The Hindu : Opinion / Leader Page Articles : Wave of compassion or new tide?

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Friday, Jan 07, 2005

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Opinion - Leader Page Articles

Wave of compassion or new tide?

By Timothy Garton Ash

This wave of global solidarity must not end in a detritus of broken promises.

A TSUNAMI of human solidarity is sweeping across the surface of the globe in response to the physical tsunami that has ravaged the shores of the Indian Ocean. Every day brings a staggering upward estimate of deaths — and of aid donations. At a season of religious festivals, the rich peoples of the world indulge in a benign competition to do good. Private donations in Britain have reached about £90 million. Worldwide, public aid pledges are now over $3 billion. Taken all in all, this is probably the biggest humanitarian relief operation in history.

But what will be left when this tsunami of international solidarity has subsided? The detritus of broken promises, as with so many previous headline pledges? Hasty half-measures of disaster relief, not properly followed through with projects of long-term reconstruction?

Meanwhile, the generous British, Germans, Americans and other rich peoples revert to their old ways. A British election this summer is decided by which party can make the middle class even more comfortable. The Bush administration gives yet more tax breaks for the rich. The Germans go back to worrying about unemployment, sluggish growth and their embattled social model.Europeans and Americans combine — in a rare example of transatlantic harmony — to avoid the far-reaching debt relief and opening of our markets, which alone can start the Sri Lankas of this world on the slow ascent out of chronic poverty.

Looking at the past record of the rich north, a sceptic would confidently make that prognosis for 2005. The sceptic may well be proved right. Standing in the centre of Oxford on Wednesday at noon, I saw the recommended three-minute commemorative silence largely ignored by the crowds of shoppers, eagerly pushing on to the next New Year sale. But let me at least sketch another more heartening possibility: what the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 were to the "war on terror," the tsunami of December 26, 2004 can be to the war on want.

The British Government has already declared its intention to make poverty in Africa and global warming the twin focusses of its presidency of the G-8 this year. The United Nations, keen on moving the spotlight of world opinion from the embarrassment of the Iraq "oil for food" scandal, will be glad to refocus on the realisation of its millennium development goals, which remain the best strategic definition we have of what needs to be done. And if the United States and the European Union do want to repair their relationship, here surely is something on which they can agree.

Admittedly, stepping up the global war on poverty in response to a natural disaster is not perfect logic. But it is at least as logical as invading Iraq in reply to an attack by Al-Qaeda terrorists — and a much better idea, to boot.

Such a shift in public policy will be sustainable if, and only if, this wave of human solidarity is more than just a tsunami: here today, gone tomorrow. There are a few indications that it may reflect a deeper sea-change in public attitudes in the rich world. Wonderment has been expressed at the scale of private donations in response to the Asian disaster.

In fact, the scale of regular charitable giving in prosperous western democracies is far from negligible.

Nonetheless, I find a growing sense that it is important to move in this direction. There are streets in English towns where every other frontage seems to be a charity shop. This year sees the launch of a great, imaginative initiative to Make Poverty History (www.makepovertyhistory.com) . Many young people do adventurous volunteer work for international charities.

Underpinning these material facts of giving, whether in cash, kind or work, is a mental phenomenon. It has been called moral globalisation. Increasingly, citizens of rich countries identify with people far away and see themselves as having some moral obligation towards them.

Indeed, if there is any credible, coherent, larger project of the Left in the early 21st century, it can only be defined in global terms. To be on the side of the poor, the oppressed and the exploited today must mean to attack the greatest inequality of our time — between the rich north (where, among other expensive things, we have warning systems to alert us to impending earthquakes) and the poor south. So the question ``what will be left'' after this tsunami of spontaneous solidarity may be seen as a question particularly to, and about, the left.

- Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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