‽istis
reclaims Internationalism and Keeping the Peace (w/e 12th October
2019)
‽istis sat, head in hands, and lamented the funding problems for the United Nations regular programme reaching its deepest deficit of the decade (1) but grateful that the Dominican Republic, Malawi and Estonia topped the list of the 31 countries who had paid their contribution within the due period (2)
But ‽istis cowered, flinched, hid and wept at the relative cost of keeping the peace:
‽
the total UN Global Peacekeeping
budget: $6.5bn this financial year, perhaps less than half of
one per cent of world military expenditures (estimated at $1,747bn in 2013) (3)
‽
the probable UK Ministry of Defence
budget 2019-2020: £39.5bn (4)
‽
the £6.3bn to prepare for 'Brexit' this
financial year (4) which, maybe luckily (!), looks to be about the same as the UK sales of arms to Saudi-led forces in the first four years of the Yemen bombing
campaign (5)
And
‽istis wondered at arms races and the human race, the ‘us’ and ‘them’ of nation
states and perhaps, possibly, maybe how different the world might be if just
a fraction of the cost of a bomb smartly targeted on a specific area and people
was spent on health, education, community projects, infrastructure, peace and
capacity-building - smartly targeted on exactly that same area and
people.
© Pistis
References/further
reading…
1) https://news.un.org/en/story/2019/10/1048782
2) https://www.un.org/en/ga/contributions/honourroll.shtml
3) https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/how-we-are-funded
4) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/spending-round-2019-document/spending-round-2019)
5) https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/britain-arms-deals-saudi-forces-yemen-bombing-campaign-495410
