Is there one word that sums up what the world needs more of? That’s the question posed by the UN for this year’s World Humanitarian Day, when it pledges to “turn those words into currency”. Change, peace, hope and teamwork (the latter as favoured by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon) spring instinctively to mind. Along with justice and equality, they are among the trending suggestions in the run up to 19 August. But just how realistic is it to think that words have the power to accelerate global change to the extent that is needed?
Welcome to Britain: The Ugandan Asian Diaspora
On 5 August 1972 – informed by the census that had been carried out the previous year – Idi Amin announced that he had a dream in which it was revealed to him that some 60,000 Asians who were not classed as Ugandans (defined as such by a convoluted arbitrary lineage) must leave Uganda, declaring, “Asians came to Uganda to build the railway, the railway is finished, they must leave now”.