Tag: Aid

US Leads Sanctions Killing Millions to No End — Global Issues

  • Opinion by Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Anis Chowdhury (kuala lumpur and sydney)
  • Inter Press Service

KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Jun 07 (IPS) – Food crises, economic stagnation and price increases are worsening unevenly, almost everywhere, following the Ukraine war. Sanctions against Russia have especially hurt those relying on wheat and fertilizer imports.

Unilateral sanctions illegal
Unilateral sanctions – not approved by the UN Security Council – are illegal under international law. Besides contravening the UN Charter, unilateral sanctions inflict much human loss. Countless civilians – many far from target countries – are at risk, depriving them of much, even life itself.

Jomo Kwame SundaramSanctions, embargos and blockades – ‘sold’ as non-violent alternatives to waging war by military means – economically isolate and punish targeted countries, supposedly to force them to acquiesce. But most sanctions hurt the innocent majority, much more than ruling elites.

Like laying siege on enemy settlements, sanctions are ‘weapons of mass starvation’. They “are silent killers. People die in their homes, nobody is counting”. The human costs are considerable and varied, but largely overlooked. Knowing they are mere collateral damage will not endear any victim to the sanctions’ ‘true purpose’.

US sanctions’ victims
The US has imposed more sanctions, for longer periods, than any other nation. During 1990-2005, the US imposed a third of sanctions regimes worldwide. These were inflicted on more than 1,000 entities or individuals yearly in 2016-20 – nearly 80% more than in 2008-15. Thus, the Trump administration raised the US share of all sanctions to almost half!

Tens of millions of Afghans now face food insecurity, even starvation, as the US has seized its US$9.5 billion central bank reserves. President Biden’s 11 February 2022 executive order gives half of this to 9/11 victims’ families, although no Afghan was ever found responsible for the atrocity.

Biden claims the rest will be for ‘humanitarian crises’, presumably as decided by the White House. But he remains silent about the countless victims of the US’s two-decade long war in Afghanistan, where airstrikes alone killed at least 48,308 civilians.

Anis ChowdhuryNow, the US-controlled World Bank and IMF both block access to financial resources for Afghanistan. The long US war’s massive population displacement and physical destruction have made it much more vulnerable and foreign aid dependent.

The six decade-long US trade embargo has cost Cuba at least US$130 billion. It causes shortages of food, medicine and other essential items to this day. Meanwhile, Washington continues to ignore the UN General Assembly’s call to lift its blockade.

The US-backed Israeli blockade of the densely populated Gaza Strip has inflicted at least US$17 billion in losses. Besides denying Gaza’s population access to many imported supplies – including medicines – bombing and repression make life miserable for its besieged people.

Meanwhile, the US supports the Saudi-led coalition’s war on Yemen with its continuing blockade of the poorest Arab nation. US arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have ensured the worst for Yemenis under siege.

Blocking essential goods – including food, fuel and medical supplies – has intensified the “world’s worst ongoing humanitarian crisis”. Meanwhile, “years of famine” – including “starving to death a Yemeni child every 75 seconds” – have been aggravated by the “largest cholera outbreak anywhere in history”.

Humanitarian disasters and destroying lives and livelihoods are excused as inevitable “collateral damage”. Acknowledging hundreds of thousands of Iraqi child deaths, due to US sanctions after the 1991 invasion, an ex-US Secretary of State deemed the price “worth it”.

Poverty levels in countries under US sanctions are 3.8 percentage points higher, on average, than in other comparable countries. Such negative impacts rose with their duration, while unilateral and US sanctions stood out as most effective!

Clearly, the US government has not hesitated to wage war by other means. Its recent sanctions threaten living costs worldwide, reversing progress everywhere, especially for the most vulnerable.

Yet, US-led unilateral sanctions against Iran, Venezuela, North Korea and other countries have failed to achieve their purported objectives, namely, to change regimes, or at least, regime behaviour.

Changing US policy?
Although unilateral sanctions are not valid under the UN Charter, many US reformers want Washington to “lead by example, overhaul US sanctions, and ensure that sanctions are targeted, proportional, connected to discrete policy goals and reversible”.

Last year, the Biden administration began a comprehensive review of US sanctions policies. It has promised to minimize their adverse humanitarian impacts, and even to consider allowing trade – on humanitarian grounds – with heavily sanctioned nations. But actual policy change has been wanting so far.

US sanctions continue to ruin Iran’s economy and millions of livelihoods. Despite COVID-19 – which hit the nation early and hard – sanctions have continued, limiting access to imported goods and resources, including medicines.

A US embargo has also blocked urgently needed humanitarian aid for North Korea. Similarly, US actions have repeatedly blocked meeting the urgent needs of the many millions of vulnerable people in the country.

The Trump administration’s sanctions against Venezuela have deepened its massive income collapse, intensifying its food, health and economic crises. US sanctions have targeted its oil industry, providing most of its export earnings.

Besides preventing Venezuela from accessing its funds in foreign banks and multilateral financial institutions, the US has also blocked access to international financial markets. And instead of targeting individuals, US sanctions punish the entire Venezuelan nation.

Russia’s Sputnik-V was the first COVID-19 vaccine developed, and is among the world’s most widely used. Meanwhile, rich countries’ “vaccine apartheid” and strict enforcement of intellectual property rights – augmenting corporate profits – have limited access to ‘Western’ vaccines.

The US has not spared Sputnik-V from sanctions, disrupting not only shipments from Russia, but also production elsewhere, e.g., in India and South Korea, which planned to produce 100 million doses monthly. Denying Russia use of the SWIFT international payments system makes it hard for others to buy them.

Rethinking sanctions
Economic sanctions – originally conceived a century ago to wage war by non-military means – are increasingly being used to force governments to conform. Sanctions are still portrayed as non-violent means to induce ‘rogue’ states to ‘behave’.

But this ignores its cruel paradox – supposedly avoiding war, sanctions lay siege, an ancient technique of war. Yet, despite all the harm caused, they typically fail to achieve their intended political objectives – as Nicholas Mulder documents in The Economic Weapon: The Rise of Sanctions as a Tool of Modern War.

As Cuba, Iran, Afghanistan and Venezuela were not major food or fertilizer exporters, their own populations have suffered most from the sanctions against them. But Russia, Ukraine and even Belarus are significant producers and exporters.

Hence, sanctions against Russia and Belarus have much wider international implications, especially for European fuel supplies. More ominously, they threaten food security not only now, but also in the future as fertilizer supplies are cut off.

With tepid growth since the 2008 global financial crisis, the West now blocks economic recovery. Vaccine apartheid, deliberate supply disruptions and deflationary policies now disrupt international economic integration, once pushed by the West.

As war increasingly crowds out international diplomacy, commitments to the UN Charter, multilateralism, peace and sustainable development are being drowned by their enemies, often invoking misleadingly similar rhetoric.

IPS UN Bureau


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© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service



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A Sliver of Hope for Lebanon? — Global Issues

The economic and political crisis in Lebanon has left most households short on food. Now, the outbreak of war in Ukraine threatens to send food prices skyrocketing and push basic foods out of reach. Lebanon imports more than 50% of its wheat from Ukraine. Credit: UN World Food Programme (WFP)
  • Opinion by Rasha Al Saba (london)
  • Inter Press Service
  • The writer is Head of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Department at Minority Rights Group International, UK.

LONDON, May 23 (IPS) – In the midst of what has been an incredibly turbulent period for Lebanon, the conclusion of elections last week ought to be hailed as a chance to focus on the future. This, the first election since the mass uprisings in 2019 against what was seen as a corrupt ruling elite, has shown some signs of the drive for change.

Lebanon’s consociational system – power sharing between the three large religious blocks – is effectively the compromise forged with the backing of the international community to establish peace in the country after a long and bitter civil war.

Despite widespread criticism this sectarian influence forged by the Taif Agreement in 1989, has remained firm, creating an elite ruling class, that in subsequent decades has consistently failed to tackle the major problems the country faces.

In the face of what is believed to be one of the worst economic depressions the world has seen in 150 years, an estimated 80 per cent of the population now live in poverty. The rising prices had already in 2019 led to the mass uprising, and the shortages have only got worse as rising fuel prices have put scarce food and medicines further out of reach of the population.

The devastation of the explosion at Beirut’s port in 2020, and the death toll and economic paralysis caused by the pandemic have only compounded issues.

While the headlines all focus on the waning influence of Hezbollah – and by proxy, of Iran, there are other aspects to the election worth highlighting.

Of course, the loss of the alliance between Hezbollah and the Aounist party is significant, mainly because it is hard to predict how the popular base that sits behind the armed Hezbollah will react. The Lebanese peace has been hard won, but the peace has not come with a growth in stability and prosperity.

As with the drivers of the revolution in Tunisia, it is the lack of opportunities and entrenched inequality that are at the forefront of the frustration of ordinary Lebanese. In this sense the increase in the number of seats claimed by independent and opposition candidates could potentially result in competing blocs, none of which enjoys an absolute majority.

Some of these candidates have derived their sustenance from the anti-elite protests of 2019. The victory of lawyer Firas Hamdan, an independent candidate who won in the south against Marwan Kheireddine, former minister and Chairman of the AM Bank, is demonstrative of this trend.

Hamdan was injured during the 2019 protests, and his victory may signal a weakening of the hold of the traditionalists who have benefitted from the political system themselves, while being unable to create a governance agenda that benefits the whole of the country.

Another change is the modest increase in the number of women in the new parliament, who now account for 8 out of 128 parliamentarians, versus 6 women in the old parliament. However, half of those who succeeded are independent candidates, which can empower the anti-elitist bloc in the parliament.

The anti-refugee sentiment of the Lebanese government has also been clear during the election when the Ministry of Interior imposed a ban on the movement of Palestinian and Syrian refugees.

Syrians have been featured in the election campaigns and agenda throughout the election. There are genuine fears among Syrian refugees that advances for the main parties in this election could result in the approval of laws that may pave the way for the repatriation of Syrian refugees to Syria.

If passed and implemented, such laws increase the risk of torture, detention and killings at the behest of the Syrian regime they previously escaped.

These elections took place in the midst of destitution and desperation that were once unimaginable. The surge of protest in 2019 against those conditions suggested that mass change was possible, but this was dampened by the arrival of the pandemic, which then took a significant toll on a population already rendered vulnerable.

Nearly three years later, this has translated into an election result that is mixed for Lebanon.

In a country of multiple minorities and historic diversities, the creation of a government that can transcend identities and take a countrywide approach to governance is imperative. The arrival of the new independent women candidates, campaigning and winning on a new platform offers a sliver of hope.

But if the ‘old politics’ of Christian versus Muslim, and a separate proxy competition of Iran versus Saudi Arabia continues to hold sway, the road ahead will be tough indeed.

IPS UN Bureau


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© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service



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The Sun Illuminates the Nights of Rural Families in El Salvador — Global Issues

Francisca Piecho stands with her daughter-in-law Johana Cruz and her grandson outside her home that now has electricity from solar energy, in the village of Cacho de Oro, Teotepeque municipality, in the southern department of La Libertad. Hers and other rural Salvadoran families have seen their lives improve with the arrival not only of electricity but also of a reforestation program in the area. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS
  • by Edgardo Ayala (teotepeque, el salvador)
  • Inter Press Service

TEOTEPEQUE, El Salvador, May 05 (IPS) – After working on the family farm, Carlos Salama comes home and plugs his cell phone into a socket via a solar-powered electrical system, a rarity in this rural village in southern El Salvador.

“Just being able to charge the phone with our own electricity, which comes from the sun, is a great thing for us,” the 29-year-old farmer who lives in Cacho de Oro, a rural settlement nestled in hills on the shores of the Pacific Ocean in Teotepeque municipality in the southern department of La Libertad, told IPS.

Salama’s mother, Rosa Aquino, was also enthusiastic about the electrical system installed in her home and 15 other houses in the village in late April.

“It feels good, we never had electricity… at night it makes you happy. When I was a child we used kerosene lanterns. And then battery lamps, and now we save what we used to spend on batteries,” Aquino, 45, told IPS.

Salvadoran farmer Carlos Salama recharges his cell phone by means of a solar energy system installed on the roof of the house where he lives in the village of Cacho de Oro, in the municipality of Teotepeque. Although the system does not support appliances that consume more than 500 watts, the families now have lightbulbs to use at night, can charge their cell phones and can use small appliances. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

Poverty in plain sight

Some 50 families live in Cacho de Oro, dedicated to subsistence agriculture. And although the village has had electricity from the national grid for some years now, nearly twenty families, the poorest, have not been able to afford the connection to the grid.

That was the case of the family of Francisca Piecho, a 43-year-old farmer who lives with her son and his wife and their little boy in a dirt-floor dwelling.

Piecho’s husband works in another area of the country cutting sugar cane, as he could not find work in Cacho de Oro.

The family could not afford to pay the 500 dollars it cost to connect to the national power line that had finally reached the village.

“Some families have relatives in other countries who send them remittances, but we don’t have any, and we couldn’t afford it,” Piecho told IPS, while stirring a stew on a wood stove.

Her son was not at home when IPS visited the village. But Piecho said he works in agriculture, mainly during the May to November rainy season, because in the dry season there is almost no work available.

The village of Cacho de Oro is perched on top of a hill along the Pacific Ocean in southern El Salvador, a remote impoverished area where unemployment is particularly acute during the November to May dry season, when no agricultural work is available. The privatized electricity system has not connected these villages to the national grid because it is not profitable. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

In El Salvador, electricity distribution has been privatized since 1998, and many rural villages do not have electric power because they are very small and the companies do not see investing there as good business.

According to official figures, 95.2 percent of households in rural areas have access to electricity, while 2.0 percent use candles, 0.8 percent use solar panels, 0.5 percent use kerosene, and 1.4 percent use other means.

Official data also shows that the average monthly household income in urban areas is 728 dollars compared to 435 dollars in rural areas.

But now the poorest families in Cacho de Oro also have electricity, and from a clean energy source, thanks to the solar power project brought to the village by the governmental Environmental Fund of El Salvador (Fonaes), at a cost of 16,000 dollars.

Staff from the municipal government in Jicalapa, in the southern Salvadoran department of La Libertad, explain to a group of residents from the village of Izcacuyo about the solar electrification project that began in December 2021, as well as the community reforestation effort. CREDIT: Municipality of Jicalapa

Solar energy to the rescue

Solar panels were installed on the rooftops of the houses of nearly twenty families. The panel provides just enough electric power to connect a couple of light bulbs, charge a cell phone and plug in small appliances that consume less than 500 watts.

“If the appliances consume more than that, it’s not enough to turn them on,” Arturo Solano, a technician with Tecnosolar, the company that supplied the panels, told IPS.

He added that there are approximately 100 community solar energy projects in rural El Salvador, a country of 6.7 million inhabitants. About 7,500 homes have been electrified with this clean energy source.

“You have to adapt to the system and buy appliances that are compatible with the power it supplies,” he said, adding that the amount of energy provided depends on the investment made, because if you want more power, you have to install more panels.

Even so, with this very basic electricity service, the residents of Cacho de Oro are happy to at least have electric light and an outlet to charge their cell phones and stay in communication.

Before the arrival of the solar energy project, some of the families were able to connect to the national grid indirectly through neighbors who were connected. But this meant that they had to pay part of the monthly bill.

“Now we no longer pay part of the bill, which cost us five dollars. We use that money to buy some food, eggs or oil,” Francisco de la Cruz Tulen, a 30-year-old farmer who lives with his wife Milagro Menjívar, 21, and their two small children, told IPS, pleased to have electricity at no monthly cost.

In the rainy season, Tulen, like the rest, rents a small plot of land to plant the staple crops of Central America – corn and beans – to feed the family. He also works on other farms as a day laborer, to earn a little money.

But in the dry season, he leaves the village to look for work in the sugar cane fields. This work, one of the most physically demanding in agriculture, pays between six and 24 dollars a day.

In addition to the solar electrification project in the village of Cacho de Oro in southern El Salvador, reservoirs have been built to capture rainwater and irrigate fruit and timber trees planted to reforest the area and provide food, such as avocados, and keep the aquifers healthy. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

Reservoirs for life

There is no potable water in Cacho de Oro. The families get their water from a spring that sometimes dries up in the dry season and at times they have to buy water in barrels brought in by truck. Each barrel costs 2.5 dollars.

“There are possibilities of getting piped water. A Japanese development cooperation project has dug a well, but we are still waiting to see,” German de la Cruz Tesorero, a resident of the village and the president of the local Communal Development Association (Adescos), an organizational system for small settlements in this Central American country, told IPS.

To maintain water sources and to provide food, the solar electrification project is also accompanied by a reforestation effort in the area. In addition, small reservoirs have been built to irrigate the trees and home gardens.

This has occurred not only in Cacho de Oro, but also in another village located downstream, called Izcacuyo, in the municipality of Jicalapa, also in the department of La Libertad.

Some families have planted vegetable gardens next to their homes in the southern Salvadoran village of Cacho de Oro, growing vegetables such as “pipián”, a highly prized local squash, to boost food production in this impoverished part of the country. CREDIT: Edgardo Ayala/IPS

The families of Izcacuyo have their own solar electrification project, inaugurated in December 2021, with the difference that they had never received energy from the national grid.

To charge a cell phone, villagers had to go to the canton of La Perla, a 30-minute bus ride away.

The total cost of the local electrification and reforestation project was 38,000 dollars, including 30,000 provided by Fonaes, 4,000 by the municipal government and the other 4,000 from work contributed by the community, which was counted as hours of labor.

Some 5,450 fruit trees have been planted in family plots, including avocado, lemon and mango trees, as well as timber species such as madrecacao (Gliricidia sepium), which offers advantages to the habitat and soils by fixing nitrogen.

The project also provided fertilizer to ensure that the trees grew well.

The municipal government’s idea is that in three or four years, families will be harvesting avocados, mangos and lemons, and part of the production can be marketed along the coastal strip of the department of La Libertad, catering to tourists and hotels and restaurants in the area.

“They will see the benefits in a couple of years,” said William Beltrán, a technician in the Jicalapa municipal government, during a meeting with IPS in San Salvador.

© Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service

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