Ukraine’s Tragedy: An Economic ‘Atomic Bomb’ for Hungary?

Why Are We Focused on ‘Economies’ While Humans Are Being Slaughtered? Can We Put An Immediate Stop To ‘Self-Interest’ Attitudes? 

Where’s Our Sense of Empathy?

“An Economic ‘Atomic Bomb’: Hungary Threatens EU’s Latest Sanctions Against Russia, Including Oil Embargo”

“The war in Ukraine is supercharging a food, energy & finance crisis that is pummeling some of the world’s most vulnerable people, countries & economies.” Secretary-General’s press conference at launch of Report entitled: "Global Impact of War in Ukraine on Food, Energy and Finance Systems" --

@antonioguterres

“Ukraine focus diverts food aid from other crisis-stricken regions”

“Ukraine war contributes to ‘perfect storm’ for famine in Somalia”

The quotes above are just some of the commentary to be read, and the focus of discussions since Ukraine was attacked on the 24th of February. 

Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance is the title of a press release by the UN on 13 APRIL 2022, NEW YORK:

The war in Ukraine, in all its dimensions, is producing alarming cascading effects to a world economy already battered by COVID-19 and climate change, with particularly dramatic impacts on developing countries. The world’s most vulnerable people can not become collateral damage.

World on brink of “perfect storm” of crises, warns UN Chief calling for immediate action to avert cascading impacts of war in Ukraine 

Dire consequences of the war on global food, energy and financial markets could upend millions of lives

Dire Consequences?

The only real consequences anyone can or should be thinking of, as far as Ukrainians are concerned, are those from the images and sounds transmitted into living rooms (and wherever we can receive these) in the rest of the world.

The UN’s Response

So, seven weeks (or forty-one days) after the invasion of Ukraine, during which its people are being slaughtered, it seems the world’s body established to suppress “acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace”, chooses to set up a “Global Crisis Response Group on Food, Energy and Finance”; a “Global Crisis Response Group”, NOT to Save Lives?!

Put another way, when our farmer neighbour and his family are being slaughtered in an unprovoked attack, rather than deploy an emergency response, we choose to complain about a “food price crisis”

This, because our farmer neighbour and his family are unable to supply us with what we, perhaps, think we are entitled to be provided by them?

It is rather disappointing to see and to hear of the UN’s approach, when the world would have preferred and expected the immediate focus to be on intensified efforts to “save succeeding generations from the scourge of war” in Ukraine, as required through its founding charter.

The Charter of the United Nations begins with this introduction:

WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED

to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and 

to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and 

to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,

AND FOR THESE ENDS

to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and 

to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and 

to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and 

to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,

HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS.

Article Article 1.1 of Chapter 1 of the Charter is as follows:

To maintain international peace and security, and to that end: to take effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace, and for the suppression of acts of aggression or other breaches of the peace, and to bring about by peaceful means, and in conformity with the principles of justice and international law, adjustment or settlement of international disputes or situations which might lead to a breach of the peace 

Put simply, this also means that every effort should be made to bring an end to this war and, hence, the loss of innocent lives.

Ukraine: the World’s Tragedy

Ukraine’s tragedy is the world’s tragedy; a country which has been home, short-term or long-term, to citizens from many other countries, continues to be attacked and destroyed in a war which no-one knows when it will all be over. 

The pain of Ukraine (the land, rivers and all that they hold); the suffering of Ukrainians themselves are shared by the whole world.

The work of Ukraine’s immediate neighbouring countries to the west and south-west: Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, who are at the forefront (and frontline) of international assistance should be acknowledged; Moldova earning the well-deserved label of / as the “small country with a big heart”.

Misplaced Priorities and / or Self-interest Approach?

It seems the priority for some people (outside Ukraine) is to engage in discussions which focus on what we think we are being ‘deprived’: food supplies which, prior to 24th February, had come from Ukraine.

Hungary: An Economic ‘Atomic Bomb’?

In his response to the European Union’s plan to ban Russian oil, as reported in forbes.com, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban described the decision as “far too costly and would amount to an ‘atomic bomb’ being dropped on the Hungarian economy“.

A rather unfortunate choice of words, Prime Minister Orban? 

Well, Mr Orban, Russian bombs are being dropped on Ukrainian people, with more than a hundred children so far counted among those killed.

When the President of Ghana made the statement above on 29 March, 2020, the COVID-19 virus was not something physically visible, hence the difficulty in convincing people of the importance of following the measures recommended by medical authorities.

No one can be in any doubt the consequences of war: missiles physically dropped on cities; in this case, Ukrainian cities, can be clearly seen.

Ghanaians should be justifiably proud that their president received universal praise (and quote of the year, according to Professor Shari Ahmed @ShafiAhmed5) for that statement he made putting human life above everything else; especially, “the economy”:

When we see a person being killed, does it have to be someone we are directly related, before we engage our feelings and sense of empathy? 

Should we only think of what we are being deprived of, because our own material requirements which come from the victims’ home country have been disrupted?

Even worse, should we continue to obtain our energy supplies from the Russian aggressor, and in doing so, continue to fund its killing machine?

Ukraine’s Daily Reality

Ukraine’s daily reality include the following:

• When the first bread you are able to eat was 38 days after the invasion of your country

• Being attacked when a bomb was dropped on a railway station where people were attempting to escape to a safe destination

• Experiencing unspeakable acts of brutality inflicted on your family and neighbours

• Being trapped in underground bunkers in darkness for several weeks in Mariupol steelworks, not knowing if you will ever come out alive

• Having to live your life in an underground shelter for over sixty-days before you see daylight

• When land mines will be one of the legacies of this Russian invasion, according to The New York Times reports that: Land Mines on a Timer, Scattered Over a Ukrainian Town

• Having to flee your own hometown, and not knowing when you will be able to get back to rebuild the home you left behind, which has now been destroyed through deliberate civilian attacks

• A school attended by children being the latest target of indiscriminate bomb attacks

• You see nine-year old Masha, a resident of Lysychans’k, whose city is under constant shelling, but still defiant during her interview with BBC News on 2 May

Perhaps, we might like to pause for a long reflection on the above daily realities Ukrainians have to live with?

We the Peoples …

Is the rest of the world, through the United Nations, still going to be worrying about an ‘economic crisis’? 

Indeed, is the rest of the world, We the Peoples, aware of this course of action taken by the UN on our behalf?

Where’s our sense of empathy with our fellow humans? Can we put an immediate stop to the ‘self-interest’ attitudes we are currently displaying?

Perhaps, we might like to reflect on the above questions as well?

The immediate priority should, first and foremost, be on preventing Ukraine’s people from being slaughtered, rather than bemoaning the fact that the “Ukraine focus diverts food aid from other crisis-stricken regions”?

Any discussion focused on anything, other than preventing the slaughter of innocent Ukrainians and the destruction of their country, should be deemed morally unacceptable.

Ukraine’s Tragedy and Africa: Intervention By Foreign NGOs

Another response to Ukraine’s tragedy comes from NGOs with foreign origins, who are making links between Ukraine’s tragedy and what in their opinion is Africa’s food crisis:

“East Africa is facing the worst drought in decades, with the #pandemic and conflict in northern Ethiopia compounding the crisis.

But the region is now also feeling the impact of war in #Ukraine through a spike in agricultural commodity prices.” Farm Africa.

Are Africans incapable of speaking for themselves?

Vegetables From Kenya on the Shelves of Europe’s Supermarkets

Meanwhile, these same NGOs haven’t issued a statement questioning why vegetables from Kenya (in the same East Africa) and Zimbabwe are to be found on the shelves of supermarkets in Europe.

Africans are embarrassed by the heartless manner in which outside organisations attempt to suggest that we are victims of Ukraine’s tragic circumstances.

Shouldn’t any dependence by an African country for its food needs on temperate Europe be something which must be questioned? Does Africa not have the conditions to grow its own indigenous crops?

Nonetheless, this is one African farmer’s view: “As Africans, let’s reduce dependence on imported crops whether in war or climate change.” @Chief_Tshepo

Immediate Tasks and Actions

Here is what needs to be done as a matter of urgency:

• Every effort should be made to bring an end to this war and, hence, the loss of innocent lives
• Rebuild the country so that Ukrainians can rebuild their own lives

Other Wars and Conflicts

After these tasks and actions have been addressed, the world should then turn its attention to other parts of the world where war and conflict still persist.

What we also need to demonstrate, above all else at this time, is: 

• Our Sense of Empathy with the people of Ukraine; 
• Show Solidarity with people in other parts of the world going through similar tragedy as Ukraine;
• Remember what the True Meaning of ‘Sacrifice’ is: which is, to forego the things we are used to, and which are supplied by the same neighbours who are now in a tragic situation.

These must be the only things which should be on our minds until our fellow human beings see peace return to their country.

Secretary-General Gutteres in Kyiv

After seeing things for himself in Kyiv on Thursday, 28 April, during a visit which also saw a Russian missile attack on that city, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres can be in no doubt regarding what the urgent priority should be?

Yes, we know how to bring the “finance systems” back to life; what we do not know is how to bring Ukrainians back to life. 

We must ensure Ukrainians stay alive.

#StandUpForUkraine