Press TV: There was a consensus
reached at the EU in terms of how much aid they should be giving, this
was back in 2008 at the height of the global financial crisis, and they
made a pledge of one billion euros to developing countries. There have
also been other pledges by world powers. Why isn't this translating to
anything on the ground because we're not looking at any improvement
especially with what is occurring in the Horn of Africa, which is the
focal point of where the need is?
Richard Becker: Time after time, both in regard to the EU and
to the US, the pledges of aid are not borne out by the delivery of the
aid. This has been the case in Haiti; it's been in numerous countries in
Africa. There are the conferences that take place where the grand
proclamations are made, but the mainstream media in general do not
follow up on what actually happens.
I would like to point out that the shortfall of the World Food
Program's 477 million dollar budget was equaled by the first two days of
just the US war in Libya. The entire budget of the World Food Program
what it needs to feed these millions of people who are suffering
horrifically -- that 477 million dollars -- equals about one day and a
half of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
And I think there's another aspect of this, too. How did Somalia
come to be in the situation that it is today? More than thirty years
ago, the US pulled the last stable national government that Somalia had,
headed by Mohamed Siad Barre, into an alliance to make war against
Ethiopia.
The purpose of this war was not only to bring down Ethiopia and the
government in Ethiopia at the time, but it was part of the US strategy,
the global strategy, of fighting against what it perceived as allies of
the Soviet Union. As soon as the Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991
and even a little bit before that as it was disintegrating, the US
government's interest in Somalia evaporated. And it left Somalia in an
absolutely devastated state.
The contribution of the US geopolitics to the crisis that exists
today in Somalia is traceable to that period that was reinforced by the
staged intervention in 1992 and early 1993 that was rehearsed several
times over -- the humanitarian intervention idea to sustain the Pentagon
-- and it has been sustained by the US intervention both directly and
by having Ethiopia then intervene in Somalia to prevent a resolution of
the civil war. This aspect of it cannot be overstated.
Press TV: When we talk about a conceptual approach, you have
people starving, let's get money to them… What is the disconnect there? I
know I'm making it sound very general... Of course, there's politics
and agencies involved and challenges in ways of getting the food to the
people, but there are people dying. Why can't there be a way to save
these people in a quicker way?
Richard Becker: Well, there has to be. There has to be an
emergency immediate aid. I completely agree with that. I would say
another problem though with the food aid that comes in, in the times
when there is not a crisis or when the crisis is receding, as happened
in Somalia in the mid 1990s, was that it proved to be a disincentive to
grow when the drought ended because it was undercutting the price for
farmers.
So, this whole conceptual way of approaching development reliant on
NGOs and this kind of intervention… I would agree it often proves to
create more problems than it solves.
I want to respond to your point about RTP (the Right to Protect).
The RTP argument is a new form of justification for imperialist
intervention and it is used very very selectively as you were
suggesting. The Right to Protect, as in the case of Libya, the bombing
of Libya that's now been going on for 114 days and it has hit many many
civilian areas, that is to protect civilians is a very good example of
how the RTP is selectively used to justify this kind of military
intervention while at the same time there seems to be no RTP initiative
or desire on the part of the same officials who are making the argument
about Libya, when it comes to people starving by the millions in the
Horn of Africa.