In his recent book Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, former US President, Jimmy Carter, comes across as a deeply religious, and God fearing man. To quote Albert Einstein’s “as a deeply religious non-believer”, I could not help taking Carter’s historical chronology on the Middle East with a bit of salt. The religious undertone of the historical chronology is unmistakable. Says Carter:
“Developments in the Middle East can be best understood if the history of the region is reviewed. [Two essential timelines include]:
ca. 1900 B.C. Abraham journeys from Ur to Canaan
.
.
.
ca. 4 B.C. Jesus is born. He is crucified thirty- two years later after a ministry of three years. Christian churches are established throughout the eastern Roman empire.”
As illustrated above, the historical chronology of the Middle East is also indicative of Carter’s strong believe in the bible as an accurate account of life in the Middle East during the middle ages. That is despite the lack of empirical evidence of the existence of God, and his “holy son, Jesus”. Furthermore, Carter seems to have an obvious admiration for the “holy land” and, according to the bible, ‘God’s chosen people’. Says Carter: “I was infatuated with the holy land [since the beginning of my bible studies]” (p. 22) or as he described his early morning tours of the holy land “I wanted to see the city come to life…to catch a flavor of how it might have been two thousand years earlier when Jesus strolled down these same streets” (p. 24). It is thus, not surprising that Carter’s first recommendation to lasting peace in the region is “the security of Israel must be guaranteed” (p. 207) at all times. As a matter of fact, in the first two chapters, one already has a feeling on the outcome of the recommendations. His open belief in God and the bible consequently indicates certain biasness towards Israel.
Although Carter also criticizes the Israeli government for not respecting international law- in particular Israel’s refusal to withdraw to the 1967 border as specified by UN Resolution 242-, and the building of the proposed segregation wall route, which also acts as a border that surrounds Palestinians, he seems to agree that Israel has a right, to him, a biblical right, to occupy Palestine.
Despite all of this, Carter’s book is a must read if you want to get an excellent behind-the-scene description of Middle Eastern politics and a historical overview of the region between World War I and the recent Israel/ Lebanon war that took place in 2006. The account on the creation of the countries in the Middle East, the key players, the origins of the middle eastern monarch and pretty much how Britain, the US and France fucked up the whole region (even though these are just mentioned in passing) is indeed fascinating.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Monday, August 6, 2007
‘Africa’s Silent Tsunami’
“If you want gold, look in na mountain;
If you want love, go look in na home;
If you want heaven, go get a bible;
But if you ye want debt relief, go pray for Tsunami”.
With these words, Obi Amako, a freelance poet and cartoon artist from Nairobi, Kenya, could not have summed up how relentless the barriers are to achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals, which were set out and agreed to by World Leaders in 2000 at the General Assembly of the United Nations. According to researchers Africa, the only continent where poverty levels exacerbated tremendously, is faced with many challenges to achieve the MDGs by the target year of 2015. Was the agreed target year too optimistic, especially for the developing world? If so, how do we ensure that we are not left behind?
As it is, the world is ignoring the realities in African countries. We have been and continue to be subjected to death rates far greater than those who perished during the Asian Tsunami through poverty, diseases, civil unrest, to name but a few. According to figures from the World Bank, approximately 800 million Africans go to bed hungry, resulting in the malnutrition of children that lead to higher rate of infant mortalities. About seventy percent of Africans in rural areas are starving and live in marginalized areas with low agricultural growth potential. In the developing world, such as most countries in Africa, food insecurity and environmental degradation are inherently linked, thus sustainable land practices becomes less of a priority. Sub-Saharan Africa is also the only Region where poverty has double within the last two decades. In 1981, figures showed that 164 million people lived in extreme poverty and by 2002, this figure doubled to 314 million. In addition, the demand for food in the Africa is predicted to double within the next 20 years but the limitations include decrease of water, arable land, increased policy conflicts, decrease labour and increasing pollution levels. Diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis claim thousands of African lives, mostly in the Sub-Saharan Africans, at an unprecedented scale every minute of the day. In some countries such as Angola, people are dying of curable diseases. It is thus no wonder that life expectancy has gone down. In Namibia if you have turned 46, then you should count yourselves lucky.
The eight MDGs, which are associated with time-bound targets of 2015, are to:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development.
If a drastic approach and change in attitudes do not occur now, then we might as well forget about achieving these MDG goals.
In Namibia where about sixty percent is direct natural resource dependent, our population is extremely vulnerable to the silent tsunami in terms of combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, eradicating poverty and achieving environmental sustainability.
How can we reach the targets
1. Global partnership, especially between the developed and the developing world need to be improved, especially in terms of financial resources. Developed countries are not meeting the United Nations (UN) target of 0.7 percent of gross national product (GNP) as Official Development Assistance (ODA), which was set by the UN General Assembly in 1970. ODA in Namibia have been on the decrease since 1995 and have more than halved since independence in 1990.
2. Investment- without conditions- in infrastructure development, health and education need to be stepped up to the level of Europe’s reconstruction after World War II. The United States gave 2.0 percent of its national income to rebuild Europe after World War II. Today, the percentage of U.S. income going to poor countries remains at 0.14 percent, Britain's is at 0.34 percent and France 0.41 percent.
3. The removal of trade barriers, improved market access and foreign direct investments for the developing world need to be promoted. The developed world imposes heavy tariffs on agricultural products from the developing world, resulting in the latter lack to competition.
4. Foreign debt of ALL developing countries, not just the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), needs to be cancelled. Countries, such as Namibia, who are not necessarily HIPC, have inherited highly skew structural inequalities that classify it as a middle-income country.
ODA alone is not going to take us out of the silent tsunami. Africans themselves, i.e. Governments, the private sector and individuals need to become more pro-active and work together if we want to achieve the targets of MDGs. We need to invest more in our human capital, infrastructure, improving food security and ensuring good governance.
If you want love, go look in na home;
If you want heaven, go get a bible;
But if you ye want debt relief, go pray for Tsunami”.
With these words, Obi Amako, a freelance poet and cartoon artist from Nairobi, Kenya, could not have summed up how relentless the barriers are to achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals, which were set out and agreed to by World Leaders in 2000 at the General Assembly of the United Nations. According to researchers Africa, the only continent where poverty levels exacerbated tremendously, is faced with many challenges to achieve the MDGs by the target year of 2015. Was the agreed target year too optimistic, especially for the developing world? If so, how do we ensure that we are not left behind?
As it is, the world is ignoring the realities in African countries. We have been and continue to be subjected to death rates far greater than those who perished during the Asian Tsunami through poverty, diseases, civil unrest, to name but a few. According to figures from the World Bank, approximately 800 million Africans go to bed hungry, resulting in the malnutrition of children that lead to higher rate of infant mortalities. About seventy percent of Africans in rural areas are starving and live in marginalized areas with low agricultural growth potential. In the developing world, such as most countries in Africa, food insecurity and environmental degradation are inherently linked, thus sustainable land practices becomes less of a priority. Sub-Saharan Africa is also the only Region where poverty has double within the last two decades. In 1981, figures showed that 164 million people lived in extreme poverty and by 2002, this figure doubled to 314 million. In addition, the demand for food in the Africa is predicted to double within the next 20 years but the limitations include decrease of water, arable land, increased policy conflicts, decrease labour and increasing pollution levels. Diseases, such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis claim thousands of African lives, mostly in the Sub-Saharan Africans, at an unprecedented scale every minute of the day. In some countries such as Angola, people are dying of curable diseases. It is thus no wonder that life expectancy has gone down. In Namibia if you have turned 46, then you should count yourselves lucky.
The eight MDGs, which are associated with time-bound targets of 2015, are to:
1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
2. Achieve universal primary education
3. Promote gender equality and empower women
4. Reduce child mortality
5. Improve maternal health
6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
7. Ensure environmental sustainability
8. Develop a global partnership for development.
If a drastic approach and change in attitudes do not occur now, then we might as well forget about achieving these MDG goals.
In Namibia where about sixty percent is direct natural resource dependent, our population is extremely vulnerable to the silent tsunami in terms of combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, eradicating poverty and achieving environmental sustainability.
How can we reach the targets
1. Global partnership, especially between the developed and the developing world need to be improved, especially in terms of financial resources. Developed countries are not meeting the United Nations (UN) target of 0.7 percent of gross national product (GNP) as Official Development Assistance (ODA), which was set by the UN General Assembly in 1970. ODA in Namibia have been on the decrease since 1995 and have more than halved since independence in 1990.
2. Investment- without conditions- in infrastructure development, health and education need to be stepped up to the level of Europe’s reconstruction after World War II. The United States gave 2.0 percent of its national income to rebuild Europe after World War II. Today, the percentage of U.S. income going to poor countries remains at 0.14 percent, Britain's is at 0.34 percent and France 0.41 percent.
3. The removal of trade barriers, improved market access and foreign direct investments for the developing world need to be promoted. The developed world imposes heavy tariffs on agricultural products from the developing world, resulting in the latter lack to competition.
4. Foreign debt of ALL developing countries, not just the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC), needs to be cancelled. Countries, such as Namibia, who are not necessarily HIPC, have inherited highly skew structural inequalities that classify it as a middle-income country.
ODA alone is not going to take us out of the silent tsunami. Africans themselves, i.e. Governments, the private sector and individuals need to become more pro-active and work together if we want to achieve the targets of MDGs. We need to invest more in our human capital, infrastructure, improving food security and ensuring good governance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
