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| Dubious Pledged Aid for Beleaguered Syrians |
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By
Stephen Lendman |
| Pledging aid is one thing, delivering it another. Past experience shows
suffering people in conflict theaters and natural disaster areas treated
dismissively, given short shrift - most or all so-called aid diverted
for profit-making purposes. Months after Haiti’s devastating January 2010 earthquake, a donor’s conference pledged over $5 billion to help victims rebuild and recover - virtually all funds earmarked exclusively for profit-making ventures, US companies getting the lion’s share, desperate people entirely ignored, still on their own six years later. Post-Katrina New Orleans became a metaphor for disaster capitalism, exploiting natural disasters for profit, people needs treated dismissively. Sri Lankan survivors following the devastating December 2004 tsunami were left homeless, forbidden to rebuild homes in destroyed coastal areas, earmarked for corporate development - benefitting state tourism and business interests at the expense of vital people needs. A post-2014 Gaza war Cairo conference pledged $5.4 billion for reconstruction. Israel was the main beneficiary. Corrupt PA officials got their share (for so-called unspecified budget purposes), none delivered to needy people - still on their own, rebuilding largely blocked under siege, UN officials complicit with Israel preventing it. Expect most aid pledged for desperate Syrians to be diverted like earlier thinly veiled profit-making schemes. Last Thursday, donor countries meeting in London pledged $10.7 billion in aid for Syrians over the next four years. Will any or enough arrive to make a difference - about as likely as the above examples. Obama’s war left half the population internally or externally displaced, struggling to survive, getting little help. Refugees arriving in neighboring countries and European ones are mistreated, exploited, their rights and needs ignored, confined under deplorable slum conditions, in some cases like the notorious Calais, France “jungle,” unfit to live in. John Kerry duplicitously addressed donor country representatives, saying Syrians struggling to survive “should tear at the conscience of all civilized people, and we have a responsibility to respond to it.” He entirely ignored Obama’s war, his complicity as a US senator and secretary of state. Washington bears full responsibility for raping Syria. Complicit NATO and regional regimes share blame, responsible for murdering hundreds of thousands, transforming the country into dystopian hell. Imperial objectives alone matter, millions killed, injured or uprooted, along with vast destruction, are a small price to pay by US standards. Aggressors pledging aid for victims show appalling hypocrisy - especially when most funds raised are earmarked for disaster capitalism purposes, profiting from human misery like earlier, people needs at best given short shrift. Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com. Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network. It airs three times weekly: live on Sundays at 1PM Central time plus two prerecorded archived programs. |
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