The Sunday Mail
Tavongaishe Faneti & Mutsa Tomana
A DEVASTATING 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck parts of Syria and Turkey on Monday and left catastrophic destruction in its wake.
It is reported that at least 21 000 people have lost their lives and nearly 400 000 have been forcefully displaced.
In crises such as these, nations often put aside their differences and strive to come together as the human race to provide urgently needed humanitarian assistance.
Unfortunately for Syria, it is a country that has been continuously suffering the harsh traumas of war.
The Syrian civil war has been raging for over a decade, and its effects on the Middle Eastern nation have been crippling, to say the least.
As a direct result of the conflict, the United States, the European Union and other players in the Global North imposed a series of economic sanctions and restrictions, including an oil embargo.
Long before Monday’s horrific earthquake even hit, the effect these sanctions imposed on Syria have had was quite evident.
Getting foreign humanitarian aid into war-torn Syria was both a political and logistical nightmare for well-wishers, whose heartstrings were tugged by the brutal ongoing crisis.
Last week, it only became worse, with the death toll of this earthquake exceeding that of Fukushima, Japan, in 2011.
At arguably their lowest point, through no real fault of their own, the people of Syria are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
They are not asking for much – not bilateral trade deals or massive investments in tourism.
They are also not asking for a multi-billion-dollar oil deal or an infrastructural overhaul of Damascus.
They are just pleading for basic human decency.
They are in dire need of aid and rescue teams to pull their women and children from underneath the rubble of what used to be their homes.
They need food and water to survive, medical care for the wounded and temporary shelter, as well as sanitation, as they try to come to terms with the horrible tragedy that befell them.
It is not as if the international community is oblivious to these needs – they are very much aware and moved by the crisis, as evidenced by the overwhelming response that has been given to Turkey.
Why the same cannot be said about Syria shows the true selfish and brutish nature of major political powers in the Global North, who are only focused on their interests and believe that assisting those in need is not a necessity if they do not see eye to eye with their governments. Economic sanctions should cease to be valid in the wake of a major humanitarian crisis such as this.
The humanitarian aid that has managed to make its way to Syria is coming largely from Arab States, China and Russia.
This is exactly like the tale of the “Good Samaritan”, because in a world where we are largely told that Russia and China are the “big bad” in the global political system, and the US and Europe are meant to be the saviours of the world, this is not quite the case.
The Samaritan, considered to be the enemy, acts more compassionately towards a fellow human being in distress than the priest and the Levite.
Surely, the moral yardstick for what is right and wrong in terms of “human rights” cannot rest within people who fail to acknowledge when humanity is threatened and needs the rest of humanity the most.
The doctrine of human rights cannot be preached by the same people who would allow inhumane conditions to persist under the guise of economic sanctions.
A lift, albeit temporary, of economic sanctions in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis should be the norm.
Food for thought.
