In case you’ve lived a protected existence, “SNAFU” is a neat little acronym for “Situation Normal: All Fowled UP!”, except that we very seldom said “fowled” when other words would better represent the totality of the degradation of a particular system.
The United Nations elevates this statement to an artform. The UN has a “Human Rights” commission? You can bet it will be chaired by a representative from a country where “human rights” belong only to such humans as are on the ruling despot’s staff.
The UN has a Commission on Sustainable Development. In case you’re wondering, sustainable developmentt is defined as “balancing the fulfillment of human needs with the protection of the Natural environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present, but in the indefinite future”.
Now, if you’re looking to chair a commission on sustainable development with an eye to an “indefinite future” then the UN has had a moment of unusual clarity, because they’d decided to select their chairman from Zimbabwe. Do a google on Zimbabwe and you’ll see how, in twenty years, a nation once known as the “breadbasket of Africa” is now a shambles with four figure annual inflation, starvation, life expectancy in the thirty odd year range and living on food imports even as it defaults on loans. You can’t beat Zimbabwe for “indefinite future”.
Zimbabwe is enduring the world’s highest inflation, at more than 2000%, mass unemployment, and there are widespread accusations of civil rights abuses.
On Wednesday it was announced that households in Zimbabwe were to be limited to four hours’ electricity a day, between 1700 and 2100 local time.
The measure, to ensure that wheat farmers are guaranteed the power needed to irrigate their crops, will be in place for the next three months, the state power provider said.
But hey, they’re headed toward sustainability. Recent comments by radical environmentalists opined that the planet has entirely too many humans to be ecologically sound. Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe, is doing his level best to remedy the situation. You have to remember that an agrarian subsistence society like pre-colonization Africa is eminently sustainable. So maybe, just maybe, the UN has a better handle on this than they usually get credit for.