A donors’ conference. That is what the government decided upon on Monday in an effort to reach out to international organisations so that they could be briefed on the flood disasters that are currently ravaging the nation.
What a sad state of affairs, seventy-five years after the nation’s independence, to not be able to deal, even with accurately forecasted calamities, without foreign assistance. Being on the dole seems to come naturally to the managers of the country, even at times when there aren’t any natural disasters. Recurring IMF tranches are the branches we leap from, with an ape-like desperation so that we can just coast through to the next branch, the next tranche.
On the face of it, we are a nuclear power that speaks of its place in geopolitics. We claim we are the best functioning democracy in the Muslim world, though that is a horribly low bar to have set. We also speak of our army, one of the largest in the world.
But on the flipside, we look for donations to clean up our mess; our economy is in such shambles that recently, when some not-so-large oil payments were made, the interbank market seemed to have run out of dollars, with container-upon-container stranded at the ports because importers didn’t have the dollars to pay for them.
Our massive military will offer to provide security to Qatar for an upcoming sporting event, but would treat its own government in a similar manner, handing them bills for the relief work that it does, whenever it does it.
Perhaps political scientists should define failed statements – or perhaps states to begin with – as entities that can shield their citizens from such storms, literal and figurative, rather than relatively abstract metrics.
Our very statehood is – or should be – at stake.
