Surviving Capitalism (Not) : Pushed to the brink by disaster and war

We’ve lived so long under the spell of hierarchy—from god-kings to feudal lords to party bosses—that only recently have we awakened to see not only that “regular” citizens have the capacity for self-governance, but that without their engagement our huge global crises cannot be addressed. The changes needed for human society simply to survive, let alone thrive, are so profound that the only way we will move toward them is if we ourselves, regular citizens, feel meaningful ownership of solutions through direct engagement. Our problems are too big, interrelated, and pervasive to yield to directives from on high.
—Frances Moore Lappé, excerpt from Time for Progressives to Grow Up

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Pushed to the brink by disaster and war

by Saadia Toor from Socialist Worker.

From my understanding of Pakistan's politics and their relation to the war in Afghanistan based on a number of reliable sources, I think that this article offers considerable insight into this tragic region.

It's clear that US's relationship with Pakistan is modeled after their typical relationships with the countries of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980's--the use of corruption to control the nation's military in order to control the nation. This practice continues today especially in the smaller countries like Honduras and Guatemala. In Pakistan it appears that the control is working both ways between the US and Pakistan's military. It is the people of this region that suffer the consequences.

The author describes in some detail, which has been mostly ignored in US media, the recent devastating floods that has exacerbated the misery of Pakistanis. The author provides an excellent context to understand the poor response by their government to provide aid relief to the victims.

In reality, the crisis is so enormous that no state would have been able to rise to the challenge. And the Pakistani state, for various reasons, was even less prepared to respond to the crisis.

The Pakistani state today is a state hollowed out by neoliberal reforms as a result of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank conditionalities. These conditionalities came as a part of aid agreements brokered by successive military governments. The result is that Pakistan has become a cash cow for imperialist and domestic vested interests.

The IMF has sucked billions out of the country in the form of loan repayments. The aid has gone directly into the pockets of the ruling elite, especially the military establishment. As a result, the state as a result lacked the basic infrastructure to respond to this crisis in the appropriate fashion.

Also, see Christian Parenti's excellent, intense documentary entitled, "Fixer: The Taking of Ajmal Naqshbandi", which supports the views of this author regarding the relationship between the Taliban and Pakistan's military.