| Helping the Iraqis By Antonio C. Abaya May 08, 2003 Some common sense has prevailed in the scaling down of the Philippine ?humanitarian mission? that the Arroyo Government is preparing to send to Iraq. The mission has been reduced in numbers from the original 500 to a more manageable 175, and its budget has been slashed from P600 million to P141 million. The mission will be made up of 60 medical workers from the Department of Health, with a budget of P42 million; 50 military personnel from the AFP, with a budget of P55 million; 25 policemen from the PNP, with a budget of P19 million; 39 social workers from the DSWD, with a budget of P25 million; and one diplomat from the DFA, with a budget of P600,000. At least, the Arroyo Government has the practical sense to talk about budgets. The last time the Philippines sent a similar force abroad ? 600 peace-keeping soldiers to East Timor ? the insurmountably stupid Estrada Government gave them no money to take along with them. So, for the first few days of their stay in Dili, the 600 Filipinos became charity wards of the Australian Army, which provided them with food, as well as a few gallons of fuel for the solitary 6x6 truck that they had taken along with them. The humiliation of this country knows no bounds. Having said that, I hasten to add that even the reduced force with its scaled down budget may be an extravagance that will not earn us the pogi points that we obviously hope to earn from this enterprise. I frankly do not see what 25 PNP policemen can contribute to keeping the peace in the ravaged country still reeling from widespread looting, car-napping and general lawlessness, in the absence of any operating indigenous government. The PNP has never been known for efficiency, efficacy and creativity in suppressing or solving crimes in its home territory, one wonders how it can possibly do any better when immersed in an alien culture, where the policemen do not speak or read the language. The same goes for the 50 military personnel from the AFP. They have absolutely no training in the military duties that they will presumably assume in Iraq: searching for weapons of mass destruction, coping with guerilla warfare in desert country, facing nationalist Sunni or Shia demonstrators demanding that all foreigners leave their country, neutralizing pockets of resistance in strange towns and cities where it is nigh impossible to tell friend from foe, and all this and more in an environment where the temperature can rise to 120 degrees F in the shade. The health workers from the DOH and the social workers from the DSWD would have a more valid role in the normalization of Iraq. But Arroyo Government planners may have overlooked one thing: Iraq is one the major entry points of a vast network of human-trafficking that smuggles hundreds of thousands of economic migrants from the Middle East and Central Asia into Western Europe, 110,000 a year into the United Kingdom alone. The now-closed refugee center in Sangatte (France) used to hold hundreds of Iraqis at any one time, waiting for their chance to stow-away on board the Channel Tunnel train that would take them to the white cliffs of Dover and the New Life they were hoping for. The point that I am raising is that Filipinos have an established reputation for going TNT, not only in North America, but also in Western Europe. It is very likely that some of the 175 pipol that we will send to Iraq will disappear from their assigned tasks and wind up in the underground railroad that begins in Baghdad or Mosul or Basra and ends in Rome, Paris or Berlin. An embarrassment that the Arroyo Government surely does not need or want. But one appreciates that President Arroyo wants to do something, not only to show the flag when the reconstruction of Iraq begins in earnest ? so that we can bag an estimated 100,000 jobs for our OFWs ? but also to effect a sea change in our self-image, from that of a beggar nation to that of a donor nation. This can be better achieved, I submit, by sending instead, say, a million dollars worth of medicines for the children of Iraq, medicines that are products of Filipino and Philippine-based pharmaceutical companies. Properly labeled in Arabic and dispatched to the Red Crescent of Iraq in the presence of the ambassadors of Muslim countries based in Manila, this gesture will surely earn for us a lot of goodwill in the Organization of Islamic Conference and may help us peacefully solve our problem of Muslim secessionism. Especially if similar aid is extended to the children of Palestine and the children of Afghanistan. It will also be a plus, however modest, in our GDP and help preserve Filipino manufacturing jobs. It will, furthermore, allow us to help in the reconstruction of Iraq without tying us to the apron strings of Uncle Sam. In the medium and long terms, it will be Iraqi money from Iraqi oil that will rebuild Iraq and we should be currying the good graces of the Iraqis, not the Americans. Most of all, it will be a direct, immediate and much sought-after help to those who need it most, the children of Iraq, the very ones who have suffered the most in this most tragic of wars, and who are now threatened with another tragedy: cholera and typhoid epidemics. ***** SARS UPDATE. In my article of April 24 (SARS Could Kill Millions), I wrote that based on the mid-April analysis of the WHO, that SARS deaths and infections were increasing at the rate of 22% a week or about 100% a month, I extrapolated that the cumulative deaths and cumulative infections could reach 500 and 8,600 by May 24; 1,000 and 17,200 by June 24. By Chritsmas 2003, there could be 64,000 deaths and 1.1 million infections, I wrote. As of May 7, according to the WHO (www.who.int), cumulative deaths and infections have reached 495 and 6,903, respectively, and May 24 is still 17 days away. In the week ending April 30, deaths increased from 250 to 372, an increase of 122 or 49%; infections increased from 4,300 to 5,663, an increase of 1,363 or 32%. Now, in the week ending May 7, cumulative deaths increased from 372 to 495, an increase of 123 or 33%; cumulative infections increased from 5,663 to 6,903, an increase of 1,240 or 22%. The good news is that the weekly increase has been somewhat slowing down. The bad news is that it has not been slowing down below the 22% weekly threshold that makes the total double every month. China remains the most stricken country. SARS is now believed to have spread to its rural areas, carried by hundreds of thousands of migrant workers fleeing the virus in Beijing. But other cities have not been spared. The city of Nanjing has put 10,000 people under quarantine. Shanghai has just reported its first SARS death. The WHO has revised its estimate of the mortality rate of SARS, from 4.5 to 6.8 to as high as 15 and 20%, on the grounds that many of those who are now infected are going to die. For example, as of May 7, China has 219 deaths out of 4,560 reported infections, or a mortality rate of 4.8%. For that mortality rate to climb to 15%, a total of 684 ? or 465 more than the current 219 ? would have to die in the next two weeks, even if no new infections are reported, which is highly unlikely. The WHO may be panicking or is guilty of that famous ?negative thinking? of which I have been accused by a viewer of this column. The mortality rate of the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919, which killed an estimated 20 million people, including 548,000 Americans, was only one to three percent. The incidence of SARS worldwide seems to be declining except in Taiwan and Singapore, two countries which, ironically, had the nerve to issue recent travel advisories to its citizens to avoid traveling to the Philippines. As usual, the reaction of the Philippine government was timid, coy and almost apologetic (no doubt dictated by fears of losing jobs for OFWs), when it should have been a forceful and unequivocal ?Look who the hell is talking!? ***** The bulk of this article appears in the May 17, 2003 issue of the Philippines Free Press magazine. |
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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �Helping the Iraqis� Tony, I can't recall every agreeing with anything you have to say, although I truly love the way you say it. "Helping the Iraqis" I agree with 'totally' this is a first, now that should scare one of us, if not both of us. Terrific 'take'/article. Thomas +Magdalen/Thomas [email protected] May 15, 2003 ������������������������� Dear Mr. Abaya, BRAVO! Yours is truly the most sensible proposal I have come across on the matter of RP participation in the rebuilding of Iraq in all its aspects. It is not late for this myopic administration to adopt your proposal. It certainly will service the national interest best. Yours, Amb. Reynaldo O. Arcilla, [email protected] May 15, 2003 ���������������������������� Ho-hum. Another junket for the "chosen few." Romeo Farol, [email protected] May 16, 2003 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |