and wherever we can receive these) in the rest of the world.
The UN’s Response
So, seven weeks (or forty-one days) after the invasion of Ukraine, during which its people are being slaughtered, it seems the world’s body established to suppress “acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace”, chooses to set up a “Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance”; a “Global Crisis Response Group”, NOT to Save Lives?!
Put another way, when our farmer neighbour and his family are being slaughtered in an unprovoked attack, rather than deploy an emergency response, we choose to complain about a “food price crisis”
This, because our farmer neighbour and his family are unable to supply us with what we, perhaps, think we are entitled to be provided by them?
It is rather disappointing to see and to hear of the UN’s approach, when the world would have preferred and expected the immediate focus to be on intensified efforts to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” in Ukraine, as required through its founding charter.
The Charter of the United Nations begins with this introduction:
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
AND FOR THESE ENDS
to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and
to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS.
Article Article 1.1 of Chapter 1 of the Charter is as follows:
To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace
Put simply, this also means that every effort should be made to bring an end to this war and, hence, the loss of innocent lives.
Ukraine: the World’s Tragedy
Ukraine’s tragedy is the world’s tragedy; a country which has been home, short-term or long-term, to citizens from many other countries, continues to be attacked and destroyed in a war which no-one knows when it will all be over.
The pain of Ukraine (the land, rivers and all that they hold); the suffering of Ukrainians themselves are shared by the whole world.
The work of Ukraine’s immediate neighbouring countries to the west and south-west: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, who are at the forefront (and frontline) of international assistance should be acknowledged; Moldova earning the well-deserved label of / as the “small country with a big heart”.
Misplaced Priorities and / or Self-interest Approach?
It seems the priority for some people (outside Ukraine) is to engage in discussions which focus on what we think we are being ‘deprived’: food supplies which, prior to 24th February, had come from Ukraine.
Hungary: An Economic ‘Atomic Bomb’?
In his response to the European Union’s plan to ban Russian oil, as reported in forbes.com, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban described the decision as “far too costly and would amount to an ‘atomic bomb’ being dropped on the Hungarian economy“.
A rather unfortunate choice of words, Prime Minister Orban?
Well, Mr Orban, Russian bombs are being dropped on Ukrainian people, with more than a hundred children so far counted among those killed.
No one can be in any doubt the consequences of war: missiles physically dropped on cities; in this case, Ukrainian cities, can be clearly seen.
Ghanaians should be justifiably proud that their president received universal praise (and quote of the year, according to Professor Shari Ahmed @ShafiAhmed5) for that statement he made putting human life above everything else; especially, “the economy”:
When we see a person being killed, does it have to be someone we are directly related, before we engage our feelings and sense of empathy?
Should we only think of what we are being deprived of, because our own material requirements which come from the victims’ home country have been disrupted?
Even worse, should we continue to obtain our energy supplies from the Russian aggressor, and in doing so, continue to fund its killing machine?
Ukraine’s Daily Reality
Ukraine’s daily reality include the following:
- When the first bread you are able to eat was 38 days after the invasion of your country
- Being attacked when a bomb was dropped on a railway station where people were attempting to escape to a safe destination
- Experiencing unspeakable acts of brutality inflicted on your family and neighbours
- Being trapped in underground bunkers in darkness for several weeks in Mariupol steelworks, not knowing if you will ever come out alive
- Having to live your life in an underground shelter for over sixty-days before you see daylight
- When land mines will be one of the legacies of this Russian invasion, according to The New York Times reports that: Land Mines on a Timer, Scattered Over a Ukrainian Town
- Having to flee your own hometown, and not knowing when you will be able to get back to rebuild the home you left behind, which has now been destroyed through deliberate civilian attacks
- A school attended by children being the latest target of indiscriminate bomb attacks
- You see nine-year old Masha, a resident of Lysychans’k, whose city is under constant shelling, but still defiant during her interview with BBC News on 2 May
We the Peoples …
Is the rest of the world, through the United Nations, still going to be worrying about an ‘economic crisis’?
Indeed, is the rest of the world, We the Peoples, aware of this course of action taken by the UN on our behalf?
Where’s our sense of empathy with our fellow humans? Can we put an immediate stop to the ‘self-interest’ attitudes we are currently displaying?
Perhaps, we might like to reflect on the above questions as well?
The immediate priority should, first and foremost, be on preventing Ukraine’s people from being slaughtered, rather than bemoaning the fact that the “Ukraine focus diverts food aid from other crisis-stricken regions”?
Any discussion focused on anything, other than preventing the slaughter of innocent Ukrainians and the destruction of their country, should be deemed morally unacceptable.
Ukraine’s Tragedy and Africa: Intervention By Foreign NGOs
Another response to Ukraine’s tragedy comes from NGOs with foreign origins, who are making links between Ukraine’s tragedy and what in their opinion is Africa’s food crisis:
“East Africa is facing the worst drought in decades, with the #pandemic and conflict in northern Ethiopia compounding the crisis.
But the region is now also feeling the impact of war in #Ukraine through a spike in agricultural commodity prices.” Farm Africa.
Are Africans incapable of speaking for themselves?
Vegetables From Kenya on the Shelves of Europe’s Supermarkets
Meanwhile, these same NGOs haven’t issued a statement questioning why vegetables from Kenya (in the same East Africa) and Zimbabwe are to be found on the shelves of supermarkets in Europe.
Africans are embarrassed by the heartless manner in which outside organisations attempt to suggest that we are victims of Ukraine’s tragic circumstances.
Shouldn’t any dependence by an African country for its food needs on temperate Europe be something which must be questioned? Does Africa not have the conditions to grow its own indigenous crops?
Nonetheless, this is one African farmer’s view: “As Africans, let’s reduce dependence on imported crops whether in war or climate change.” @Chief_Tshepo
Immediate Tasks and Actions
Here is what needs to be done as a matter of urgency:
- Every effort should be made to bring an end to this war and, hence, the loss of innocent lives
- Rebuild the country so that Ukrainians can rebuild their own lives
Other Wars and Conflicts
After these tasks and actions have been addressed, the world should then turn its attention to other parts of the world where war and conflict still persist.
What we also need to demonstrate, above all else at this time, is:
- Our Sense of Empathy with the people of Ukraine;
- Show Solidarity with people in other parts of the world going through similar tragedy as Ukraine;
- Remember what the True Meaning of ‘Sacrifice’ is: which is, to forego the things we are used to, and which are supplied by the same neighbours who are now in a tragic situation.
These must be the only things which should be on our minds until our fellow human beings see peace return to their country.
Secretary-General Gutteres in Kyiv
After seeing things for himself in Kyiv on Thursday, 28 April, during a visit which also saw a Russian missile attack on that city, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres can be in no doubt regarding what the urgent priority should be?
Yes, we know how to bring the “finance systems” back to life; what we do not know is how to bring Ukrainians back to life.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)