The UN in Cartoons

This week I have discovered the UN twice in the world of animated cartoons.

The first time I came upon this discovery was one late night while I was watching japanese anime on TV. All of a sudden during a commerical break, some of the characters from Robotech which features a short discourse on how humans can live better in this world and ends with the UN logo and slogan. You can view it at Harmony Gold's website: http://www.theshadowchronicles.com/info.php?id=un

Today I learnt about a TV commercial by UNICEF with the Smurfs as its protagonists. In the commercial (which will air first in Belgium), the poor Smurfs are bombed and their mushroom homes are destroyed as well as many of their lives. The objective of the commercial is to remind us of the horror of war and how it affects children so that we can work to avoid putting children in the danger of war. You can read a bit more about it here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/10/08/wsmurf08.xml&sSheet=/news/2005/10/08/ixhome.html

Eventhough the Smurf commercial might not be seen by children, we can tell that the UN is putting its focus on the new generations too. That's great! I believe that the younger we start teaching kids of the good intentions behind the UN, the more people we will have in the world who are committed to peace and human rights in the future.