Romeo Dallaire

"You must give them my messages whether they listen or not. But they won't listen, for they are completely rebellious!" --God's words to the prophet Ezekiel in Ezekiel 2:7

Last Sunday, while I was in Calgary, I had the opportunity to hear Romeo Dallaire speak. He led the UN mission in Rwanda during the genocide there. While he didn't say much about Rwanda, he talked about some ways in which conflict has changed, and what Canada can do in it. He thinks that as a "middle power" we need to step up and intervene more in situations like Rwanda and Darfur. He also spoke of the need for countries like ours to be less motivated by self-interest.

While I was thinking about Romeo Dallaire before he spoke, I noticed some similarities between him and the prophets in the Old Testament. He had an important message (many people in Rwanda were being killed and the world needed to do more about it), he was ignored, the results were disastrous, and now we honour him. How long will it take us to learn to listen to these warnings? I suppose the world doesn't always ignore the important warnings we get, but I think we can do better.