By Kalinga Seneviratne*
BANGKOK | 18 October 2023 (IDN) — Every year the United Nations mark October 17 as the ‘International Day for the Eradication of Poverty’. Another day has come and gone and the world’s target of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 is further away than a year ago. Meanwhile the world military industrial complex (MIC) is laughing its way to the bank with more orders in the pipeline than the same time last year.
Chandran Nair, the founder of the Global Institute for Tomorrow and member of the Club of Rome, argues that it is time for societies to make concerted efforts to rein in the US political economy that fuels geopolitical tensions and enables countries and private actors to push for and capitalize on conflict that fuel the MIC that is the lifeblood of the American economy.
Professor Jeffrey Sachs Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University has also been echoing the same sentiments, pointing out the dangers of American policy that is threatening global development and the achievement of the SDGs. He describes it as a scam that keeps on giving to the MIC, even “as it impoverishes and endangers America and the world”.
Funding Ukraine’s War Not America’s Hurricane Victims
On October 17 addressing an election rally in Atlanta in support of the US presidential candidate Donald Trump, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, said Americans are outraged by the present administration’s decision to send billions of dollars to Ukraine while treating its citizens “worse than dirt.”[1]
Referring to recent devastating wildfires, a hazardous railroad disaster, and Hurricanes, she said the rage in the country is “unspeakable,” adding that the administration has treated Americans like their lives are meaningless, “as if their tax dollars never mattered. And treated them so that they’re only worth 750 measly bucks (referring to emergency aid offered by the Biden administration to hurricane victims).”
“Oh, but Congress will write that cheque for $60 billion over and over again for Ukraine. Won’t they?” Greene added. US lawmakers have approved almost $180 billion in Ukraine aid since 2022. Greene has repeatedly voted against these spending packages.
The American mainstream media has vilified Greene over recent months, for trying to block in Congress those pay cheques that they have approved each time Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy turns up in Washington.
Hurricane Milton that hit Florida on October 9 has left at least 14 people dead, and over 3 million homes left without electricity. Property damage it is estimated will exceed $30 billion. Two weeks earlier, Hurricane Helene left at least 130 people dead across the states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee and Virginia. White House has been claiming as lies that they were too slow to response to the damage caused, and say the $750 emergency aid is just the beginning of what is to come.
The US policy makers are ever willing to fund the arms industry which is by definition an “industry of destruction” rather than fund disaster relief for climatic change victims and assist to rebuild communities with modern technological infrastructure that could withstand cyclones and typhoons. In addition, selfish sanctions against Russia to support Ukraine in the war, has devastated the global economy, and become a major barrier for the Global South to recover from the economic devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID’s Impact on Asia’s Poverty Eradication
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Asian region in 2020, most of the countries of South and Southeast Asia were well on the way to lifting millions of people out of poverty due to over three decades of sustained economic growth that have gradually filtered to the lower rungs of society.
In a news release by the Asian Development Bank in August 2024[2], they pointed out that by 2030, extreme poverty in the region was expected to drop to below 1%. At least 25% of the population was expected to achieve middle-class status. All this came crashing down with the COVID-19 lockdowns.
COVID-19 exposed many bottlenecks—there was a lack of proper funding for public health services and aged care, food security issues were exposed especially for urban populations—which involves corrupted supply chains. Lack of open spaces for urban populations, and heaps of other development and infrastructure issues were also exposed.
These are problems that were exposed in both rich and poor countries – not only in Asia. The funding priorities were widely identified across Asia. But what happened after that?
Smear Campaign Against China
Led by the then US President Donald Trump and cheer led by the Western media and transmitted by its echo chambers in Asia, a smear campaign was begun against China. All the world’s problems were presented as security issues—not development issues. A new arms race started, as geo-politics became the flavour of the day for the global media.
For example, in the Philippines, after President Marcos came to power in 2022 and tilted its foreign policy towards the US, tensions in the South China Sea raised many folds, when cheer led by the US, Philippines began to send “supply ships” to a grounded rusting ship on a atoll claimed by Manila, which China disputes.
COVID-19 exposed serious deficiencies in the Philippines public health system, but the government in Manila got into a “water cannon” fight with the Chinese navy and started buying weapons from the US to defend itself from “Chinese aggression”. All these would spiral Manila towards a “debt trap” while much needed funds for public health services are still lacking.
In post-COVID era, it is such triggering of tensions especially in Asia that is forcing governments to arm themself as the Western media and American politicians in particularly, started to talk daily about security threats from China, Russia, Islamic terrorists or whoever—when the real security threats come from the West, including their media.
China’s Response
China’s response to the socio-economic damage of the pandemic has been in sharp contrast to that of the US. They moved within the UN system to redefine human rights as development rights that are focused on collective (community) rights.
On 12 October 2023, the UN Human Rights Council unanimously adopted a resolution initiated by China and supported by India and 80 other countries for “promoting and protecting economic, social and cultural rights within the context of addressing inequalities”. It calls for strengthened international cooperation to promote economic, social, and cultural rights through capacity building[3]. This resolution will be forwarded to the UN General Assembly for a vote that if adopted will be a powerful voice for global collective action.
China has also proposed the ‘Global Development Initiative’ to help drive the global sustainable development campaign to achieve the SDGs. The first principle of this initiative underpins their push to redefine human rights. It says: People are the fundamental driving force of development, and improving people’s wellbeing is the fundamental purpose of development (and development need to) continuously improve people’s livelihood and enhance people’s sense of happiness, gain, and security.
Time For a Global Movement to Promote Peace
Nair argues that it is time for societies to make concerted efforts to rein in the MIC by building a movement to educate the world about the grave threat this industry poses to civilization—he is advocating an annual Global Conference of Peacebuilding similar to the UN’s climate change conference known as COP held annually to drum up funding for climate change mitigation.
In a world where the mainstream media news – not only in the West but also across Asia—is what Noam Chomsky calls “manufacturing consent “—for war not peaceful existence and cooperation to solve the world’s pressing sustainable development issues to eradicate poverty. We need to look for new paradigms of communication—a humanitarian journalism paradigm—that is able to report events through the perspectives of the people and societies impacted by it.
*Kalinga Seneviratne is the author of “Myth of Free Media and Fake News in the Post-truth Era” and a forthcoming book on ‘Geo-Politics and the Media in Asia and the Pacific’. [IDN-InDepthNews]
Photo: Slums built on swamp land near a garbage dump in East Cipinang, Jakarta Indonesia. Credit: Jonathan McIntosh. CC BY 2.0
[1] https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/-unspeakable-anger–in-us-over-ukraine-aid–marjorie-taylor
[2] https://www.adb.org/news/pandemic-sets-back-fight-against-poverty-asia-least-2-years-has-likely-hurt-social-mobility
[3] https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202310/1299812.shtml