UNESCO's Honourable Intentions

"It is shameful that UNESCO is party to a prize given by Africa's longest-reigning dictator, who has pillaged his country's wealth, keeping the majority of the population in dire poverty, and who has a long record of human rights abuse, repression of freedom of the press and corruption." Homero Aridjis, former Mexican ambassador to UNESCO

Actually, anyone who has followed the behaviour and exhibited values of UNESCO might wonder what all the fuss is about.  While the situation - yet another in a long line of such events - is certainly deplorable, it is not a departure from usual UNESCO decision-making, after all.  One doesn't have to look too hard and too long to find similar events of recent vintage.

There's the UNESCO vote in October to admit Palestine as its 195th member, though it is not formally recognized as an independent sovereign state in the United Nations General Assembly.  That little contratemps resulted in the withdrawal of monetary support by the U.S. to the tune of $80-million.  And Canada too, as a result, has refused to proffer any additional funding to UNESCO.

The decision in late June to place the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem on the UNESCO endangered list of Heritage sites, because it was requested by the Palestinian Authority, resulted in another universal, international intake of breath, at the stupidity of that decision.  And when, last week, UNESCO announced the establishment of a chair at the Islamic University of Gaza, a terror-supporting academy, the heritage body outdid itself.

And now, a number of nations boycotted the latest UNESCO awards ceremony where three scientists have received research awards from a $3-million prize funded through Equatorial Guinea.  It was not the state itself, but rather its long-time president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the continent's longest-ruling dictator that initially established the UNESCO-Obiang Nguema Mbasogo International Prize for Research in the Life Sciences.

This was such an embarrassing situation, even to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, that its chief, Irina Bokova, absented herself from the ceremony that saw $100,000 doled out to the three winners, Egyptian scientist Maged Al Sherbiny for his research in vaccine development and diagnostics.

Along with South African Felix Dapare Dakora, who studies food scarcity in Africa, and Mexican Rossana Arroyo, who conducts research into parasitic diseases.  They were undoubtedly pleased at the recognition of their scientific endeavours, let alone the monetary recognition, but others most certainly are not.

And those 'others' include human rights activists, some scholars and boycotting nations which include the United States and France, UNESCO host.  All of which claim that the source of the prize money is a corrupt regime using the prize to enhance its disgraceful image.  African countries see things otherwise, looking with pride on the prize, puzzled that it has not garnered world respect.

Anxious in general to polish their image.  Obviously, having no clue how to accomplish that.