UN last Wednesday: only winners

By Frank Schwalba-Hoth

A closely watched Security Council election delivered a mix of continuity on Wednesday with Austria, Kyrgyzstan, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago and Zimbabwe as new members for a two-year term.

I cannot avoid naming the seven clear winners of the event.

1. Portugal: In the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494, the Pope stipulated that all land on our globe east of a line from the North Pole to the South Pole, west of the Cape Verde Islands, should be Portuguese. Applied to today’s globe, this would have encompassed all of Africa and Asia. Given such a vast territorial power half a millennium ago, it is therefore the very least that the remainder of the former Portuguese kingdom, can at least as a republic have a seat at the table of the world’s great powers.

2. Austria: A similar historical situation exists for Austria. In the 16th century, during the reign of Emperor Charles V, the Habsburgs first achieved the status of a world power. Given the extreme extent of their territory across several continents, contemporaries spoke of an empire “on which the sun never sets.” Therefore, it is only historically fitting that they now sit at the table of the world’s great powers, at least for two years.

3. Kyrgyzstan: The “Epic of Manas” of Kyrgyzstan is according to the Guinness World Record the longest poem ever published. Its half a million lines makes it roughly 20 times longer than Homer’s Odyssey and Iliad combined and three times longer than the Indian Mahabharata. Such a literature champion deserves a seat at the table in New York.

4. Trinidad and Tobago: When you are the birthplace of unique musical instruments and styles like the steelpan, the limbo, calypso, soca, rapso, chutney music, and chutney soca, Trinidad and Tobago deserves be be put on equal footing with China (opera), England (Liverpool Beatles), France (chanson), Russia (polka) and the United States (blues and jazz).

5. Germany: Despite its incoherent policies regarding the UN Charter, good governance, and human rights, Germany managed to secure 103 votes. While this was not enough for the required two-thirds majority to be elected, it was far more than a state should have expected with its immoral dithering on Gaza, Palestine, and Venezuela.

6. Zimbabwe Archaeological records date archaic human settlement of present-day Zimbabwe to at least 500,000 years ago. In the 13th century, the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe had a capital with the largest stone structure in pre colonial Southern Africa. Such prehistoric history and such an architectural achievement is a valid reason to be chosen as a special UN decision making country.

7. UN Charter: The Charter of the United Nations aims to maintain peace and international security and respect for human rights. Since it seems that the permanent members of the Security Council are more or less exempt from this obligation, the by-election of the non-permanent members offers at least a chance to counterbalance. Germany’s elimination is an encouraging sign that the reflex to punish states – in case of honesty and integrity fortunately – still holds sway.