Doing right without preconditions

While many well-connected people left in the frantically organised flights out of Kabul in late summer, and others who wanted to leave but were lower down on the hierarchy and could not leave, there are some who moved in the other direction. Public health workers, working with international organisations (WHO, Unicef, etc), have steadily been going to Afghanistan on what are often called surge mission. Some of the colleagues who have gone there are personal friends, or those whose work I have followed for years with both inspiration and admiration. The situation in Afghanistan is dire, with excessive poverty, lack of food, Covid-19, and a rapid rise in infectious diseases. Staff has not been paid in months and with limited medical supplies coming in, the few functioning hospitals are closing down. Paul Spiegel, a Professor at Johns Hopkins University and Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Humanitarian Health, and someone whose work I have followed for years, spent nearly four weeks in Afghanistan. In one of his recent interviews he talked about several simultaneous epidemics ravaging Afghanistan right now. In addition to Covid-19, there is an outbreak of dengue, malaria, cholera and measles. Malnutrition and lack of clean water are adding to the misery. With continued sanctions, the hospitals are unlikely to stay open for long. Out of the 39 Covid hospitals, only 8% a functioning. Paul is one of many who argue that sanctions are going to have a devastative impact on the health of ordinary citizens — especially the most vulnerable including children, pregnant women and the elderly.

This should not happen on our watch. This should remain unacceptable to every single person. There should not be any ifs or buts when it comes to saving a life.

One does not have to agree with the Taliban, or endorse their deeply problematic policies on education or women’s rights, to know what is right. Standing up for the life of a person, should be without conditions. It shouldn’t matter whether a sick person lives in Afghanistan, North Korea or New York — our ability to save a life should always be without any preconditions. Sanctions took a devastating toll in Iraq, a country far more affluent than Afghanistan, and they are likely to create permanent and lasting misery in Afghanistan.

Just as we should argue for a basic right to life in Afghanistan, we should extend the same argument to other places where sanctions, embargos and conflicts have continued to make misery a permanent feature of daily existence. The situation in Yemen was bad before Covid-19, and it is worse today. The healthcare system was fragmented two years ago, it is completely dysfunctional today. The only reason it is no longer the worst humanitarian crisis on the planet is because of the situation in Afghanistan and Tigray — not because things have gotten better for Yemen. Just as the situation in Afghanistan demands support for the people without preconditions, the same should be true in Yemen. Pakistan continues to take very visible, ill-advised and problematic sides on that humanitarian disaster. The people in Yemen are deserving of an unconditional support. The conflict there is destroying millions of lives and livelihoods — and there cannot be any justification for supporting any side that bombs civilians, destroys infrastructure and blows up school buildings.

But it is not just governments and institutions in the east and the west that should know that standing up for what is right should be without preconditions. It is also for politicians who are all too eager to defend the indefensible. When a person is lynched by a mob in Sialkot there should be no explanation defending the mob. Not always, but every now and then, we are in a situation when there is only one right answer. We should be human enough to know that saving a life and condemning evil should never be with preconditions.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 14^th, 2021.

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