Category Archives: Society

Britain, Foreign Affairs, Government, Society, Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s reputation and the need for answers…

Intro: The appalling human rights record in Sri Lanka raises questions about the legitimacy of the Commonwealth

The furore over the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Sri Lanka is problematic. For David Cameron, whose decision to attend a summit – hosted by a country where the government stands accused both of historical war crimes and continuing human rights violations – has, rightly, caused a flood of criticism. Mr Cameron insisted that by attending he would be in a position of applying more pressure than if he had not attended. His concomitant pledge of having frank and forthright discussions with President Rajapaksa was never convincing. The British prime minister’s attendance hardly shines an even dim light on the post-colonial club itself. Attendance in itself confers a credibility that Colombo has not earned.

The indifference of the Sri Lankan government has been quick to warn Mr Cameron off the topic – on the grounds that this was never the basis by which he was invited, and thus denies him the right to bring it up. Such a warning makes the prime minister’s position look even more ridiculous.

In retrospect, it was indefensible that Mahinda Rajapaksa’s authoritarian and tarnished leadership should have been given the honour of hosting the Commonwealth. Incredibly, as a matter of formality, he will also become the organisation’s formal chairman for the next two years. Whilst it is right that Mr Cameron’s attendance be condemned, we should not forget that these decisions were nodded through by the previous government of Gordon Brown at the Tobago and Trinidad summit in 2009. When Douglas Alexander, the now shadow foreign secretary, but who was part of the Brown administration, denounces the Prime Minister for refusing to boycott Sri Lanka, he is portraying the most brazen kind of political opportunism and hypocrisy.

As the British empire disintegrated after the Second World War, the legitimacy of the Commonwealth was conceived as an intergovernmental alliance centred around a shared commitment to democracy, human rights and the rule of law. Six decades on, it is far from a noble institution. Sri Lanka is not the only offender. In many of the Commonwealth’s 53 member states there are persistent allegations of everything from extrajudicial killings to torture and political suppression in countries ranging from Nigeria to Pakistan. Human rights abuses are often swept under the carpet by a quorum of member states facing similar charges of human rights violations – so much for the principle ideals and the so-called ‘core values’.

David Cameron says he will make clear that President Rajapaksa’s behaviour has impinged upon and seriously violated the Commonwealth’s most cherished ideals: no one has been held accountable for atrocities allegedly committed by Sri Lanka’s army in the final stages of the civil war in 2009. The whereabouts of nearly 5,700 critics of the regime, dissident politicians and journalists are unknown.

Mr Cameron is right to demand an independent inquiry into these cases, and Mr Rajapaksa should be made aware that his country’s reputation will never recover until the fate of the disappeared is settled. Likewise, evidence of atrocities committed by Tamil rebels during the civil war should also be thoroughly investigated. The UN estimates that some 40,000 civilians were killed in the final months of the 26-year conflict. If some progress can be made in these areas, then something positive might yet come from the summit. In reality, though, with the Sri Lankans already fulminating against what they see as an old imperial power treating them like a colony, then this summit promises to be far from enchanting.

It has to be said, too, that the Commonwealth is not the only international gathering with such problems. The African Union, for instance, which officially excludes any government that has come to power through ‘unconstitutional means’, still has a number of despots on its register. The UN has similar issues: several of the countries recently elected to its Human Rights Council are violators themselves. The EU also faces continuing questions over its desire to admit new members that appear less than credible.

Despite the issues, this shouldn’t mean a call for the Commonwealth to be scrapped. Notwithstanding its imperial beginnings and arbitrary membership list, the Commonwealth of Nations is still an opportunity to garner and foster global discussion. With this is mind it should be cherished. Historical sensitivities, however, are important and the crisis of legitimacy cannot remain unaddressed. No one nation, even with the support of other rich-world members, can be the final arbiter of the rules.

With India, Canada and Mauritius having boycotted the summit on the grounds of war crimes and atrocities committed by Sri Lanka during its long civil war, it can only be hoped that when Mr Cameron was in India en route to Sri Lanka this week, he took the opportunity to press Manmohan Singh to spearhead reforms.

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Afghanistan, Britain, Economic, Government, Politics, Society, United Nations, United States

Afghanistan is a booming narco-state…

Intro: Afghanistan is an affluent narcotic state despite the country being invaded to liberate it from the drugs trade

Prior to the war in Afghanistan, the then British prime minister, Tony Blair, said that one of the most compelling reasons for going to war was to curtail the trade in narcotic drugs such as heroin and opium. However, if one was to examine the facts it would be shown that the Taliban government had already started to deactivate Afghanistan’s drugs trade. In 2000, the Taleban were the ruling authority in the country and had declared the heroin trade as being ‘un-Islamic’. Following that decree the fundamentalist regime managed to reduce production by 99 per cent in the areas that it controlled. Yet, by contrast, the war with the West has witnessed a lucrative market for Afghan’s poppy farmers. After more than 12 years of fighting – which has cost Britain dear in terms of lost lives and resources expended – opium production in Afghanistan is at a record high. The United Nations drugs agency says that the area under cultivation rose by 36 per cent in 2013 and that Afghanistan now provides 90 per cent of the world’s heroin. The country Britain invaded partly to liberate it from the drugs trade has become a flourishing and affluent narcotic-state.

Was there a way in which this now booming trade could have been stopped? Arguably, if the West had put all its resources and efforts into eradication the likelihood of crushing the drugs trade in Afghanistan  would have been high. Unless that task is approached with the ruthless methods and barbarism of the Taliban, any other approach would likely falter. The planting of an alternative crop may have been another consideration but even that would have been troublesome because Afghanistan’s environment makes it perfect for poppy cultivation but inhospitable to almost anything else.

A genuine alternative, however, might be to turn the situation to the world’s advantage. Four years into the Afghan campaign, the Senlis Council, a think tank, suggested buying the crop and using it to manufacture palliative medicines for Western consumers – turning Afghanistan’s poppy farmers into legitimate businessmen.

If we consider that opium poppies are already grown under strict legal controls in India, and also in Britain, the idea is not as radical as it might sound. The world has a shortage of pharmaceutical painkillers, such as morphine and codeine, and the Afghan farmers could easily meet that demand. Whether the country has the ability to police such an ambitious programme, though, does raise doubts. One thing above all else is certain: the West has lost its war on the poppy.

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Environment, Global warming, Government, Research, Society

The catastrophe in the Philippines is not due to global warming…

EVIDENCE BASED ARGUMENT

Typhoon Haiyan, which struck the Philippines with devastating and deadly effect a few days ago, is overshadowing the UN climate summit in Warsaw. A group of delegates along with some climate campaigners have been quick to suggest that global warming was to blame for the disaster and catastrophe that is unfolding. Nothing, though, could be further from the truth.

The Atlantic hurricane season, which many forecasters predicted would be more active in 2013 than normal, has turned out to be inaccurate. Take a closer inspection of the cyclones and tropical storms this year and an observer would easily conclude that something quite remarkable has happened. For the first time in 45 years, no major hurricane made landfall. This year, too, has been marked by the fewest number of hurricanes since 1982, and the first since 1994 when no major hurricane formed. Indeed, U.S. weather experts have confirmed that 2013 has been one of the weakest hurricane seasons since modern record-keeping began some 50 years ago. Paradoxically, then, if the alleged cause, global warming, has inhibited hurricanes on one side of the world how has it managed to trigger typhoons on the other side?

Empirical evidence is important here. Whilst climate activists claim that tropical cyclone activity (including the frequency and intensity of typhoons) has increased as the global temperature has gone up, scientific observations published in many journals show that despite the moderate warming during the 20th century, the number of tropical cyclones making landfall in the Philippines did not increase and has remained unchanged for more than 100 years.

Just hours before the typhoon hit the Philippines, authorities moved almost 1 million people to evacuation centres. Sadly, many of these structures collapsed when the tropical storm hit coastal towns and villages. As many as 10,000 people, including 4,000 children, have been killed. The death toll could yet be much higher. Much of the initial destruction that killed so many was caused by winds blowing at 235 kilometres per hour. In retrospect, however, it didn’t really have to be that way.

A superstorm of similar magnitude, Cyclone Yasi, hit Queensland, Australia, in February 2011. The cyclone hit Queensland with an eye of 100km in diameter and wind speeds of up to 285km/h. Crucially, however, local disaster management plans had been implemented long in advance. Evacuation, including that of hospitals, was completed more than four hours before the cyclone struck. Because Australia is an advanced and prosperous nation that can afford to implement highly effective disaster warning systems, not a single person died as a result of this destructive cyclone.

Many people around the world who are exposed and susceptible to natural hazards are increasingly relying on the effectiveness of warning systems. Disaster warning systems are most effective for natural catastrophes that develop gradually and relatively slowly, such as floods or tropical cyclones. Just two months ago, a fierce and ruthless cyclone ripped along India’s east coast. It only killed 25 people as millions of people were evacuated in advance of the tropical cyclone, minimising greatly the number of fatalities. 14 years earlier, more than 10,000 people were killed in a similar cyclone that arrived without much warning.

Even some poor countries known for their vulnerability to cyclones have learnt how to prepare for the recurrent threat and have succeeded in significantly reducing cyclone-related deaths. Bangladesh is one such example. The two deadliest cyclones in Bangladesh’s history occurred in 1970 and 1991, killing 500,000 and 140,000 people respectively. In the last two decades, Bangladesh has introduced better warning systems that have helped to substantially reduce deaths and injuries from cyclones. In 2007, for instance, Bangladesh suffered a severe cyclone that claimed the lives of 4,234 people, a 100-fold reduction compared with the devastating cyclone that hit the country in 1970.

Research carried out by the eminent US scientist, Indur Goklany, with his findings published and documented in numerous papers, states that the average annual deaths and death rates from all extreme weather events has declined by more than 90 per cent since 1920. This decline occurred despite a vast increase in the population at risk and more complete coverage of extreme weather events. Goklany also shows that, globally, the number of deaths and death rates due to storms – including hurricanes, cyclones, tornadoes and typhoons – have declined by 47 per cent and 70 per cent respectively since the 1970s.

Economic development and technological advancement has allowed many countries to become increasingly better at coping with and adapting to the effects of extreme weather events. Goklany highlights that many advocate the spending of trillions of dollars to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gases, in part to forestall hypothetical future increases in mortality from global warming. But, as he says, spending even a fraction of such sums on the numerous higher priority health and safety problems plaguing humanity would provide greater returns for human well-being.

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