Last week, the development aid debate flared up once again as a result of a bill passed in the European Parliament. At the same time, global poverty is increasing, not least in Yemen, where the war is still going on. It has also been discussed whether a ban on fossil fuels could have faster effects in combating climate change.
The aid debate is back on track after the European Parliament voted through a proposal from the moderate EPP in which aid is used as a means of pressure. Something like the Social Democrats Annika Strandhäll, Evin Incir and Anna Sundström from Olof Palme's International Center, criticized in the outside world.
- Aid has reduced poverty and increased the standard of living among the poorest countries since the 1960s, and this is something it will continue to do, especially now that extreme poverty is increasing in the world, write Annika Strandhäll, Evin Incir and Anna Sundström.
At the same time as the aid's opponents are being heard, the UN reports that 400 children under the age of 00 are at risk of dying in Yemen from starvation and malnutrition.
- Pictures of emaciated children have been cabled out since the war began in 2015. Still, the Yemeni conflict is mostly something the outside world viewed from a distance. But now a brightening is visible and that is because the US president is now named Joe Biden and not Donald Trump, writes Lina Stenberg in Aftonbladet.
Although it is not only poverty that is worsening but also the climate crisis that is affecting the whole of human existence. Roland Geyer, professor of industrial ecology at the University of California at Santa Barbara, says in a debate article in The Guardian that a ban on fossil fuels must be introduced to save the planet. Geyer believes that previous bans on, among other things, freons have been introduced in order to stop the substance's impact on the ozone layer, and since that ban was introduced in the 2000s, the ozone layer has begun to heal. A similar change could be achieved if a ban on fossil fuels were introduced. It's something like Jona Sima, editorial writer for Aftonbladet agree, she believes that the climate crisis has been overshadowed since the start of the pandemic.
A selection of the last week's editorial and debate articles about Sweden's role in the world:
Vaccine pass apartheid? No then, quell the hysteria
Arvid Åhlund, Expressen
Ten years of carnage is the mass murderer al-Assad's gift to Syria
DN's editorial staff, Dagens Nyheter
Stop looking away when Yemeni children starve
Lina Stenberg, Aftonbladet
The moderates are drumming out messages to stifle aid
Annika Strandhäll (S), Development Policy Spokeswoman and Member of Parliament, Evin Incir (S), MEP, Anna Sundström, Secretary General of Olof Palme's International Center, The World
The Guantánamo camp is a disgrace on the star banner
Leader, Sydsvenskan
The climate crisis
No more empty promises - the climate crisis is here
Fridays for future (Fanny Skarin, Alde Fermskog, Lydia Rysavy, Anton Foley), Aftonbladet
Fossil fuels must be banned
Jonna Sima, Aftonbladet
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