Tanzania's ambassador to the United Nations, Augustine Mahiga, visited Whitley Auditorium Aug. 31, saying the UN's 60th birthday is the perfect time to "rejuvenate" the organization. Details...
Mahiga’s visit to Elon was made possible by Build the Village, a Raleigh missionary organization that helps develop self-sustaining villages in African countries. Mahiga said the UN is examining its changing role in world affairs and trying to direct its efforts in a way that will help the most people.
“The war in Iraq provoked a debate at the UN-is the UN still relevant in the fight against terrorism,” Mahiga said. The ambassador says he is convinced the UN is vital to the fight against terrorism because it works to combat oppression and promote world peace on varoius fronts.
Mahiga, who will become chair of the UN Security Council in January, said world security is more than just fighting terrorists. “There is an increasing recognition that security is a multidimensional concept. Poverty may be a soft threat, but it is a real threat. Pandemic diseases are a real threat to human existence. AIDS is killing 2 million people a year and half of that is in Africa.”
Addressing AIDS/HIV, hunger and poverty are at the top of the UN’s list of important issues, Mahiga said. He illustrated the financial gap that exists between Tanzania and the United States.
“One dollar in my country is the equivalent of $1,000 (in the U.S.),” Mahiga said. “Ninety percent of Tanzania makes less than that $1.” In many remote Tanzanian villages, Mahiga said most inhabitants are illiterate with no concept of what terrorism is. Their main objective is survival.
“They say, ‘my basic problem is a lack of food, a lack of education for my children, and I need my health to improve.'”
Mahiga said world security and development of impoverished countries go hand-in-hand. “There cannot be security without development, and there cannot be development without security.” African nations, he said, cannot be left behind while other countries develop. “India and China are the developing giants today, because they provide markets for Europe and the United States,” Mahiga said. “Africa must also begin to develop.”