Resolution writing and a little on Zimbabwe

We are now up and running with writing our resolutions for the final EAMUN conference and have attempted to narrow down our topics as much as possible, from ex. Economy to focusing on infrastructure. What poses as a difficulty though, is writing a resolution asking for aid that will result in something beneficial for the country and essentially Africa too, whilst trying to do so from the perspective of the government in question. When the country comes with a background of corruption for example, is there a risk in asking for support in building up democratic institutions through this subtle confession of the fact that things like corruption exist? Might it increase the credibility of the government, or weaken it – leading to a denial of support in other fields such as the building up of infrastructure?

 

On another but quite similar note, it is really interesting to observe what’s going on in Zimbabwe at the moment. The fact that Mugabe and Tsangvirai  as of September 15^th officially share the power, with Mugabe as the president and Tsangvirai as the prime minister has weakened the criticism of Mugabe from the international community. At the same time however, this act of democratization has also paved the way for an even bigger acquisition of power from his behalf. Because now that he is seen as a man striving towards a democratic Zimbabwe who has thus been cut some slack from the int’l community, what is stopping him from abusing the power once again? In other words, perhaps a step towards democracy was a step counteracting democracy? Take for instance the fact that Tsangvirai wasn’t able to attend a recent peace conference simply because Mugabe denied him travel papers on time. In my opinion, this is not a new era in the sense that Zimbabwe will begin to blossom, but rather the beginning of an era filled with symptoms of the underlying problem in Zimbabwe. There are unfortunately not an ample amount of solutions… While the last initiative to end turmoil and violence in Zimbabwe played on the establishment of a democratic state, the new initiative needs to go further than that. I think the ‘final’ solution will need to be sparked through creating African unity and a feeling of companionship. For no matter how ‘weak’ it may sound, it might only be then that politicians of other African nations, despite what kind of ties they have with Mugabe and his party, see to the sake of the people of Zimbabwe and use their current suffering as the force triggering them to put pressure on Mugabe to allocate more power to his opposition party as well account for the democratic progress to the international community.

 

/Charlotta Pühringer

 

Delegate Countries

Last week we were informed of which countries we will be representing during the model UN week. These are: Canada, D.R. Congo, Lithuania and Qatar. This will give us a great variety in our work as the countries have very different economical and social situations. Canada is a relatively rich state, with a low crime rate and low levels of corruption. Canada is also one of the worlds biggest money doners and a member of the ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council). Congo is a conflict-struck region that suffers from famine, diseases and corruption. Even though it has an abundance of natural resources it also suffers from povert. Congo is also a member of the ECOSOC. Lithuania is a former part of the Soviet Union and is relatively poor by European standards. Since Lithuania joined the EU in 2004 it has become one of the fastest developing economies in Europe. Qatar is an Arab emirate located on the northern part of the Arabian Peninsula. Because of its rich oil supplies, it has one of the worlds highest GDPs. CIA claims it has the 1# highest. It also has a very fast-growing populations. I look forward to learning more about these 4 countries as the course goes on. Jonathan Karlsson

HIV/AIDS

HIV is the virus that causes AIDS, a deadly disease which destroys the immune system. Scientists believe that the virus entered the human population from primates in Africa and then spread to the rest of the world. The first case of HIV infection virus is estimated to have occurred around 1930, but the virus was first discovered in 1983 by Luc Montaginer and Francois Barré-Sinoussi, a discovery they received this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine for.

Territory size shows the proportion of all people aged 15-49 with HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) worldwide, living there.

Today HIV and AIDS is a growing pandemic. The problem is worst in Sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 67% of all people living with HIV. According to UNAIDS, a joint United Nations project, over 25 million people in Africa are infected by the virus. 

However, the American economist Emily Oster claims in her TED speech that the number is greatly exaggerated. She also overthrows several other facts we thought we knew about AIDS. As an economist, Oster views the problem from a different perspective, not only as a health issue. She explains that the African economy is as well affected negatively, since African countries loses workforce and orphans become a burden to the financial system. Hence, solving the problem with HIV and AIDS in Africa will help solving many other problems.

Hanna Grahn

Lecture at UI

This week we were fortunate enough to be allowed to attend a lecture by Prof. Jerry Gana, hosted by UI (Swedish institute of International Affairs). Prof. Gana, currently Chairman of the Institute of Civil Society, Abuja, Nigeria has earlier held the positions of several minister posts in Nigeria.  The lecture was about how civil society and democracy are linked to development in Africa.  He spoke of what has to be done to ”domesticate” democracy in African countries and what is afterwards required to maintain that democracy (as “democracy is much more than holding regular elections”).

Here are some of the points and opinions that were expressed in the lecture:

·         The significance of democracy once instated, really improving people’s situations, for if it doesn’t the people will lose faith in democracy and loose political interest and without those things a democracy won’t work.

·          The importance of limiting governments’ powers by effective Constitutions. When many of the dictatorships collapsed in the end of the 20^th century very weak democracies emerged according to Prof. Gana and the lacks of constitutional democracy in these countries often lead to bad governance. (A constitutional democracy can be seen as the mark of a working democracy)

·         Civil society, as a vitally important pillar to hold up a democracy. A well working civil society can hold the government accountable for its actions, through free media and other types of organizations. Basically, a country needs a strong net work of autonomous institutions to work as a counterpart against the government.  

A strong civil society is also extremely important to ensure that the population’s situation is good enough to be able to concern itself with more than surviving the day. “Poverty is the biggest threat to democracy”

·         The importance of good strong legitimate leadership to develop many of the African countries. “There is nothing as harmful to the development process as an illegitimate and indecisive leadership”

This last point was briefly discussed in the discussion that followed the lecture. It concerned the fact that relying on leaders being honest, capable and ruling with legitimate authority should maybe not be counted upon (when looking at the history of many African states so far). The system must hold for weak leaders as well. This was an interesting question and we will probably discuss it in class on Tuesday as strong leadership can be seen as a crucial point in of developing many African countries, however can it be relied upon?

Sara Väljamets