For too many small countries around the world, the ongoing cycle of genocide, war crimes, and civilian fallout remains hidden from the global community and exacerbates humanitarian and economic crises that end up catalyzing unintended negative domino effects.
As these small countries then struggle to repay debt, the stability of the global community at large starts to spiral. These small countries in turn struggle further to garner the international support they need to stem both the humanitarian and economic crises that become interlinked. Further challenging this are the crises in larger countries that compete for the attention of the international community.
In my own birth country of Sri Lanka, there has been continuing political and economic upheaval for decades. Even after the multi-decade civil war ended in 2009, things have not fully improved. The focus on the civil war and humanitarian crisis set the country back economically, handicapping its ability to compete in the world, further marginalizing it.
Many small countries throughout the world continue to be encumbered by a lack of support. Though these small countries often provide important services or products in the global supply chain, they are not universally recognized, and therefore do not garner the international support they need in a timely fashion.
For example, Sri Lanka is the third largest exporter of tea in the world (Ceylon Tea) and home to one of the largest textile manufacturing industries in the world. However, its size marginalizes it in the global community.
On the humanitarian front, tragically it took at least five years after the multi-decade civil war ended in 2009 before international authorities began to investigate human rights abuses that took place during the long war. This was after at least 100,000 lives had been lost in the country.
Then it took more than an additional five years after that for the United Nations to gather the support required to initiate collecting evidence of the human rights abuses and war crimes.
History reveals that in small countries, human rights violations can go ignored for years despite evidence. However, history also provides us with “playbooks” that give us glimpses into the early patterns that can result in human rights violations, that can later lead to economic problems.
We can use the recognition of those patterns to assist struggling small countries earlier in the process and prevent the undesired political and economic upheaval that can lead to a negative global spiral.
One such pattern of actions includes media censorship and the disappearance of civilians and journalists. When this happened in Sri Lanka, the global community only heard an incomplete set of facts for many years, creating delays in the response of the global community. There were violent riots and ethnic cleansing efforts in 1956, 1958, 1977, and 1956, well ahead of the start of the civil war in 1983. However, there was no decisive international action during those early decades to address the human rights violations.
Tragically, civilians on all sides suffer because they simply become pawns in the political and economic games of a few people. Because all human life has value and potential, we must learn from history and act earlier when we recognize these rising patterns of human rights violations in smaller countries, before they build into larger economic problems that can quickly affect the global community at large.
In my new novel July and Everything After, which draws upon ancient wisdom and is set in Sri Lanka, USA, and India, I chronicle a story of a woman who tries to shine a light early during unspeakable oppression and dehumanization during a dark period in South Asian history, and of her and her community’s resilience against extraordinary odds.
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