Morning grumbles on sensationalized aid

As though reading my mind this morning (I appear to be on an anti-celebrities who want to save the world/Collier's "headless hearts" kick today), Ryan Hahn, writing in the World Bank's PSD blog, notes the following:

In her book Dead Aid, aid critic Dambisa Moyo proclaims that the 2000s were the era of glamor aid. (Think Bono and Bob Geldof.) So what will the 2010s be? I think we already have an idea. This morning I received a newsletter from Kiva, the well-known P2P microfinance lender, and the title proclaimed proudly that "Brad Pitt Twitters about Kiva." (You can even follow a link to get a screenshot of Brad Pitt's twitter message.) I happen to be a fan of Kiva, but I have to wonder - am I the only one whose stomach turns at the prospect of aid flows being determined by the whims of celebrities through their Twitter feeds?

No, Ryan, you're absolutely not. I am right there with you... stomach churning and all.

On Sri Lanka (for want of a better title)

It's quite a curious exercise, isn't it, observing which humanitarian crises receive international attention? Perhaps not surprisingly (though most unfortunately), the most talked about issues are often those that have somehow  been sensationalized by the media and/or altogether clueless celebrities who mean well but often lack the knowledge necessary to raise proper awareness, let alone do anything about the problems at hand. Darfur, the Congo, the AIDS crisis more generally, Somalia - which was brought into the international spotlight only when pirate attacks escalated on mostly Western cargo ships - the list goes on.

Yet what about other parts of the world? Places like present-day Sri Lanka, for instance, where the populace is suffering on an unimaginable scale. Yet who can honestly say that they have heard much about Sri Lanka, let alone the country's problems? Few will likely know that a humanitarian catastrophe is raging on in the country after Tamil Tiger rebels ignored a surrender deadline from the government and the government likewise rejected the rebels' offer of ceasefire on the grounds that the offer was "meaningless." While exact figures are unavailable, it is estimated that there are upwards of 6,500 civilian deaths, with over 100,000 refugees and 50,000 civilians trapped in a space roughly the size of Central Park. According to one British official, Sri Lanka's conflict makes "what happened in Gaza look like a sideshow."

Indeed, comparisons are being drawn between Sri Lanka's plight and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Tamils are using refugees as human shields; the rebels are accusing the government of trying to starve the population into submission; and foreign media is kept beyond the conflict zone. Indeed:

This is a situation of armed conflict in which both parties are acting in ways that pose a grave risk to innocent civilians. The party that is perhaps more culpable -- the rebels -- answers to no one. And the Sri Lankan government has been able to operate with virtual impunity because it is fighting "terrorists." Even Western states that usually condemn violations of international law have given the situation a wide berth.

The international community has, in fact, stepped in, calling for both a ceasefire and permission for aid groups to access the war zone. Neither call appears to have been met. What becomes of Sri Lanka remains to be seen. As Robert Templer observes: either the conflict will end in a bloody massacre, likely resulting in decades more of war and suffering, or there will be a breakthrough of sorts, heralding in peaceful negotiations and the hope for a peaceful Sri Lanka. But no matter: I don't think Bono has sung about this one yet, has he? 

All roads lead to China. Even (especially?) those in the Middle East

In his recently released book, The New Silk Road: How a Rising Arab World is Turning Away from the West and Rediscovering China, Ben Simpfendorfer, chief China economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland in Hong Kong, examines China's rising popularity in the Arab world. This, marked in part by the migration of Arabic traders to the Mainland and what Simpfendorfer terms a "new silk road" emerging between China and the Middle East. The resurgence of such ties, however, is part and parcel of a much bigger picture:

The relations have already been strengthened by the Middle East’s energy wealth and China’s voracious appetite for oil and gas. Simpfendorfer forecasts that China will overtake the U.S. as the chief supplier of goods to the Middle East within a year or two. While the U.S. exports SUVs and Boeing airplanes to the Arab world, China has been providing DVD players, mobile phones and other consumer goods. The Middle East now sends more visitors to a single Chinese city, Yiwu, than to the entire United States (200,000 vs. 180,000 a year, according to Simpfendorfer). Before long, we may even see Gulf States moving away from pegging their currencies to the dollar, instead adopting a basket peg approach similar to China’s, he says.

But Simpfendorfer emphasizes that the relationship is not just economic, but also cultural. Islam, which came to China as early as the 7th Century, “is central to the silk road story,” he says.