Well that was predictable
Well that was predictable
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/18629062
According to the debate, they had their reasons. But still -- when one hundred and eighty six nations say one thing, and two say another, you have to wonder about the two.
When even the most reviled dictatorships in the world are voting in favour of the UN recognising food as a right, it sure does make the US look uniquely scummy.
Um. You know you can sell it, right?!
(/s just in case)
when one hundred and eighty six nations say one thing, and two say another, you have to wonder about the two.
Especially when those two are consistently on the wrong side of such votes.
UN resolution A/RES/75/169: Combating glorification of Nazism, neo-Nazism and other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance
- US and Turkey are only votes against, Israel didn't vote. (You'd think Israel might care more about Nazis but I guess not)
UN resolution A/78/L.5: Necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed by the United States of America against Cuba
- US and Israel are the only votes against ending the embargo.
I could go on, but this pattern holds across numerous issues. USA and Israel's governments are fucking monsters.
(You’d think Israel might care more about Nazis but I guess not)
I think they care a lot about keeping the "other practices that contribute to fuelling contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance"
Another lie: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3949735 Israel was in favour, the us and Ukraine were against and quite a list abstained
you know this is public information, right?
That's A/76/460, which the person you're replying to did not mention, and which had the abstains and votes against because of the political context, aka being proposed by russia while they were leading an offensive war under the pretense of denazification. You know that's public information too, right?
Are we the baddies?
(I still can't post images to lemmy.blahaj.zone)
Yes
But you can to imgur, grab the direct image URL and then embed it as such:
And to make a button:
[](on-click destination URL)Example:
In this case the image is just 0.9kB, so to save an unnecessary request to Imgur, I used data URI with base64. You can't do this with larger images due to comment size limitations. Just imagine a normal URL in there.
The whole images database debacle with Lemmy is kind of a big deal, and I have never seen an announcement about it, but I'm on team turning it off on a small instance like blahaj.zone. It's too much data and this instance is too small to afford that kind of server space. Plus, unless things have changed, there is basically no real server panel for controlling the image database and admins basically have to manage it manually. Which is something that is pretty daunting for some admins.
So yeah, fuck the image support, use imgur, if you're a blahaj user.
Or use pixelfed.
Yeah okay but consider: hosting images costs Ada money, and that's good.
Well it does mean I'm restricted to text even on c/196
Which might justify why I break the rule now.
Let's vote right to exist next!
Fucking hell this is the strongest argument I've seen thus far that I need to get out of the US. What the hell.
The only issue is to where. I think better to stay but position yourself in a situation were you can make an impact even if a small one.
correction to what I wrote below: turns out there was a new vote, in a meeting with a bunch of things voted on. The 2021 vote is on page 15 of the English pdf. You can find it using a PDF search: "right to food".
The usa and Israel voted against, no members abstained.
the meeting with votes in the doc from 2021:
https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/3984859
I just looked up the vote on the un website. This post is bs, only one country voted against.Edit: I had an earlier vote about a similar resolution, see tacticalsugar's reply to me for the correct one
Israel abstained, America was the only no vote. Which is still stupid, obviously, but... marginally less so
This Committee is meeting at a time when the international community is confronting one of the most serious food-security emergencies in modern history. Hunger is on the rise for the third year in a row, after a decade of progress. And now, for communities already experiencing poverty and hunger, the COVID-19 pandemic is disproportionately affecting lives by harming how people provide for themselves and feed their families – both today and long after the pandemic subsides. More than 35 million people in South Sudan, Somalia, the Lake Chad Basin, and Yemen are facing severe food insecurity exacerbated by the global pandemic, and in the case of Yemen, potential famine. The United States remains fully engaged and committed to addressing these complex crises.
This resolution rightfully acknowledges the hardships millions of people are facing, and importantly calls on States to support the emergency humanitarian appeals of the UN. However, the resolution also contains many unbalanced, inaccurate, and unwise provisions the United States cannot support. This resolution does not articulate meaningful solutions for preventing hunger and malnutrition or avoiding their devastating consequences.
The United States is concerned that the concept of “food sovereignty” could justify protectionism or other restrictive import or export policies that will have negative consequences for food security, sustainability, and income growth. Improved access to local, regional, and global markets helps ensure food is available to the people who need it most and smooths price volatility. Food security depends on appropriate domestic action by governments, including regulatory and market reforms, that is consistent with international commitments.
We also do not accept any reading of this resolution or related documents that would suggest that States have particular extraterritorial obligations arising from any concept of a “right to food,” which we do not recognize and has no definition in international law.
For these reasons, we request a vote and we will vote against this resolution.
https://usun.usmission.gov/explanation-of-vote-on-a-resolution-on-the-right-to-food/
It all sounds like some very reasonable language, and yet no other countries raised the same objection, including not only countries we are not allied with and don't generally seem to respect, but also countries we are allied with and do generally seem to respect.
I read it as "hey guys let's all agree to do this thing, and then we can figure out the details" and US is the singular guy in the meeting who is like "nope, we can't agree to do it until we've split every hair about exactly how it will be done."
When North Korea votes for something like this, it's almost as if it's just meaningless bullshit.
North Korea's famine during the 90s was due to western sanctions after everyone they used to buy food from left their economic bloc, not because they don't believe people should have food.
Which is actually why the US voted against it basically it was to lodge a complaint against wasting UN resources on unenforceable feel good actions that don't actually change anything.
Everyone being pissy and suggesting this is some moral reflection against America are basically the equivalent of people calling the one guy who voted against everyone getting free unicorns a party pooper because "even if we can't actually do it why do ya gotta go against the vibe man‽"
I have news for you: The United States, with its trillions of dollars of economic power at its disposal, could vote for such a "feel good action" and then, on the other side of it, propose a UN resolution against North Korea for abusing it's citizens.
Food scarcity is not a production problem. It is a political one. We can, in fact, completely secure everyone a full belly but we don't because of $madeUpReason.
The US (and Israel) not backing the decision because it's a "free unicorn" is absolutely absurd.
Hell the US distributes food throughout the world in the most remote places. Of all the countries that could do this by themselves is the US.
