Authoritarians add to global violence (Latest Sabong News)
Author
Ruben Almendras
Date
SEPTEMBER 20 2022
Coming from the violent war on drugs of the previous administration and the unsolved disappearance of “e-sabong” players/gamblers, the recent kidnappings of Chinese nationals and women/child abductions reported in the main and social media, are starting to alarm many Filipinos. The violence against Asians in the US earlier this year, the death toll in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United Nations report on the violence inflicted by the Chinese government on the Uighurs, and the arrest and execution of the dissidents in Myanmar by the military government, are unnerving not just to Filipinos but to many nationalities, that the world is getting more violent and their countries unsafe to live.
Since 2009, there is an international agency that has been tracking global violence and they come up with the Global Peace/Violence Index of 163 countries/states every year. For 2021, the top 10 countries with the least violence or most peaceful are: 1.) Iceland, 2.) New Zealand, 3.) Portugal, 4.) Austria, 5.) Denmark, 6.) Canada, 7.) Singapore 8.) Slovenia. 9.) Japan 10.) Switzerland. The five worst countries in this violence index are: 1.) Afghanistan, 2.) Yemen, 3.) Syria, 4.) Russia, 5.) South Sudan. The Philippines is in number 134 out of the 163, just slightly better than Burundi, Egypt, India, and Mexico.
Some governments assail and contest these rankings and some inhabitants attest that they live in peaceful communities. True, some places in some countries are more peaceful than others, but these ratings are aggregates and averages for the whole country based on defined factors. In the past 10 years that these rating/rankings have been published, the agency has noticed a deterioration of peace and the increasing violence. A further cause of concern is the growing gap between the ratings of the most peaceful and the least peaceful countries. This will increase migration from the less peaceful countries to the more peaceful countries.
Given the nature of human beings as illustrated in the Bible and all the historical data, a certain level of human violence is inevitable in all societies. It is for these reasons that laws are enacted and governments arose to impose these laws. And these laws are based on truth and justice to create and orderly relationships between members of the society. Violence is the unlawful exercise of physical force or intimidation to hurt, damage, or kill. As such, governments are the arbiters or enforcers of laws to prevent violence and should not be a party to such violence.
Over the course of time and history, governments have practiced not just preventive force but have also exercised coercive forces that lead to violence. This is where the kind of government becomes a big factor in violence. The more authoritarian/totalitarian the government, the more it uses their coercive forces for violence against the people. Then there is the secondary effect of the citizens perceiving the uneven or lack of law enforcement, encouraging more civil strife among themselves and adding more violence.
The historical and current correlation between violence and governments in the Global Peace Index is well grounded if we look at the rankings. The more peaceful countries are those with well-functioning governments, (social democrats particularly), low levels of corruption, respect for human rights, and good social relations. On the least peaceful countries, there is impunity, abuse of authority, leaders extending/clinging on to power by force or manipulation, and use of military and paramilitary forces. This puts the Philippines in the crossroad of either doing better or worse in the violence/peace index in the coming years. This will be determined by the actions of the current administration and the reactions of the people.
The same International Agency that came up with this Global Peace Index also came up with the economic/financial cost of global violence. In 2016, it was $15 trillion and would be $20 trillion in 2021 which would have added 3% to the global GDP/economy and saved or improved the lives of billions of people.
