On the War on Poverty & the War on Terror
contributed by Jamie Swift
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Ian Smillie:
“Poor people in developing countries work hard and peacefully, against great odds, to survive; they do not become terrorists. But in poor neighbourhoods in most societies, and especially in countries where inequality looms large, there is more crime, social degradation and violence than elsewhere. And in societies where people are hungry, some—unemployed angry young men mostly—are prone to joining groups that aim to overthrow those they see as their oppressors. This is not new: the Bourbons and the Romanovs learned this lesson as they toppled into their graves.”
This important article by Ian Smillie begins an exploration of the links between terrorist violence and poverty. The longtime Ottawa NGO activist (Mr. Smillie has been a leader in the struggle against blood diamonds and an insightful critic of the foreign aid industry) offers a well-informed critique of the way a fellow aid critic chooses to frame the link between foreign aid policy and anti-terrorist programs of western governments.
You can read the full article here: http://www.mcleodgroup.ca/
And you can read the article it references here: http://www.nyudri.org/assets/inthemedia/2016/terrorpovertynyrb.pdf
After some online research, we were unable to attribute this image. Let us know if you know the source.
Jeff Piker
January 11, 2017 @ 1:43 pm
Thanks much, Jamie, for this posting and the two articles you reference. Much of value here for us to consider, about “the links between terrorist violence and poverty” — and about the role in all this being played by the Canadian government, our NGO’s and ultimately ourselves as Canadians.
I especially like what Smillie says at the end of his piece:
“Why not insist instead that government aid be clearly and demonstrably delinked from national security and commercial interests? That it be spent—as advertised—on poverty reduction, human rights and good governance, and that it be made openly accountable to the people who pay for it?
“That, of course, would require something more than misery-based fundraising and a hunt for government contracts on the part of ‘those who want to support Western humanitarian efforts.’ It would require an effort—especially by NGOs—to explain some of this to their donors (who are also taxpayers), treating them as responsible adults rather than passive milch cows. It would require a recognition that there is indeed great peril in poverty and ignorance, but that it can be addressed in ways that don’t fall into the traps that Easterly has described so well.”