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| Guest Speaker's Column
- The Arms Industry / by TOM HYLAND |
 One
of the largest industries in the world, is also one of the most secretive.
Most people involved in it have to sign contracts that they will not
speak publicly about it. Over 50% of those scientists who have a job
are employed in it. Dollar for dollar it receives the highest government
subsidies but employs fewest people. It makes products that few of
us want and even fewer will ever use.
It is the armaments industry. An incredibly strong industry that could
help the world only by ceasing to exist.
Every second, US$16,000 are spent on weapons research and manufacture.
This transfers in just under US$60 million per hour. One can only
imagine the results if this amount of money was spent on improving
the lives of peoples in the developing world or the inner-cities of
western nations. If the money spent on weapons were spent on improving
the lives of citizens, most poverty would be completely eradicated.
One example is that it costs about 30 cents to immunise a child against
measles in most of the world. The money spent on weapons research,
if diverted into AIDS research, would substantially speed up the process
of finding a vaccine. It would also make the life-saving drugs, necessary
to sustain life, available to the poverty-stricken sufferers of the
syndrome.
It may come as a surprise that the five permanent member-states of
the United Nations Security Council are the largest manufacturers
and exporters of weapons. They export most of their weapons to the
developing world. Exporting countries encourage other governments
to spend money on weapons through 'soft loans' rather than on health
and education of its citizens. Countries which export weapons seldom
monitor how the weapons are used and against whom. Governments and
manufacturers care little that most people who are killed in modern-day
warfare are civilians. It is an ideal situation for the governments
and manufacturers, to blame each other for the lack of monitoring.
During the Gulf War western governments in fact supplied most of the
weapons used by Saddam Hussein. It mattered little to so-called democratic
governments that the Hussein regime had previously used the weapons
against the civilian population.
The recent decision of the Bush administration to reinvent the Strategic
Missile Defense Programme may lead to a new arms race with Russia
and China diverting funds into their armaments budget. The weapons'
industry in the United States will make huge profits from billions
of dollars that will be spent. The weapons' lobby is one of the most
powerful in the world. In the 1950's, the then-president of the United
States, Dwight D. Eisenhower, warned politicians of the growing power
of the armaments industry. It seems that his warnings were never heeded.
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PEACE BOAT is an NGO in Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations. |
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