The Correlation Between The Financial Crisis and Wars in the World

The Correlation Between The Financial Crisis and Wars in the World as described by 

Dr. Adel Safar, Honourable Minister of Agriculture in the Syrian Arab Republic

By Jan Freidun Taravosh

November 29th 2009

 General Introduction:

As a committed follower of the Non Alignment Movement’s policies and activities, one thing that is always interesting , is to keep track of  statements the organisation as a whole or certain member states  make on the international arena. 

Recently a world food summit was held as organised by United Nations Food and Agriculture organisation, in Rome where many NAM states - including the Syrian Arab Republic took part. For some reason reports on the content and impact of this summit has been scare due to the bias of western media. This article aims to deal with this matter. please be advised to read The What is Nam section if you are not familiar with the non aligned movement. If you are already aware of the NAM scroll down to the main section of this article: “The financial crisis coincides with wars and disasters in many regions of the world” which is based around a recent statement from the Syrian delegation at the aforementioned summit, with my reflections added to it. 

What is the  NAM?

In the founding of the NAM. a viable alternative both to NATO and the Warsaw Treaty came into existence. And ever since  it’s  foundation in the mid 50’s

 The NAM has been a most dynamic anti imperialist movement upholding the values of Independence, sovereignty and self-determination.  In upholding these values, The NAM is committed to the establishment of a multi-polar world order, which favours, co-operation based on respect of sovereignty, peace and mutual benefit. The Nam also advocates non interference in the affairs of other member states in accordance with the above. On world arena of world politics, dominated by imperialism - The NAM is reliable counter force, A progressive and dynamic force, which remains an inspiration for committed to the establishment of a new, just world order. NAM also successfully gives, developing and post colonial, progressive and independent states a more prominent place in world politics, which these states are often denied due to the colonialist structure of the United Nations in general and the security council in particular. NAM also gives a voice to the oppressed, peace loving and freedom seeking people all over the world, through it’s persistent stance against global imperialism in all it’s manifestations - a  fact that became apparent during the recent World Food Summit in Rome - exemplified here by the statement of Dr. Adel Safar of The Syrian Arab Republic - a representative of a nation that generally is not given much attention in the imperialist media 

The Syrian Arab Republic is one of the NAM’s 113 member states.

Main Article:

“The financial crisis coincides with wars and disasters in many regions of the world” 

Extracts from a statement by Dr. Adel Safar Honourable minister of agriculture in the Syrian Arab Republic at the world food summit in Rome 16-18 of November 2009, commented by Jan Freidun Taravosh

“The  financial crisis coincides with wars and disasters in many regions of the world, causing damage to agriculture, degradation of living standards in most affected areas and increase of hungry people number in the world. Climate Changes hit many parts in the world last years and caused damage to huge crop areas in several agricultural countries, so food supply reduced and demand increased causing high prices. All these conditions show clearly the great need for the actual and active role of international organisations and bodies to help developing countries in provision of food requirements and improvement of economic and social conditions of their citizens. [...] “Ladies and Gentlemen: Under the current drought crisis and its continuity in addition to what is practised by the Zionist entity in Palestine, the comprehensive siege imposed on the Palestinian people and recently the use of various chemical weapons and deprivation of Palestinians most important right, namely food, we would like to emphasise the necessity of international intervention to practice pressure on this entity to lift tyranny and siege over the Palestinian people.  FAO should play an effective role to reach a good and promising level of  responsibility in providing food an medicine to this nation. “

In addition to Dr. Safar clear perspective of the socio-economic dimension of the food security question. Dr. Safar further explained how The Syrian Arab Republic is no stranger to the concept of sustainable development:

“Dear Audience: The Syrian Arab Republic achieved a great progress in developing agriculture benefiting from modern production techniques to improve the income and achieving self sufficiency in addition to providing a good surplus where many programmes are adopted aiming at  achieving a sustainable agricultural development by supporting the scientific research. “ 

Before ending his prominent speech Dr. Safar also displayed The Syrian Arab Republics, openness towards international co-operation, for mutual benefit, and humanitarian causes which single handily dispelled any misconceptions of the country as an “isolated state” as the Syrian Arab Republic is often erroneously portrayed in the West 

“ I would like also to thank, organisations, commissions and financing funds working in Syria, especially for the distinguished and successful results in the field of agricultural development, and development in general. We are looking to deepening this co-operation and supporting the organization’s perspectives and plans in developing the needing countries in the world and alleviating farmer’s poverty”

Thus spoke Dr. Safar of the Syrian delegation. The conclusion one has to make of the above stated, is that one should try to broad one’s view of the world at large. Before ending this article -

 I can honestly say that through out the world, lots of fascinating things are happening, which moves us far beyond the general perception of development in the western hemisphere, which remains dominated by imperialist powers. These unipolar dominance of imperialist  powers who maintain a demeaning colonial outlook, towards the progressive and independent states in the post colonial world, results in a biased perception of development in this part of the world. I decided to put my main focus in this article on  Dr. Safar’s statement as I think it demonstrates a perspective that moves beyond the above mentioned imperialist/colonial concept of reality and provides us with a more dynamic understanding of the  development world as a whole - in a way that it is rarely described in the west due to prejudice. If you ask me all this  serves as proof, that the  western liberalist perception on the importance of openness is  merely a  rhetoric expression. Fact is that you don’t even have to agree with everything in Dr. Safar’s statement to realise this.