Moa Kichu, Kichutip Ward,
moalongkichu@gmail.com
The current geopolitical fervor where developing countries are being called out for either not ‘condemning Russia’ or taking sides ‘with the West enough’ is unfortunate. The people in the West equates Russia’s move on Ukraine with Hitler’s invasion of Poland, and that the developing nations of Asia, Africa and South America are cautioned not to be standing on the ‘wrong side of history’. Many of these countries are either forced unwillingly or chastised into making a stand, the choices being either stand with the West or with Russia. A neutral stance is looked upon as weak or as siding with ‘evildoers’. This brings flashbacks of an all too familiar call that the US made before its illegal and offensive war on Iraq.
To start with, most of these ‘poor’ countries do neither have the luxury of the EU, NATO and the US reliably standing by to protect them from the fallout of the confrontation, nor can they afford the economic and strategic losses that straining their relationship with Russia will cost them.Is Russia’s attack on Ukraine atrocious by international standards? Undeniably, yes. Do people in these ‘neutral’ countries feel for the Ukrainian people? Most people do. But is this really a one-of-a-kind momentous destruction of world order? As much as the West wants to believe it is, the answer is no. There should never be a race to the bottom of who can inflict the most human misery and who is suffering the most, but for argument’s sake, the world has seen much worse situations even recently, and those miseries were not of Western citizens. The West has the habit of crying hoarse when trouble spews in their own backyard, in ‘civilized countries’, as their media is putting it lately. They have usually turned a blind eye to human sufferings in ‘third’ world countries where they think trouble is the norm and instability is taken for granted.
Remember, children dying in drone strikes while sleeping peacefully at homes or dying of starvation should not be any less harrowing to our moral conscience as are ‘blue eyed and blonde haired’ men dying on the battlefields. Many developing countries are also neck full in regional messes, most of them hangovers from their colonial past. Add to that the fact that the self-proclaimed bastion of human rights either do or support horrible genocides on other ‘less civilized’ countries year in and year out. Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine, Saudi’s ongoing genocide of Yemeni people with the backing of the West, Afghani mass starvation due to US sanctions are all instances where human morality should have taken precedence too. Therefore, the conflict in Ukraine is just another one in the growing list of unfortunate problems facing humanity now.
If given the option to the ‘neutral’ countries whether they would want a US or Russian hegemony, the answer would definitely be none. The Russian action, however morally reprehensible, cannot be the one that the developing countries should pick to take a stance on and dive headlong into the conflict without thinking. They have a lot more to loss by doing so than the wealthy West, who are always scratching each other’s back. None of these ‘neutral’ countries should actually jeopardize their economic future and security just for some flimsy morality stand that everyone seems to profess but no one actually cares for. Even the EU, despite all their cries of moral outrage, have not sanctioned gas from Russia because it serves their interest at the moment. The world isn’t any more or less dangerous nor is it ending because ‘civilized’ Europeans decided to fight amongst themselves. Or if it is… in which case, any country’s moral stance won’t matter for long.
Painting one actor in the conflict as ‘evil’, playing victim to rally pity and support from other neutral countries they deem should be at their every beck and call, and making holier than thou appeals to people who have no horses in the race to jump emotionally into the conflict to their own detriment, when in reality both sides are the same, are all distasteful and none should fall for these acts anymore. Arguments about ‘what if China (or other authoritarian leaders) decides to invade Taiwan or other places’ will not cut it for most ex-colonized countries either. If China does invade Taiwan, it is because it is ready and playing by US imperialism’s rulebook in the first place. Yes, the Europeans once had immense influence over the people of developing countries; they were used as proxies and abused, even made to fight wars for them, but that time is getting over. Most ‘third world’ people do not view themselves as expendables, both militarily and economically, for their ‘more-precious-than-yours’ white lives, hopefully. We are not living in those ages anymore.
awesome