Communities Point statement on Haiti

COMMUNITIES Point joins the world in sympathising with the people of Haiti. In their hour of need, the pressure group is with the people of Haiti and joins and commends the efforts of the international community as they extend a hand of help to the troubled masses.

The intervention of the USA, the Dominican Republic, most South American countries and many other countries once again reminds us of the positive role internationalism can play in our development as the human race.

As the human race we owe it to our collective aspirations for a common good that we continue on the path of international co-operation to guarantee our survival.

The disaster in Haiti is natural, there is no way that anyone could have stopped it happening. But the unity of humankind is something that can come from us as the main stakeholders in our own survival.

The involvement and death of UN personnel, including the UN Chief in Haiti cements our containment about the historical, contemporary and futuristic relevance of the organisation as the ultimate word in international relations.

After all, we are one community, the international community, beyond that racial divide, beyond that class divide, we are one and stand to be guided by the same aspiration which is the betterment of the human race wherever we are.

The loss of our brothers and sisters in Haiti gives us the opportunity to reclaim internationalism, from the one that seeks selfish ends to one that pursues selflessness.

The death of the UN martyrs in the disaster must continue to remind us that there is no better way to co-exist other than as members of the only one organisation in which countries as subjects of international law, are equal members conforming to the same set of rules that will guarantee individual freedoms; including freedom from religious, political, social, cultural and political oppression.

Yes, Communities Point is a Zimbabwean pressure group, but its aim is to retake Zimbabwe to the community of nations. We will be happy where we also play a part in such collective efforts. The respectability of our nation will be derived from our involvement in helping in disaster alleviation.

Our history is enriched by our involvement in Mozambique during the time that country was hit by floods and famine, our helping hand in Ethiopia between 1984-1986 during the great famine in that country, our principled stance in Lesotho in 1996 together with South Africa and Botswana when we intervened to stop the palace coup there and our principled opposition to Sani Abacha of Nigeria, even as he reminded both South Africa and Zimbabwe of the role Nigeria played in the two countries independence, we still had the guts to tell him that it was Nigerians and not the Nigerian aristocracy that helped liberate Zimbabwe and South Africa.

That time we opposed the hanging of Ken Saro Wiwa and supported the expulsion of Nigeria from the Commonwealth for the dictatorship of Sani Abacha. These noble deeds earned us respect but the absurdity in our recent years have seen us concentrate on trivialities.

The absence of Zimbabwe in particular and Africa in general is telling, that the people we share much in common with in Haiti are not receiving help from us but from the same people we have accused of collective oppression must put shame on us as a country and as a continent.

Zimbabwe’s priorities must be put right, that we earn respectability again and be able to participate in important international duties. What is happening today in Haiti can happen anywhere and our own preparedness is questionable if our priorities remain this wrong. Our foreign policy ought to enjoin us to the international community once again, let us start now. 

EMILY MADAMOMBE, SECRETARY GENERAL COMMUNITIES POINT
www.communitiespoint.com