Sentiments of this nature have caused some ire, surprise, and even anger in the West. It is difficult for them to believe that two-thirds of the world’s population is not siding with the West.
What are some of the reasons or causes for this? I believe there are five reasons as explained in this brief essay.
1. The Global South does not believe that the West understands or empathizes with their problems.
India’s foreign minister, S. Jaishankar, summed it up succinctly in a recent interview: “Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe’s problems are the world’s problems, but the world’s problems are not Europe’s problems.” He is referring to the many challenges that developing countries face whether they relate to the aftermath of the pandemic, the high cost of debt service, the climate crisis that is ravaging their lives, the pain of poverty, food shortages, droughts, and high energy prices.(GS가 직면한 당장의 문제와 유럽이 갖고 잇는 문제는 전혀 다르다..)The West has barely given lip service to the Global South on many of these problems. Yet the West is insisting that the Global South join it in sanctioning Russia.
The Covid pandemic is a perfect example—despite the Global South’s repeated pleas to share intellectual property on the vaccines, with the goal of saving lives, no Western nation was willing to do so. Africa remains to this day the most unvaccinated continent in the world. Africa had the capability to make the vaccines but without the intellectual property they could not do it.
But help did come from Russia, China, and India. Algeria launched a vaccination program in January 2021 after it received its first batch of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccines. Egypt started vaccinations after it got China’s Sinopharm vaccine at about the same time. South Africa procured a million doses of AstraZeneca from the Serum Institute of India. In Argentina, Sputnik became the backbone of their vaccine program. All of this was happening while the West was using its financial resources to buy millions of doses in advance, and often destroying them when they became outdated. The message to the Global South was clear—your problems are your problems, they are not our problems.
2. History Matters: Who stood where during colonialism and after independence?
Many countries in Latin America, Africa, and Asia view the war in Ukraine through a different lens than the West. Many of them see their former colonial powers regrouped as members of the Western alliance. The countries that have sanctioned Russia are either members of the European Union and NATO or the closest allies of the United States in the Asia Pacific region. By contrast, many countries in Asia, and almost all countries in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America have tried to remain on good terms with both Russia and the West, and to shun sanctions against Russia. Could it be because they remember their history at the receiving end of the West’s colonial policies, a trauma that they still live with but which the West has mostly forgotten.(한국도 식민시대는 다 잊엇다.....하모..우린 선진국...찌지리 후진국이 아님...그래서 선진국 처럼 행동 하고퐈...취지지지ㅣㅣㅣ)
Nelson Mandela often said that it was the Soviet Union’s support, both moral and material, that helped inspire Southern Africans to overthrow the Apartheid regime. It is because of this that Russia is still viewed in a favorable light by many African countries. And once Independence came for these countries, it was the Soviet Union that supported them even though it had limited resources itself. The Aswan Dam in Egypt which took 11 years to build, from 1960 to 1971, was designed by the Moscow based Hydro project Institute and financed in large part by the Soviet Union. The Bhilai Steel Plant in India, one of the first large infrastructure projects in a newly independent India, was set up by the USSR in 1959. Other countries also benefited from the support provided by the former Soviet Union, both political and economic, including Ghana, Mali, Sudan, Angola, Benin, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Mozambique.(간단하게 정리 하면..유럽국가가 한국일본들이 미국의 도움-마샬 플랜등등을 받앗듯이...GS많은 나라들이 소련-러시아 의 도움을 받앗고....한인들이 아직까지도 미국님의 하해와 같은 은혜를 잊지 못하고 --미제 할렐루야 뀌야야약.... 거리는 것과 꼭 같이 그들도 그렇다 생각하면 됩니다..
마오쩌뚱은 .먼 곳에 잇는 사람을 도와주고 잊어 버린다고 햇습니다...그 잊어 버린 사람들은 언제가는 친구로 도움을 받을 수 잇다고 햇지요.....중국의 제3세계 국가의 지원은 이런 긴, 장기 안목으로 이루어졋습니다..
이런 장기적인 투자는 자본주의 시장에서는 불 가능합니다....)
On February 18, 2023, at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the foreign minister of Uganda, Jeje Odongo, had this to say, “We were colonized and forgave those who colonized us. Now the colonizers are asking us to be enemies of Russia, who never colonized us. Is that fair? Not for us. Their enemies are their enemies. Our friends are our friends.”(-우리는 식민지 엿지만, 우리를 식민지로 만든 사람들을 용서했다. 이제 식민지 지배자들이 우리를 식민지화하지도 않은 러시아의 적이 되라고 요구하고 있다. 뭔 개소리? 우리에겐 아니야. 그들의 적은 그들의 적이고, 우리의 친구는 우리의 친구다.")
Rightly or wrongly, present day Russia is seen by many countries in the Global South as an ideological successor to the former Soviet Union. These countries have a long memory that makes them view Russia in a somewhat different light. Given the history, can we blame them?
--) 러시아와 소련은 다른 나라입니다...하지만 구 러시아제국과 소련을 완전히 구분하기 어려운 것 처럼 ..소련과 러시아의 완벽한 구분도 어렵다는 것입니다...러시아는 어쩟던 구 소련 시절의 공산주의이념을 개능한 국가라는 인상을 여전히 갖고 잇다는 것입니다.....미국과 유럽놈들은 군대 몰고 와서 총칼질이나 처 하고 십자가 앞세워 마녀 사냥질이나 처 햇지만...소련은 이들에게 정치적 경제적 지원은 말 할 것도 없고 인간적, 사상적인 지원도 하여 주엇습니다....이런 역사에 대한 기억은 쉽게 바뀌지 않습니다...일본이 아무리 한국에 잘 해 준다 하여 한인들의 식민시절의 기억이 바뀌지 않는 것 과 같습니다..
3. The war in Ukraine is seen by the Global South as mainly about the future of Europe rather than the future of the entire world.
The history of the Cold War has taught developing countries that getting embroiled in great power conflicts generates few benefits for them yet carries enormous risks.(그래서 함부로 끼어 들지 말라는 겁니다....나중에 정말 큰 독박을 쓸 수 잇겟다는 조심스럼움을 배운 것이지요.....그런의미에서 한국은 미친놈들 같습니다...왜 그리 설처되는지 정말 모를일입니다) And they view the Ukraine proxy war as one that is more about the future of European security than the future of the entire world. Furthermore, the war is seen by the Global South as an expensive distraction from the most pressing issues that they are dealing with. These include higher fuel prices, food prices, higher debt service costs, and more inflation, all of which have become more aggravated because of the Western sanctions that have been imposed on Russia.--이런 독박은 한국도 고대로 처 맞아지요...븅쉰쇗끼들
A recent survey published by Nature Energy states that up to 140 million people could be pushed into extreme poverty due to the higher energy prices that have come about over the past year.
Soaring energy prices not only directly impact energy bills, but they also lead to upward price pressures on all supply chains and consumer items, including food and other necessities. This hurts the developing countries even more than it hurts the West.
The West can sustain the war “as long as it takes” since they have the financial resources and the capital markets to do so. But the Global South does not have the same luxury. A war for the future of European security has the potential of devastating the security of the entire world.
The Global South is also alarmed that the West is not pursuing negotiations that could bring this war to an early end. There were missed opportunities in December 2021 when Russia proposed revised security treaties for Europe that could have prevented the war and which were rejected by the West. The peace negotiations of April 2022 in Istanbul were also rejected by the West in part to “weaken” Russia. And now the entire world is paying the price for an invasion that the Western media like to call “unprovoked” and which could have been avoided.
4. The world economy is no longer American dominated or Western led and the Global South does have other options.
Several countries in the Global South increasingly see their future tied to countries that are no longer in the Western sphere of influence. Whether this is their perception of how the power balance is shifting away from the West, or wishful thinking as part of their colonial legacy, let us look at some metrics that may be relevant.
The U.S. share of global output declined from 21 percent in 1991 to 15 percent in 2021, while China’s share rose from 4 percent to 19 percent during the same period. China is the largest trading partner for most of the world, and its GDP in purchasing power parity already exceeds that of the United States. The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, China, India, and South Africa) had a combined GDP in 2021 of $42 trillion compared with $41 trillion in the G7. Their population of 3.2 billion is more than 4.5 times the combined population of the G7 countries, at 700 million.
--)) 이런것은 FACT입니다....선전선동이 아니고..현실이 이렇다는 것입니다.
The BRICS are not imposing sanctions on Russia nor supplying arms to the opposing side. While Russia is the biggest supplier of energy and foodgrains for the Global South, China remains the biggest supplier of financing and infrastructure projects to them through the Belt and Road Initiative. And now Russia and China are closer than ever before because of the war. What does it all mean for developing countries?
--)) 한국은 이미 선진국이 되엇고,,서방 질서에 편입되어 잇다...그래서 서방쪽에 붙는것이 더 큰 이익이다..라는 것이 수구 꼴통들의 주장입니다...이들의 이런 근거가 무엇인지도 모르겟고..또 서방 쪽에 붙은 방식과 요령이 지금과 같은 것이어야 한다....는 것은 도무지 납득이 되지 않습니다..중국과 북괴놈들과 대립각을 세워 무슨 이익이 잇지요?
It means that when it comes to financing, food, energy, and infrastructure, the Global South must rely more on China and Russia more than on the West. The Global South is also seeing the Shanghai Cooperation Organization expanding, more countries wanting to join the BRICS, and many countries now trading in currencies that move them away from the dollar, the Euro, or the West. They also see a deindustrialization taking place in some countries in Europe because of higher energy costs, along with higher inflation. This makes quite apparent an economic vulnerability in the West that was not so evident before the war. With developing countries having an obligation to put the interests of their own citizens first, is it any wonder that they see their future tied more to countries that are not Western led or American dominated?
5. The “rule based international order” is lacking in credibility and is in decline.
The “rule based international order” is a concept that is seen by many countries in the Global South as one that has been conceived by the West and imposed unilaterally on other countries. Few if any non-Western countries ever signed on to this order. The South is not opposed to a rule-based order, but rather to the present content of these rules as conceived by the West.
But one must also ask, does the rule based international order apply even to the West?
For decades now, for many in the Global South, the West is seen to have had its way with the world without regard to anyone else’s views. Several countries were invaded at will, mostly without Security Council authorization. These include the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria. Under what “rules” were those countries attacked or devastated, and were those wars provoked or unprovoked? Julian Assange is languishing in prison, and Ed Snowden is in exile, for having the courage (or perhaps the audacity) to expose the truths behind these actions.
Sanctions imposed on over 40 countries by the West impose considerable hardship and suffering. Under what international law or “rules-based order” did the West use its economic strength to impose these sanctions? Why are the assets of Afghanistan still frozen in Western banks while the country is facing starvation and famine? Why is Venezuelan gold still held hostage in the UK while the people of Venezuela are living at subsistence levels? And if Sy Hersh’s expose is true, under what “rules-based order” did the West destroy the Nord Stream pipelines?
--)) 미국이 멋대로 수용한 아프칸 인민들의 돈을 미국의 아프칸 전쟁 병사들의 배상과 복지에 사용한다고 하엿습니다..남의 돈 가지고 뭐 하자는 것입니까??...베네주엘라의 황금은 베네주엘라 야당도 공식으로 부정한 후안 과이도에게 처분권이 잇다고 하엿습니다(물론 이런 멍청한 짓에 일조한 한국의 문재인 이란 찌리지도 잇지만...)
미국이 노드 스트림 파괴는 명백한 태러입니다....당장에 독일 인민들이 사용한 에네지 원의 공급을 파괴 한 것이고 이는 유럽인민들 전체에도 영향을 미치는 비 인륜적인 짓입니다....왜 이런 태러행위에 대한 비판과 조사는 믿어지지 않을 만큼 조용한 것이지요??
There appears to be a paradigm shift that is taking place away from a Western dominated world and into a more multipolar world. And the war in Ukraine has made more evident those differences or chasms that are part of this paradigm shift. Partly because of its own history, and partly because of the economic realities that are emerging, the Global South sees a multipolar world as a preferable outcome in which their voices are more likely to be heard.
President Kennedy ended his American University speech in 1963 with the following words: “We must do our part to build a world of peace where the weak are safe and the strong are just.(약한 국가는 안전하고 강한 국가는 정의로운 평화의 세계) We are not helpless before that task or hopeless for its success. Confident and unafraid, we must labor on towards a strategy of peace.”
That strategy of peace was the challenge before us in 1963 and they remain a challenge for us today. And the voices for peace, including those of the Global South, need to be heard.
Author Bio: Krishen Mehta is a member of the Board of the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord (ACURA), and a Senior Global Justice Fellow at Yale University.