Throughout the past decade, brutal scenes of heavy-handed police response towards peaceful protestors, most recently the George Floyd protests, bluntly showcased how violent the police have become. Similar to the Ferguson protests of 2014, the latest unrest has brought the issue of police brutality and the over militarization of police departments to the forefront of national discourse.

Calls for defunding the police have been gaining traction, with certain counties and areas in the United States already contemplating measures to that end.

How exactly did the police become so militarized?

Reagan and the 1033 program

With the pretext of fighting the war on drugs, Reagan was inaugurated and oversaw the passing of several legislations that beefed up the relationship between the police and the military, and subsequent administrations further oversaw the expansion of these programs. In 1990, the 1033 program was developed, giving the military the passage to provide police departments with excess military equipment for free. This led to police acquiring military grade weapons, tanks, armories and logistics, to better fight drug related crimes. 

However, by the 21^st century, the response of the police against petty crimes and peaceful protests have become increasingly violent. The Black Lives Matter, a controversial movement borne out of the disproportionate use of police violence against the black community, has frequently raised awareness on the issue of police brutality.

Defund the police

Calls for defunding the police have been echoed frequently in last decade; the George Floyd protest only exacerbated that call. Supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement and other similar movements have raised concerns about the disproportionate funding that police departments receive, far more than other programs such as homeless services, housing, and health programs.

Activists and public supporters are demanding authorities to re-evaluate allocation of funds towards the police and redirect a part of it to other programs, in order to establish a proportionally funded public programs system.

Although in certain cases, the military grade weapons have come in handy when tackling heavily armed criminals; however, they are largely isolated incidents. More often than not, police units have been overly armed, and this has caused them to become more violent in handling peaceful protests and low-level crimes that simply do not demand as much equipment. 

Source 1 – 2 – 3 – 4

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The roles of the WHO include:

• Universal health coverage
• Coordinate responses to health emergency
• Promote health and wellbeing

It has played an influential leading role in health achievements, such as eradicating smallpox, vaccinating against polio, developing an Ebola vaccine. It successfully oversaw the outbreak of SARS, Ebola and other diseases. It currently focuses on diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other non-transmissible diseases such as cancer and heart diseases. Its functions are largely “normative” says Kelley Lee, research chair in global health governance at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada. Meaning, it is primarily an advisory body, “providing guidelines and technical advice, collecting data, statistics, and so on.”

With the COVID-19 pandemic, the WHO found itself under intense scrutiny by some member states, especially by the Trump administration; for failing to do its job in containing the novel coronavirus and acting as a “lapdog” for the Chinese.

Role of the WHO in the COVID-19 pandemic

As the novel coronavirus made its way to every side of the globe, the WHO was responsible in notifying the world of the emergence of an infectious disease with pandemic potential and coordinating a global response by providing technical and guidance support to member states in order to contain the virus. Moreover, it coordinates in the development of a vaccine, in order to better contain the spread of the virus.

Who’s at fault? How is the WHO being criticized?

The WHO was criticized harshly for being too slow to warn the world of the virus, declaring it a pandemic on March 11, 2020; several months after it was warned by Taiwan of the emergence of a disease in Wuhan; the alert went largely ignored by the WHO. Another criticism of the WHO was that it was too generous of its praise for China; despite a near unanimous assumption that China is covering up the true extent of the virus and did not cooperate in the initial stages when it was most crucial. Lawrence Gostin, an American professor who has spent 30 years with the World Health Organization, laments WHO’s incapability to act swiftly, in part because the organization cannot enter without an invitation by the country, which in this case China was blocking; holding China at fault. Lawrence, however, admits that the WHO should have stood up at least.

The Taiwan debacle

A growing number of leaders have been scrutinizing the WHO’s dealing of the pandemic. One thorn has been the email Taiwan sent on December 31, warning the WHO of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. This topic became divisive as critics, including US president Donald Trump, accuse the WHO of ignoring Taiwan’s warning, a claim which the Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus denies. This has sparked a blame game between the organization and members states over who is at fault for letting the disease spiral out of control. The WHO has defended itself, saying Taiwan did not mention the human to human transmission aspect of the virus and that it was not the first country to send a warning, opposing the claim that it ignored Taiwan’s warning. It is worth mentioning that Taiwan is not a member of the UN, thus is omitted from the WHO; the result of vehement Chinese opposition to its membership.

How Powerful is the WHO? Not much

The WHO does not hold an independent authority and it depends on the cooperation of its member states. “WHO doesn’t have any resources to be the action on the ground” says Kelley Lee. People have placed a false expectation that “‘WHO should do this, WHO should do that.’ Well, WHO is the member states. So if you want WHO to do something, then the member-states have to get together and say, ‘Do this.’”

Professor Lawrence Gostin calls for empowering the organization, providing it a political backing. “I can tell you episode after episode after episode, where countries around the world literally just ignored WHO, ignored scientific evidence, whether from Ebola to SARS to H1N1 to Zika and now with the coronavirus.” he says. Furthermore, he scolds the international community for underfunding the organization, working on a budget similarly sized to a single large US hospital. “The world has the WHO that it deserves because it gives it very little funding the size of one US hospital, it gives it no political backing” demonstrating the entanglement of the WHO in geopolitical power play by major countries, widely undermining the efforts of the organization. ‘The world had enough time to intervene’ Director-General of the WHO Tedros defended the organization.

Who is to blame for letting the novel coronavirus spiral out of control?

Source 1 – 2 – 3 – 4

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In a broad sense, corruption is the dishonesty and fraud in a system of governance, that causes negative implications for the whole community.

“Corruption affects us all”

It affects a society in many different ways. It undermines trust for the system and public sector, wastes taxpayers’ money, and affects the quality of services provided for by a government. This means that, when corruption is allowed to thrive, the roads we drive on begin to crumble, healthcare becomes weaker, social benefits start to dry up, as funding for the maintenance of these services are wasted.

Specifically, the poor class bears the brunt for corruption the most, as they rely on public services the most; they will have to rely on subpar services or may even be deprived access completely, putting their livelihoods under pressure.

Rising authoritarianism

For the past decade, an increasing number of countries have been backtracking on their democratic credentials. Nations from Latin America to Asia have seen leaders rise to authority and accumulate power by undermining oversight and judicial institutions designed to keep power in check. According to Sarah Repucci, writing for the “Freedom House” organization; she wrote a stark warning that “Democracy and pluralism are under assault”.

For the 14^th consecutive year since Freedom House began records, democracy is declining as more and more leaders seek to consolidate power and root out dissent and opposition. This trend has also witnessed an increase in Europe as countries such as Hungary and Poland adopt policies undermining the democratic institutions at home. According to the ‘Nations in Transit’ report by the Freedom House, Hungary and Poland have seen a dramatic decline in the past decade. In 2010 Poland and Hungary ranked 5.68 and 5.61 respectively, placing them among the ‘consolidated democracy’ category; however, by 2020, that number has declined for Poland to 4.93 ranking as a semi-consolidated democracy; meanwhile, Hungary has seen a more stark decline to 3.96, placing it as a hybrid regime, a far cry from the democratic placing it had a decade earlier; therefore, consolidating authoritarian tendencies right in the heartland of what is arguably the most democratic continent.

Authoritarianism and burgeoning corruption: Do they correlate?

Both authoritarianism and corruption are seeing an increase lately, which begs the questions:

Are they related to one another?      

Some of the hallmarks for authoritarianism are major breeding grounds for corruption to manifest itself and thrive; these are:

• Lack of transparency: Authoritarian governments tend to be less transparent and more manipulative of public information. It is increasingly becoming difficult to access information about public policy and management that might be deemed suspicious or corrupt.

• Cronyism: Authoritarian leaders and parties usually provide government contracts to partners or family members, in return for political loyalty and privileges. This comes at the expense of fair competition and quality service for the public. Providing poor services as quality is not prioritized.

• Intolerance for dissent: Opposition and dissenting views are not openly tolerated and silenced through abuse of power and judicial intervention. Greatly harming public trust and undermining accountability towards the political elite.

• Media control: Complementing the intolerance for dissent, having control over the media is an effective tool to manipulate public perception by monitoring what’s reported and shown on the media. Preventing negative press and opposition views to make its way to the public.

The core subject matter that tie these points together is “accountability”, or lack thereof. The lack of political, judicial and popular accountability paves the way for undemocratic policies and corruption to gradually take hold and thrive.

Effects of corruption

Corruption has broken the lives of countless of people and weakened nations immensely; one example is Lebanon, a small Mediterranean country in West Asia, in the midst of a crippling financial and economic collapse. Seeing its potential and resources deplete by its political elites left the country without stable electricity, constant water shortages, heavy pollution and crumbling infrastructure.

Around US $1.26 trillion per year – a number greater than some major economies – is lost in developing countries as a result of corrupt tactics and measures such as bribery, and tax evasion, also known as ‘Illicit Financial Flows’. 1.6 billion people living less than $1.25 a day could be lifted up from poverty for up to six years with that amount of money. Moreover, according to the EU Commissioner for Home Affairs, corruption in EU countries cost the bloc around €120 billion euros of lost money across its member states.

Similar stories have occurred in different developing countries, as the youth begin to rise up against authoritarianism and corruption, showcasing the younger generations’ understanding and awareness of holding their government accountable, in order to prevent abuse of power. Turning a blind eye to thriving corruption is a huge blow on the economic and political credentials of a nations and causes grave consequences on the health and prosperity of the population.

Source 1 – 2 – 3 – 4

The post The enemy within: Corruption and Authoritarianism appeared first on The Loore.

COVID-19; the new virus which first appeared in Wuhan, China, quickly spread to around 200 countries and territories; infecting more than 2,000,000 and wreaking havoc in its way. The UN chief alarmed the world that it is facing the worst crisis since WW2.

Businesses have shuttered their doors, leaving millions around the world out of work, with massive economic, social and political repercussions, as countries rush to enact national and local lockdowns in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.

Europe Under Lockdown

Europe is the continent worst hit by the coronavirus, as the grim tally crossed 500,000 cases with nearly 35,000 deaths. Italy and Spain, the worst-hit countries, are bearing the brunt; each having more than 100,000 confirmed cases and more than 10,000 deaths, accounting for three in every four deaths on the continent. Both countries have asked for increased support by European partners as the outbreak has brought their economies to a standstill.

Pleas for Help 

Both Italy and Spain have asked for increased support by European partners in the face of this unprecedented crisis. Italian Prime Minister Guiseppe Conte is urging for a joint borrowing scheme, dubbed “coronabonds”, that would allow less developed EU nations borrow cheap loans with the richer members. Spain, Portugal and Greece have all signaled their support; however, Germany and other northern countries have drawn a red line, bluntly rejecting the idea of a shared debt scheme, threatening to divide the unity of the bloc. “One does not just trust someone else with their credit card when you don’t have the option of controlling their expenses,” head of Germany’s central bank Jens Weidmann told Le Monde.

“One does not just trust someone else with their credit card when you don’t have the option of controlling their expenses.”

Head of Germany’s central bank Jens Weidmann to Le Monde

Rising Skepticism

The rejection and reluctance of Germany and other rich EU nations to implement such a scheme and their largely moot support for Italy and Spain threatens to arouse national feelings among their citizens. “Nationalist instincts, in Italy, but also in Spain and elsewhere, will be much stronger if Europe is not up to the task,” the Italian PM said, warning that the bloc might “lose its foundations before the eyes of our citizens. Additionally, this issue has led to squabbles between European leaders, further undermining the spirit of unity which the bloc has always espoused for. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in a stark remark, said that a debt sharing scheme would mean “crossing a Rubicon” for the eurozone. This in turn garnered an angry response from the Portuguese PM Antonio Costa, slamming Rutte’s comments.; “This type of response is completely ignorant, and this recurring pettiness completely undermines what makes up the spirit of the European Union”

The rapid spread of the novel coronavirus and its impact has reverberated around the world, grounding some of the world’s largest and most developed economies to a complete standstill. Europe, the worst affected continent, is facing yet another crisis that is sure to leave a dent on its already shaky unity. A decade of piling misfortunes and subsequent responses, from the Greek debt crisis, to the migrant crisis and Brexit, has greatly undermined the unity of the bloc.

Italian Exit?

Amid the controversy surrounding EU cooperation, many reports have predicted that this could be a major watershed moment for Italy’s relationship with the bloc, and potentially kickstart and catalyze the Italian descent into increasing skepticism of its role and relationship with the European Union. According to polls conducted by news agency Dire on 12-13 March, 88 percent of Italians feel that Europe is failing to support Italy in the crisis, while only 4 percent believe that it is doing enough. And 67 percent of Italians regard EU membership as a disadvantage, up from 47 percent in November 2018.” Such scenario would be a devastating political and economic blow to the EU, which just saw one of its strongest members leave the bloc, an Italian exit would be another unprecedented blow to the European project and potentially spark an existential crisis.

Italy is the third most populous country in the EU with a share of 13.59% (~60 million) of the total (~ 446 million), with its capital Rome also being the third most populous city (proper) in the bloc. With an economy of around $2.5 trillion in GDP (PPP), it is the third largest in the union, representing around 12% of the total. Moreover, Italy contributes a big share in the annual budget and is also one of the most important contributors to EU funding.

It is safe to say that an Italian departure from the European Union will not be taken lightly at all, as Italy is a major player in the bloc economically, politically, demographically and geographically.

Can the European Union safely weather this crisis and salvage its unity?

Source 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

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