Thread by @AgathoniaMedia

"For the 6.3 billion people who live outside of #TheWest, 66 percent feel positively towards #Russia and 70 percent feel positively towards #China, and, among the 66 percent who feel positively about Russia the breakdown is 75 percent in #SouthAsia, ...

eurasiareview.com/24022023-5-rea…

... 68 percent in Francophone #Africa, and 62 percent in Southeast #Asia. Public opinion of #Russia remains positive in #SaudiArabia, #Malaysia, #India, #Pakistan, and #Vietnam. ...

... 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?

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.'”

"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."

2. History Matters: Who stood where during colonialism and after independence?

"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.'”

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.

"... 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. 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."

"#TheWest 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."

4. The world economy is no longer American dominated or Western led and the Global South does have other options.

"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."

5. The “rule based international order” is lacking in credibility and is in decline.

"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?"

"#Sanctions imposed on over 40 countries by #TheWest impose considerable hardship and suffering. Under what international law or “#RulesBasedOrder” 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 #NordStream pipelines?"