I’ve always been proud to be Danish. I’ve always considered myself very lucky, too. I did indeed win the ovarian lottery when I was born (to quote Warren Buffett), And I was born in not only in the West, but also in Denmark. Denmark was the land of free thinkers; innovative green solutions; excellent design; big and broad democracy; free, quality education for all; healthcare among the best in the world; room for people in need; just to name a few. But SO many of these statements can be challenged nowadays.
This is not at sudden thing. This is a decades-long decline, brought on by changing sitting governments – and yes the economic climate. This was not just done by the left or the right or even the political middle. We could – and should – have a long debate at home about how we lost all these things. And how we are suddenly not the country other countries look to for answers or to tune their moral compass.
At the moment the Danish government is planning to cut foreign aid by 2.85 billion Danish Kroner (DKK) – that is about $419 million USD. This will mean a total shutdown of current support to 7 out of 21 countries. Danish NGO’s campaigning work will be halved.
In December a partial annulment – in the amount of 1.4 billion DKK – was put to a vote by the opposition in the Danish parliament and the government lost the vote. The majority voted against the extensive cuts of 2.85 billion DKK in order to maintain around half of the aid promised by the previous government to the UN, NGOs and specific countries.
This gave me some hope, that voices of reason still had a chance – BUT the government reported that they will be going against the majority vote and carry through with the full planned foreign aid cuts.
Let’s quickly review the definition of despotism on Wikipedia ‘a form of government in which a single entity rules with absolute power. That entity may be an individual, as in an autocracy, or it may be a group, as in an oligarchy’
Kristian Jensen, foreign minister of Denmark (and old ‘friend” of Global Citizen), states that it would be irresponsible to spend the extra 1.4 billion DKK on foreign aid in the current economical climate.
“I respect the parliament decision to the full, but I also respect that this government’s policy is that we should have a healthy economical development” (Quote; Kristian Jensen)
My logic screams the exact opposite: how absolutely irresponsible it is to NOT spend the extra 2.85 billion DKK on foreign aid. My worldview tells me that when everyone can count themselves among the happiest people in the world, the world will be a safer and more just place.
Part of the cuts (36 million DKK) will affect the support to the Afghan-Pakistani region – where an increasing amount of refugees fleeing to Denmark are coming from. The stabilization and development of the region is the only lasting way to fight the Taliban. Denmark has for years been sending troops to this area as part of the ‘fight against terror’. Using weapons to force peace!!!! A publicized financial review from March 2015 states that the Danish military, in only 5 months, spent 213 million DKK fighting ISIS in Iraq. That included 44 million DKK on ammunition alone. Yes, more money on ammunition than on development.
Another part of the cuts (39 million DKK) is to the efforts on stopping climate change. Hold that up against the headlines from Bangladesh stating that 2,000 people enter the capital Dhaka daily, saying climate change is the main reason for their relocation means environmental refugees are also finding their way to Europe. The British organization ‘Foresight’ predicts that the drought in Africa and the floodings in Asia will produce around 25 million-1 billion climate emigrants by the year 2060. So the Danish government is cutting aid to climate change even as its impacts on humanity are getting worse.
UNFPA’s calculations predict that the European cuts to foreign aid will affect 80 million women. The infant mortality will grow by 1.3 million people and 225,000 more women will die in labor by otherwise preventable causes.
“It will have massive consequences for the individual countries development,” said Jagdish Upadhyay, Commodity Security Branch Chief for UNFPA.
The Danish government and Kristian Jensen’s previous comment to Global Citizen and the ongoing explanation to the international community is that the cuts are justified because Denmark, is 1 of only 5 countries still holding their international development aid above the 0.7% of the GNP that the UN recommends.
But even if Denmark kept to their 0.7% commitment it would be a manipulated truth. International rules allow countries to spend part of their foreign aid to pay for the increased national expenses due to the refugee crisis. This means that when the financial bill is past in Denmark beginning of this year, Denmark will be the largest receiver of Danish foreign aid. YES! You read that correctly. Denmark, one of the richest countries in the world, will be the largest receiver of Danish foreign aid!! Let that sink in! Denmark will receive more money from their own foreign aid than the next four highest receiving countries COMBINED.
(politiken.dk)
Embarrassing and catastrophically short sighted
The foreign aid cuts are devastating. For the people and countries they affect and less urgently, but maybe equally politically important, for the reputation of Denmark in the international community. If the rich Nordic countries don’t stand guard for a sustainable development, for human rights – if we are not lighthouses for a just world – will other countries take over?
Denmark needs to get back on track and become the front-runner it can be – the front-runner it can afford to be. We need politically sound long-term solutions. And a group understanding that it will never be the solution to national problems to cut the international development aid. Nor isolating the rich west from everyone else, closing our borders, or closing our eyes for our responsibility in the world. The time has come to not define ourselves by where we were born and how many riches we can accumulate in a lifetime, but by what footprint we leave on earth. Think how rich a just world would be.
So now when people ask me, ‘where are you from’ I think my answer will simply be ‘I’m a global citizen.’
This article was contributed by Camilla Aurvig, Senior Creative Manager at Global Poverty Project.