Power, Control and What Matters More

Wow.  That was fast.   One week and we have an agreement reached by the UN for a no-fly zone over Libya and troops on the ground to save the Libyan people from a "rogue dictator".  It seems incredible to me that a decision on that scale can be made that fast with the wide variety of agendas at play at that level.  Now let's compare that to the time it took for UN delegates to come to an agreement, sort of, on the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People.  It was adopted by the General Assembly in 2007 but the idea for the Declaration began in 1982 and so, in total, was 22 years in the making.  It then took 3 more years before the four dissenting countries (Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States) signed on, with Canada's statement of support containing qualifiers and clarifications to prevent any idea that there may be a commitment contained in the document.
So, to sum up, it was 22 years for the UN to agree on the wording of a non-binding declaration that Indigenous people have rights and 7 days to agree that military action was required to intervene in a civil war in a country that coincidentally contains the largest proven oil reserves in all of Africa.  22 years versus 7 days.  It speaks clearly to the values held by those in power and I guess I shouldn't be surprised.  Power, control and access to energy (petroleum in this instance) have always trumped humanity.  Perhaps that's because the primary energy sources we rely upon are not renewable resources and, up to this point, human beings are.