Credit crunch effects

Citation

Wilson, H.C. (2009), "Credit crunch effects", Disaster Prevention and Management, Vol. 18 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/dpm.2009.07318baa.001

Credit crunch effects

Article Type: Editorial From: Disaster Prevention and Management, Volume 18, Issue 2

When the world goes into financial meltdown the plight of the people who were suffering in the halcyon days could easily be forgotten. As pressure on the money in the pockets of the public increases on a near daily basis thoughts turn to the micro-management of individuals’ finances. Charities, both large and small, local and international, tend to respond by increasing their fund-raising efforts, leaving no street or street corner unattended by their collectors.

It becomes increasingly difficult for governments to justify the allocation of funds to the needy away from their shores when families at home are facing the effects of rising costs and job losses. What tends to be forgotten is that those in need in the under-developed nations are faced with even greater increase in costs of the basic fundamentals for life, such as wholesome food, clean drinking water, improved sanitation, medical costs, etc, compared with those in the developed nations, who, if we are honest, have brought on the world financial melt-down.

The world’s financial ails will be rectified in time, but is that time scale going to be acceptable to the world’s needy? – I doubt not. There will be little starvation in the developed nations during this period, and there will be little deterioration in the educational or medical services, and there will still be adequate supplies of clean drinking water, etc. The required finance to maintain these basic services will be found by individual governments irrespective of the depth of the recession or length of the economic depression. The basics for life will still be supplied to their populations.

So, how do we deal with those in dire need? Or, do we just pretend that they do not exist and do nothing? Obviously, the second alternative is not an acceptable option, therefore we need to develop a worldwide strategy which can respond to the problem raised in the first question. If doing nothing is not acceptable, then what do we do? Whatever is decided the response has to be quick.

There is no time for the United Nations or other organisations to hold committee meetings to resolve the problem, nor is there time to hold inquiries in to what is needed. We all know what is needed, i.e. food, clean water, health care, education, sanitation.

These all take hard cash, which needs to be spent wisely and with caution. The system has to be set up so as to ensure that the supplied finance does not end up in the wrong pockets as it has done previously and this is down, mainly, to those receiving governments to ensure that the financial aid reaches their poor without being siphoned off into military aid to support dictatorial and/or abusive governments.

Also, we have to be brave and bite the bullet, and insist that those countries that supply arms to oppressive governments in the full knowledge that they are being paid with money misappropriated from the development aid face UN-backed worldwide economic embargoes irrespective of their position within the UN Security Council.

I may be getting old – but, I can still dream of a better world.

H.C. Wilson