Western Hypocrisy Continues to Baffle In Aftermath of Disaster in Turkiye, Syria

The European Union and the United States, but above all the EU, are working to mobilize the greatest number of states against Vladimir Putin’s Russia and the war in Ukraine, and they insist even more heavily on Africans and Arabs condemning the Russian invasion. It is certainly not very reassuring to see a country invade its neighbor, destroy its infrastructure and massacre its population. For all of that, however, how can we make common cause with an EU that is sinking into double standards?

When it came to supporting Ukraine, for instance, the EU alone donated around 50 billion euros in humanitarian, financial and military aid in the past year. This amount does not include aid provided directly by EU member states; it mainly includes pledges and promises — and some action — in 2022 and what has been announced or promised for 2023. The United States, for its part, has so far donated around 48 billion dollars to the Ukrainian cause, half of which came in the form of military equipment.

And this trend is set to continue — it will not stop in the coming months and years. In total, it is almost a year of Ukrainian GDP that kyiv has received or will receive from aid in one year. When you love, you don’t count and the West adores Ukraine as much as it abhors Putin. And this is where the double standard appears in all its glory, or rather all its ugliness. Let’s see the amounts allocated to other parts of the world, just as badly affected by disaster as Ukraine, if of course by disaster we mean human misfortune.

Let’s start with Africa. The EU has allocated this year the not very stellar sum of 181.5 million euros for humanitarian aid in West and Central Africa, i.e. twenty countries and a few hundred of millions of people. During COP27, the Vice-President of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, announced that “together, the European Union and four Member States – France, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark – will provide more than one billion euros to support adaptation in Africa” — he meant adaptation to climate change for which these countries are not responsible.

For Yemen, the United States disburses around $700 million a year, and the EU has allocated €170 million in 2022 for humanitarian aid to the most affected populations in what the United Nations has described as the most serious humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st century.

Pakistan literally sank in the midst of.floods last summer — 10% of the total area of the country (2.5 times Belgium) was covered by water, nearly 2,000 died, 200,000 homes destroyed, 1.8 million hectares of agricultural land were ravaged, and no less than 30 million people were affected, bereaved, homeless, or financially ruined. As Pakistan cried for help, The EU “mobilized” 30 million euros, the USA “promised” 100 million dollars, and France came up with reconstruction projects (by its companies, of course) worth 360 million euros and an additional 10 million for emergency aid.

Let’s now turn to Turkey and Syria, with this earthquake that has already killed 40,000 people, displaced millions of people, making them inevitably homeless, and which will cause billions of dollars or euros in repairs and reconstruction. The United States claims to have committed 85 million for the two countries, the World Bank has announced 1.78 billion dollars for Turkey alone, and the UN’s Antonio Guterres has called for a three-month “emergency” fund of 400 million dollars for 5 million Syrians.

Should we continue this litany of figures, the count of the rain of dollars on Ukraine and the description of this ocean of indifference towards other populations? No, let us simply recall the 100 billion in euros or dollars in favor of Ukraine alone to marvel at the indecency of Westerners in their international policy. But Ukraine is European, “populated by whites, Christians, like us” TV analysts in Europe said profusely at the start of the war, before they were called back to a minimum of decency by non-Western critics.

But on the other hand, this same West is full of value judgments on respect for human rights, on moral values and good governance aimed at these peoples who are today neglected, abandoned, even despised, if we consider the meager aid allocated to saving them from humanitarian and natural disasters, for which they are absolutely not responsible.

How then can we be surprised to see the world watching the war in Europe with indifference? Why be surprised to see the countries of Africa and Asia showing so little eagerness to condemn Russian aggressiveness and Putinian ferocity because it is indeed aggressiveness and ferocity?

The double standards, the indifference, the condescension of Westerners, yesterday and today, is turning against them. And the most amazing thing is that they are surprised!