Root causes
Root causes
Updated 02:53am (Mla time) Dec 08, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the December 8, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THE WORLD knows Oxfam as a development, relief and campaigning organization that works with others to find lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world. Right here, in the wake of flood and landslides that killed more than a thousand people, Oxfam has sent teams to Real, Infanta and General Nakar in Quezon Province where they will spend the next four weeks providing immediate relief for approximately 68,000 people. Oxfam will assist with water and sanitation relief while providing materials such as plastic sheeting to improve the living conditions in the evacuation centers and homes damaged by the floods and landslides. Afterwards, it will also provide seeds to farmers, fishnets to fisherfolk, and other basic tools and materials so that people can rebuild their livelihoods. The Oxfam teams will also survey the needs of the people they help, including water sources and the quality of water to ensure that waterborne diseases are prevented from spreading.
A great deal of the difficult task of helping people help themselves is undertaken by groups such as Oxfam, and when such groups speak out, people should listen.
In a report released this week, Oxfam focused on the decreasing levels of foreign aid money set aside for development NGOs by rich countries. It warns that the UN's Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction are being put at risk. It also decries what it perceives to be the tendency to attach too many conditions to foreign assistance, such as spending caps and fiscal targets to foreign aid contributions.
In the same report, Oxfam expressed concern that anti-terrorism efforts are endangering foreign aid budgets, with security concerns taking priority over poverty reduction in dictating where foreign aid funds are spent. For example, over the past three years, levels of American aid to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan have equaled the aid to the rest of the world combined.
In London, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, together with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, issued a joint statement in which they manifested their devotion to the War on Terror, but also said that the war was a short-term military approach to the issue. Significantly, the two leaders also called for a long-term approach to fighting terrorism, which entails attacking the root causes of the problem. They agreed that these root causes were linked to poverty, deprivation and denial of freedom to people. Pakistan's president was more emphatic in an interview with the BBC: "We are fighting [terrorism] in its immediate context, but we are not fighting it in its strategic, long-term context."
Musharraf pointedly remarked, "What gives rise to a young man or woman to give up her or his life? It is the political disputes and we need to resolve them and also illiteracy and poverty... These combined are breeding grounds of extremism and terrorism."
The statements of Oxfam and of the Pakistani president are, in a sense, two sides of the same coin. Groups such as Oxfam cannot do their work in conflict-ridden areas, and suffer when foreign aid is curtailed to buy bombs instead of allocating funds to help people emerge from poverty. But prudent leaders who use military methods also realize that total war cannot be waged forever. Armed might is, at best, from the point of view of those engaged in statecraft, a delaying operation if the root causes of conflict aren't addressed.
Hermann Goering uttered the notorious Nazi slogan, "Guns before butter," which indicates that only a mentality that glorifies conquest and demeans humanity thinks that bullets can do more than growing and sharing food. Contentment breeds security, after all. Armed conflict only breeds hatred and misery.
Both Oxfam and Musharraf in a sense have made similar criticisms of American policy, which presumes security can be the offshoot of waging war. These views from divergent sources should make Filipinos pause to reflect on our national priorities. The Philippines has been made anxious by terrorists and terrorism, but wiser counsel says peace and quiet can be achieved only by reducing the incidence of poverty, and by educating people and making them healthier. A more peaceful and productive country cannot be achieved at the point of a gun.
Updated 02:53am (Mla time) Dec 08, 2004
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A14 of the December 8, 2004 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
THE WORLD knows Oxfam as a development, relief and campaigning organization that works with others to find lasting solutions to poverty and suffering around the world. Right here, in the wake of flood and landslides that killed more than a thousand people, Oxfam has sent teams to Real, Infanta and General Nakar in Quezon Province where they will spend the next four weeks providing immediate relief for approximately 68,000 people. Oxfam will assist with water and sanitation relief while providing materials such as plastic sheeting to improve the living conditions in the evacuation centers and homes damaged by the floods and landslides. Afterwards, it will also provide seeds to farmers, fishnets to fisherfolk, and other basic tools and materials so that people can rebuild their livelihoods. The Oxfam teams will also survey the needs of the people they help, including water sources and the quality of water to ensure that waterborne diseases are prevented from spreading.
A great deal of the difficult task of helping people help themselves is undertaken by groups such as Oxfam, and when such groups speak out, people should listen.
In a report released this week, Oxfam focused on the decreasing levels of foreign aid money set aside for development NGOs by rich countries. It warns that the UN's Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction are being put at risk. It also decries what it perceives to be the tendency to attach too many conditions to foreign assistance, such as spending caps and fiscal targets to foreign aid contributions.
In the same report, Oxfam expressed concern that anti-terrorism efforts are endangering foreign aid budgets, with security concerns taking priority over poverty reduction in dictating where foreign aid funds are spent. For example, over the past three years, levels of American aid to Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Afghanistan have equaled the aid to the rest of the world combined.
In London, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, together with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, issued a joint statement in which they manifested their devotion to the War on Terror, but also said that the war was a short-term military approach to the issue. Significantly, the two leaders also called for a long-term approach to fighting terrorism, which entails attacking the root causes of the problem. They agreed that these root causes were linked to poverty, deprivation and denial of freedom to people. Pakistan's president was more emphatic in an interview with the BBC: "We are fighting [terrorism] in its immediate context, but we are not fighting it in its strategic, long-term context."
Musharraf pointedly remarked, "What gives rise to a young man or woman to give up her or his life? It is the political disputes and we need to resolve them and also illiteracy and poverty... These combined are breeding grounds of extremism and terrorism."
The statements of Oxfam and of the Pakistani president are, in a sense, two sides of the same coin. Groups such as Oxfam cannot do their work in conflict-ridden areas, and suffer when foreign aid is curtailed to buy bombs instead of allocating funds to help people emerge from poverty. But prudent leaders who use military methods also realize that total war cannot be waged forever. Armed might is, at best, from the point of view of those engaged in statecraft, a delaying operation if the root causes of conflict aren't addressed.
Hermann Goering uttered the notorious Nazi slogan, "Guns before butter," which indicates that only a mentality that glorifies conquest and demeans humanity thinks that bullets can do more than growing and sharing food. Contentment breeds security, after all. Armed conflict only breeds hatred and misery.
Both Oxfam and Musharraf in a sense have made similar criticisms of American policy, which presumes security can be the offshoot of waging war. These views from divergent sources should make Filipinos pause to reflect on our national priorities. The Philippines has been made anxious by terrorists and terrorism, but wiser counsel says peace and quiet can be achieved only by reducing the incidence of poverty, and by educating people and making them healthier. A more peaceful and productive country cannot be achieved at the point of a gun.
posted by Dante at 5:49 PM
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