OPED: Is the West’s conscience being overshadowed by its political ego?

Considerable time and effort is being put into planning and hosting meetings between politicians on Afghanistan, where the focus is on security and the world’s need for the new Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) interim government to tow the line.

Discussions are also held on conditions the IEA needs to meet on a myriad of issues, all while billions in foreign reserves held by the US remain frozen, as is monetary aid from donor countries, the World Bank and the IMF.

This strangulation of the economy is theoretical on paper and has clearly been politicized. In addition, the chances of the deciding politicians taking the real consequences into consideration appear to be elusive. Even interviews with current and former politicians and diplomats, conducted by foreign media, gloss over the real issue and focus on what’s in the past and what the West wants.

They focus on the West’s failure, on future expectations and clearly avoid the real story – the story of a humanitarian crisis unfolding before the world’s eyes.

One wonders if they are even hearing what the UN and other humanitarian organizations are saying. Are they cognizant of the warnings of a “looming humanitarian catastrophe”?

Just this week, a UN food envoy was quoted as saying the promised international aid to Afghanistan is not nearly enough to deal with the growing hunger sparked by drought and economic collapse after the IEA takeover.

Richard Trenchard, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) envoy and director for Afghanistan, said Afghanistan was hit by a “massive, almost total economic implosion that’s occurred in the last two months”.

“The situation is deteriorating so quickly and so dramatically,” he said, and called for a “massive increase” in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

The dire situation on the ground has led to a “terrifying” humanitarian crisis, he added.

These warnings have been growing over the past few weeks and keeping up with the latest data on acutely food insecure Afghans is becoming more difficult – as the figures shoot up constantly by millions.

But at face value, it doesn’t appear if these voices of concern are being heard.

So one wonders if the politicians and their egos are taking precedence over Afghans – innocent Afghans, who do not deserve this clearly dismissive treatment.

Just who does the world think they are punishing by freezing assets and holding back money? Do they not realize that they are not punishing the IEA, but instead they are making over 30 million Afghans pay the price for a failed war, a disastrous withdrawal of troops and years of backing a corrupt, failed government and president.

Hundreds of thousands of government workers, teachers, and healthcare workers have not been paid for three months. Hundreds of thousands more who were employed in the private sector have either not been paid or have lost their jobs as companies are either forced to close or struggle to keep going.

Millions more are directly affected by an economy that is collapsing. Commercial farmers are unable to sell their produce as customers have no cash, taxi drivers have very few clients, shops are empty of customers and once buzzing markets are now largely deserted, to name just a few.

Are these foreign politicians, who are holding Afghanistan’s purse strings, actually seeing this?

Are they thinking about the desperate parents wondering where they are going to get money to feed their children? And are they thinking about why these Afghans, who rely on weekly or monthly wages, are becoming increasingly more concerned about their immediate future.

What these politicians also probably don’t take into consideration is that the Afghan nation as a whole is not well off. They live just on, above or under the poverty line.

They mostly live in rustic mud houses, without piped water and only limited electricity. They do not live in comfortable houses, filled with cosy furniture, hot water on tap and fancy food on their dinner plates.

The conditions Afghans endured in the past were very different to what the West knows and now, with the economy stifled, conditions have shifted from bad to severe and are even worse for the millions who have been displaced to makeshift tent camps.

Contrary to general opinion around the world, Afghanistan is not just a sun-baked desert. Winter is severe. Temperatures plummet to well below zero across large swathes of the country, which also gets blanketed in snow and ice for months.

Even before this economic crisis, in winter’s past, poor Afghans would burn any fuel, including plastics, in a bid to stay warm. Central heating and double-glazed windows are non-existent.

So by depriving Afghans of basic access to cash through a regulated national economy, the West is actually passing down nothing less than a possible death sentence to millions.

Yes there is mistrust between the US and the IEA, but surely there are more threats of insecurity and terrorism emanating from within countries these days than there is from Afghanistan?

Is it not time to push the politics, and the wounded egos of having lost the war, aside and to now focus on helping the country constructively. Surely it’s time to prove to the IEA that the West will support them, that they won’t interfere in their internal affairs and will not bully them but rather stand by them to feed the nation, create jobs, and help rebuild Afghanistan.

Continuing along this path, of sheer resistance, is not helping anyone in Afghanistan – a nation that has suffered for decades at the hands of power hungry nations.

Now is the time for the world to show Afghans that they do have a heart; that they are not just war-mongers; that they are committed to helping them and that they don’t want to see millions plunged into the grips of poverty and starvation.