Global lawlessness could spike following Trump administration aid cuts

A social conscience could never be a strong point of the 'fabulously rich' and Karl Marx said it all with remarkable clarity: 'Social condition determines consciousness.' The Trump administration's recent decision to drastically roll back its humanitarian aid commitments worldwide is one glaring proof of this.

- BY LYNN OCKERSZ

Those wallowing in excessive wealth, such as the US President and his 'inner Cabinet', which consists of the prime pillars of US capitalist enterprise, cannot be expected to spare a thought for the working people and the poor since their minds and hearts, or consciousness, are obsessed with amassing more and more wealth. Self-aggrandizement becomes the dominant credo of the administration. The more disadvantaged social sections are left to their devices consequently.

A measure of the social and economic distress that could follow worldwide from President Trump's decision could be obtained from the prediction that the aid cuts may result in 14 million deaths over the next five years. One third of such deaths are likely to be those of children. Such consequences should not come as a surprise considering that some 80 percent of USAID programs have been cancelled, thanks to Trump.

A UN initiated world aid conference in Seville, Spain at this juncture is likely to be welcomed by the international community considering the above backdrop. Among other things, the conference should consider measures that could render the world community least dependent on US assistance, particularly of a humanitarian kind, going forward. Hopefully, the parley would come out with workable proposals that would enable the world to be increasingly independent of the US on the question of development assistance and related matters.

The EU, for instance, which has thus far spiritedly resisted US pressure to cow down to it on the trade war front and connected areas could be counted on to assist the international community in these efforts to face up to the challenges growing out of the US aid cut decision. Likewise, the assistance of the African and Arab regions and their economic cooperation formations should be enlisted by the UN to bolster its ongoing efforts to wean the world away from heavy aiddependence on the US.