EDITORIAL: New UN Secretary General must keep his word

During the new United Nations Secretary General’s first briefing of the Security Council, he touched on what really ails the international community, especially in the UN. António Guterres said the world had a tendency of waiting out tragedies and only step in when it was too late, sometimes with disastrous consequences. “We spend far more time and resources responding to crises rather than preventing them. People are paying too high a price,” he said calling for “…a whole new approach,” Guterres said. His position on world affairs brings a ray of hope that maybe (and that is a very big maybe), the lethargic giant will at last wake up to reality. As we speak, many conflicts are spiraling out of control, even in our own EAC backyard. But all the UN has done is to sound the alarm, make empty threats and drag its feet as thousands die and conflicts escalate. Guterres seems to know his organization and those who call the shots very well; they are playing for the media to increase their ratings and visibility. “Perhaps because successful prevention does not attract attention. The television cameras are not there when a crisis is avoided,” he said in his inaugural briefing. But will he be able to make the big boys budge? Will he manage to drive the message home that human lives are greater than petty political points? The new Secretary General seems to have come on board with honourable intentions and this is a time for him to enter the annals of history; that he was not just another lame duck, but he truly meant what he said and did something about it.

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EDITORIAL: New UN Secretary General must keep his word