Sanctions hit the poor, stupid!

UNITED States acting Ambassador Thomas Hastings this week said sanctions imposed by the US on Zimbabwe do not affect the poor. He was being somewhat disingenuous.

The United States has always used sanctions as a weapon against its enemies, for example, they have had sanctions on Russia for more than 100 years now, that is since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.

It should be remembered that after the end of WWII in 1945 the world was plunged into what became known as the Cold War. This was a period when the West, led by the US, and the East, led by the Soviet Union, engaged in non-combat conflict.

It is in this context that we should place sanctions on Zimbabwe. Since its independence in 1980 Zimbabwe has leaned towards the East.

This is for historical reasons; Russia and China supported the liberation struggle. The US has labelled liberation movements “terrorist organisations” and still maintains an inherent suspicion of all liberation movements in southern Africa.

Zimbabwe’s inclination towards the East has continued to irk the US.

The US is also annoyed by Zimbabwe’s closeness to China which has made major in-roads in the country in terms of infrastructural deals that go into billions. The US and China have been fighting for this space for ages.

There is currently a trade war between these two world’s biggest economies.

Zimbabwe has become a pawn in this war because of its strategic geographical position. It sits at the heart of the sub-Saharan Africa subcontinent and any country that controls it, controls the whole region.

For all intents and purposes therefore, Zimbabwe is the most important Cold War front in southern Africa today.

But how are sanctions supposed to work for America to successfully wrench Zimbabwe out of the grip of Eastern bloc powers? The modus operandi is that sanctions are meant to plunge the targeted country into economic chaos.

They first hit the country’s currency which quickly loses its value resulting in prices skyrocketing hitting the middle class hard which is used to the little luxuries of life such as cars, holidays, shoes and clothes; but the hardest hit will obviously be the poor who are denied easy access to food because the prices of basics will be out of their reach.

Maize meal and bread become scarce forcing the government to resort to some kind of price controls which result in further shortages. The middle class begins to eat into their savings.

Sanctions are therefore meant to hurt the country’s economy and the common people’s ability to survive leading to revolution as people accuse their own governments of failure to rule.

The mastermind of sanctions will continue to say, as Hastings did this week, the measures do not include food and humanitarian aid when in fact they do because the sanctions bar banks from doing business with the targeted country.

They hit the importation of food and medicines causing immense suffering and even death among the poor.

Sanctions are therefore, in short, meant to slow down the economy sharply, trigger a recession as exports and investment inflows reduce, and rising inflation and high unemployment weigh on consumption.

As the poor suffer, the rich become richer.

The country suffers deep corruption and incompetence as those who oversee the economy become more and more depraved.

Sanctions therefore empower the institutions that control the levers of illicit trade at the expense of the middle class engaged in legitimate professions.

The ultimate aim of sanctions is to make people revolt. In fact hitting the poor majority is the intended purpose of the sanctions.