Phil Robertson, a advocate for human rights, joins the audio” Deeper Dive.”
Former human rights advocate Phil Robertson uses the phrase” Armageddon” to explain the sudden shut down of the majority of theUS’aid programs around the world.
US President Donald Trump declared a 90-day suspension of foreign aid in January, and weeks later, he announced the cancellation of 90 % of agreements that provided support to countries like Thailand.
On the podcast Deeper Dive, Mr. Robertson stated that” the function that was being done on the Thai-Myanmar borders, especially with the migrant camps” is likely most notable. ” Parties like the International Rescue Committee were forced to shut down their facilities that were providing refugees as soon as the cuts were made. Numerous old immigrants suddenly stopped receiving the health care they needed, passing away.
” And on the other part of Myanmar, in Bangladesh, in the refugee camps where the Rohingya who fled ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity were largely stopped by the US-provided assistance programs in 2017,” the junta said.
The US reaction to the March 28 disaster in Myanmar was directly affected by the support ice, with some USAID employees receiving termination notices right away after arriving. However, the canceled international aid initiatives extend far beyond health care and disaster relief.
According to Mr. Robertson, the original deputy director of Asia at Human Rights Watch and current chairman of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates Consultancy,” There was a large Myanmar education partnership that was providing training to children all over eastern Myanmar, and that has all been shut over.”
” And we’ve also seen the democracy and governance programs that were being run by Freedom House, which were providing safe haven for people fleeing Myanmar’s military regime, which have all been shut down. So it’s been a total disaster.
Thailand’s obligation
Why doesn’t a wealthy nation like Thailand fund these programs on its own, as some claim? ” I would love to see Thailand step up and contribute to some of those programs,” Mr. Robertson said on the podcast. However, Thailand has shown reluctance to do so. You’re aware that we still have a lot of poor people to support, according to their claims. And they are a burden to refugees.
” Thailand has been persuaded by the US to resist any attempt to push them back,” he said. People should recall what occurred 40 years ago on the Cambodian border, you know, with pushbacks. You are aware that the international community finally intervened and told Thailand,” You can’t send those people back. You must treat them with compassion. And we’ll give them support and resources so they can stay.
That was persuasive in changing the Thai government’s course. So, I mean, I believe we need to be realists about this: some other donors are making an effort to step up, but they won’t be able to do so on the same scale and breadth as what the US was funding.
Apart from the suffering that the cuts have directly caused, Mr. Robertson contends that it is in America’s best interest to stay connected to the world and address issues before they arrive on US soil, such as antibiotic-resistant strains of disease.
There is a greater interest in supporting malarial initiatives in the US, for instance because the Thai-Myanmar border is the breeding ground for the various resistant strains of tuberculosis and malaria, where, you know, if those enter the country, there will be a major issue.
There’s an incentive, in my opinion, from the US to acknowledge that those things can come to the US if they’re not dealt with elsewhere when you talk about providing assistance to try to deal with international health challenges like malaria.
” Make America go at it alone” does not “make America great again.” It’s “make America stand by itself.” And I believe that America will become less effective if it stays on its own. It will be less connected and more likely to be awed and surprised by these kinds of things that arrive outside of its borders.
” They basically have cut off the connections and cut off the connections with other communities, governments, and organizations around the world that would have previously called the US and said, you know, time to step up and try to figure out the situation right here where it’s easier to fix, it’s cheaper to fix, and it’s going to result in less human suffering if we fix it right now, rather than let it get worse,” they said.