UN General Assembly Speeches Begin This Week; Time To Overcome ‘Depraved Indifference’

There is a concept in U.S. law known as “depraved indifference.” It refers to the principle that a person is accountable—for trial and punishment, if they stand by while terrible harm befalls an innocent, vulnerable person. Cases of conviction usually involve one or a few people, who could care less whether another lives or dies. But today, we see depraved indifference to suffering and death on a mass scale, which could be prevented.

On the “humanitarian” side, we see, for example, the deadly consequences from continuing the economic sanctions the U.S. now has on more than 30 countries, most for extended periods, including Yemen, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, and more. And the enforced lack of economic development continues, while the City of London/Wall Street networks rule.

In Afghanistan, the refusal of U.S. financial institutions to lift their freeze on that nation’s assets, amounts to an order to shut that country down, and cause mass death amidst chaos, and the pandemic and famine.

On the “military” side, we see the creation of AUKUS—Australia, United Kingdom, U.S.A. military bloc, part of the exertion of “Global Britain,” which also portends deadly consequences through confrontation against China and Russia, and deadly armament.

Exemplifying the crisis, we have the current, terrible drama of Haitians and their homeland. Today U.S. authorities began a mass expulsion of Haitian refugees from Texas, airlifting them back to Haiti. As of this weekend, there were more than 12,000 migrants, mostly Haitians, camped in miserable conditions under and near the international bridge in Del Rio, Texas, who came across the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. Today, three flights landed 320 migrants back in Port-au-Prince; on Sept. 21, six more flights are expected to arrive there. All told, since Sept. 17, Friday, 3,300 migrants have been removed by plane, or to U.S. detention centers, from Del Rio. Within a day, another 3,000 are expected to be expelled; and all of the migrants removed by next weekend. Mexico, too, intends to begin deportations.

These migrants are not displaced just since the Aug. 14 earthquake hit Haiti, but many of them fled years back, after the January 2010 earthquake, and in the hard years since, of no build-up of their nation. Some 4 million people need food in Haiti just to survive, out of their 10 million people, and there are others in need across the islands and territories of 44 million people in the Caribbean Basin. Add to that the dislocation and want in the littoral from Venezuela to Central America. Today, David Beasley, head of the World Food Program, was in Falcon State, Venezuela, to see to the WFP children’s school lunch project, a lifeline for thousands here and millions around the world. Beasley is appealing for emergency funding for the WFP in Haiti, Venezuela, Afghanistan, and for relieving, then ending hunger everywhere. That really means for starting economic development.

It is depraved indifference not to understand that. “Can ‘The West’ Learn?” is the pertinent question headlining the Sept. 5 statement by Schiller Institute chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche, focused on Afghanistan, and calling for learning the lessons of the deadly error of prolonged war in Afghanistan. ("Can ‘The West’ Learn? What Afghanistan Needs Now!") But her question applies generally. Can the West learn? Development is the name for peace. It also is the name for stability, justice, security, survival and the future.

Last week on Sept. 14 the UN General Assembly began for its 76th session in New York City, and the General Debate period of high-level debates by heads of state or government or foreign ministers runs from Sept. 21-25, and Sept. 27. The Zepp-LaRouche statement will be in circulation, plus another Schiller Institute statement is in the works. In addition, an outline program for development in Haiti will be released in 10 days. Now is the time to join the mobilization.