Citizen Money

I am wondering about the mandate of International organisations that fight for human justice and overthrow of dictator regimes.It is indeed gratifying to know that there is someone out there fighting on behalf of people who are imprisoned or tortured for their beliefs. Yet there is something that troubles me about mammoth organisations running the business of rousing human consciousness to  government injustices  in the International arena of global communities. Is this naïve or am I naïve in not believing the power of these organisations?  If the latter is true then why are we not able to solve the issue of war and refugee  rehabilitation?  Is fighting for and on behalf of millions  of refugees less important than destabilising a handful of far away governments an outcome of which is the  escalating refugee crisis the world is faced with?

My thought process got triggered by a random meeting at an Edmonton mall with a young representative of Amnesty. She was reaching out to people in this city probably to elicit membership and funds for causes they are committed to like the prisoners of conscience campaign. The meeting resulted in a follow up call eliciting membership and all I was required to do was  contribute money. Is that all? No choices in leading the agenda? No shareholder meeting to address issues at stake, priorities etc. etc.

However small my contribution, I want to know if that money will be utilised to further pressure governments in far off countries creating turmoil and throwing disturbed regions into further state of agitation and flux to  fulfill a political agenda. Who and how is it unanimously decided without a vote or a plebiscite that we the ordinary masses want billions to be utilised to create awareness of the ruthlessness of far off unpleasant regimes. ? An agenda day in and day out on the front pages of global media.Every idiot box channel is already bombarding us with how bad these governments are and how much harm they have inflicted on their citizens and on the world? It is time to know what harm is being inflicted by those whose cause may be just but the means too narrow and conventional!
How does it help raising awareness about bad governments in far off places when all the military might of the developed nations has overthrown most of those regimes without a bit of success in changing the scenario there. Perhaps  something incomplete in the tactics there!.

The  overthrowing bit may just be the easier option, implanting democracy not that easy.  It takes years of societal evolution for democracies to take root and yet before the slow evolution has gained momentum, the developed world is  uncapping societies in flux in the hope that is the only bottleneck to the free flow of speech and human liberty.Clearly, if nothing else, the Saddam’s and Gaddafi’s of the world were brutal enough to keep at bay the larger clannish vitriol that so inherently emaciates these societies. Clearly the wait for the West has to be longer.

The fear is that in the pursuit of unbolting the genie the West  is activating a future volcano.  I am thinking about the 16.7 million displaced refugees, the five million displaced Palestinians and 33.3 million internally displaced people who are still wondering why the types of Amnesty are not fighting for their cause. Wondering why the pursuit of overthrowing bad governments has not taken into account the torture, the pain, the trafficking, human harvesting and sexual assault of displaced people.  What is of most concern is the blindfold silence over the complications and implications of some of the outcomes of the turbulence in the Middle East and Africa region.  Consider for instance that in 2013 the country hosting the largest number of refugees- around 1.6 million, remained Pakistan and for thirty three years  the largest source of this human resettlement movement  was from its neighbour Afghanistan. The future implications of this statistics is huge. Syrian refugees come a close with 2.47 million of them in Pakistan.

Is anyone working out  this scenario?

According to the UNHCR one out of every 4 refugees worldwide is Afghan with 95 per cent located in Pakistan or Iran.The conflict in Syria has created  9 million Syrian refugee and the number of Syrian refugees is growing by 100,000 every month.
A new emerging trend is that of the Stateless refugee. These are people who are registered with no country. According to the UNHCR,  “It’s almost impossible to determine the true number of stateless people. UNHCR estimates that statelessness affected up to at least 10 million people by the end of 2013. However, data captured by governments and communicated to UNHCR were limited to 3.5 million stateless individuals in 75 countries”. 

Our tenacity of belief in uprooting regimes, the latest being Syria may have to find alternative means. The crisis of confidence in the developed world and in its institutions like the UN is not without  future ramifications.  People’ s faith is fatigued. In the pursuit of future security from unfriendly regimes are we creating a bigger monster?.The fear of the enemy far away has started to take a toll on the minds and psyche of our Governments. If conflict and unrest in the MENA region continues, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi  unfortunately may end up as heroes in the near future. Their brutality oversaw a larger calm beneath the surface.

Reverse Osmosis, is what I would say is happening now.  The conflict in the Middle East is actually testing the depth of constitutional rights in the West.  You dare not question your government about their foreign policy at least as far as these countries are concerned. Further still, the fear of these barbaric governments somehow reaching our shores has propelled democratic countries to exhibit a more than unusual  reaction to anticipated  and perceived threats even from their own citizens. Bill C-51 may just be the beginning.

Clearly Edward Snowden was a great test for western democracy.  The choice before global citizens is clear. Funding overthrow  or utilising scant monetary resources to stem the flow of future conflict and chaos. Funding rehabilitation of refugees is clearly the priority to stop a near future catastrophe. Why then are we not spending the buck on this ?  The number of refugees has passed the 50 million mark for the first time since the World War.

8.4 billion dollars is needed to resolve just the Syria refugee crisis. This is one of the largest ever UN Led appeals and ironically as OXFAM puts it, is less  than what the UK government spent on the London Olympics, a fifth of the price of the Beijing Olympics and a sixth of the cost of Sochi Olympics. The 2015 regional refugee and resilience plan – 3RP launched jointly by UNHCR, UNDP and OCHA (The office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) has so far attracted just 6 per cent of its projected  $ 4,533,248,258 requirement.Even if the money comes pouring in a big challenge for reaching aid to the 6.5 million Syrians internally displaced is well documented in an OXFAM report titled, “Failing Syria”. Despite two UNSC resolutions 2165 and 2191 authorizing UN aid operations into Syria from neighbouring countries without requiring consent of the Syrian government, the resolutions have rung hollow. The OXFAM report states, “They have been ignored or undermined by the parties to the conflict, other UN member states, and even by members of the UNSC itself”

The report goes on to say, “12.2 million people or two thirds of the population within Syria are now in need of emergency assistance. This represents a 31 percent increase over 2013 and an 80 percent increase compared with two years ago. At the same time, countries neighbouring Syria are making it increasingly difficult for people fleeing the conflict to seek asylum. “.
The need of the hour is for organisations like Amnesty to work within the given parameters and the given parameters are allegedly  hopeless governments. Yet when they are overthrown nothing much changes. Change is never overnight!

Countries like the United States and Canada are already tackling the issue of bad governance through military intervention. Public funding of Amnesty in  raising consciousness about bad governance is  justifying the  stance of  Governments that are already rightly or wrongly involved in changing governments  in these countries.   Perhaps the U.S needs to put its mind and not its muscle to create a new model of change in the MENA region. All that muscle is only  enlarging the map of rogue states on the world map. Good Luck America!