Never mind
The WHO has changed its mind about Mugabe.
The World Health Organization has revoked the appointment of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe as a goodwill ambassador following a widespread outcry.
“I have listened carefully to all who have expressed their concerns,” WHO head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.
He had previously praised Zimbabwe for its commitment to public health.
But critics pointed out that Zimbabwe’s healthcare system had collapsed under Mr Mugabe’s 30-year rule.
To say nothing of his dire human rights record.
The about-face will raise questions over the leadership of the WHO’s new director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The decision to honour Mr Mugabe is likely to have been taken several weeks ago, and at no point did Mr Tedros seem aware that appointing as goodwill ambassador a man who has been accused of human rights abuses, and of neglecting to the point of collapse his own country’s health service, might be controversial.
The WHO was supposed to be embarking on a new era of reform. Instead, it is mired in a public relations disaster.
There’s a lot of that about.
So, another hashtag has-been? #WHO? ;-)
But a public relations disaster entirely of their own making. I mean, it’s not like Mugabe was this nobody that had a secret past unknown to the world. His ghastly, destructive rule of Zimbabwe and the things he has done to his people are well known and documented. My jaw actually dropped when I saw the headline that he’d been appointed.
They said satire died the day they gave the Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger. If so, this appointment just spat on its grave. No walking it back in response to public outcry should distract from the fact that even suggesting Mugabe’s name should have been laughed out of the room as a bad taste joke. How on earth this passed muster to the point of making the announcement, without anyone saying “hey, maybe he isn’t the best choice for this position”, I have no idea.
It truly is an astounding misstep. I mean, what rock must one have been hiding under for the last couple of decades, not to have heard Mugabe’s name in the news occasionally, and never in a positive light? And if an ordinary schmoe like me knows this, how can a highly placed official, not? It’s kind of in the job description.
Agree with all above (maybe one exception;))
How much would it have cost to have someone make that YUUGE pile of carp on the crapet? One wonders.
Saudi Arabia/Iran on human rights commissions?
Its as if Trump was in command.