THE FIRST CATILINARIAN

As a miasmic environment threatens to envelop, and ultimately, suffocate the world, bullets and bandages have never been more in demand. A myriad of mirages has shrouded our eyes, making us blind to the obvious; the vicissitudes in economy have been sharp, and deep, and war, or at the very least the threat of one, has been a primary reason.

The title of this article, The First Catilinarian, is the name of a famous speech given by the renowned Roman orator Cicero, as he ousted political rival Catiline from Rome. Cicero’s opening words still resonate in one way or the other internationally.

“Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra?”

“How long, Catiline, will you go on abusing our patience?”

A country spending extravagant amounts of money to limit an entity’s privileges has been an onerous but consistent part of every civilization. Romans practiced a crude version of it and termed it “damnatio memoraie”, or condemnation of memory. Traitors and criminals were punished by having their names removed from official documents; this was seen as a punishment worse than death. Historians these days have termed it as “memory sanctions”.

What was meant to be the solution has incited a discussion so intense that it now presents itself as a part of the problem. For us to understand the relevance of sanctions and for us to decipher as to whether they are the victims or the villains in this whole charade, one must first understand what sanctions are.

Introduced by the United Nations, sanctions, during the initial phase, were introduced as the last resort; the very last weapon left in the arsenal, only to be used when things got out of hand; they were limitations and restrictions placed on an individual, a group or a country, and included banning arms trade, imposing tariffs (in case of a country or an extremist group) and freezing assets and restricting travel (in case of an individual). However, it did not take long for things to get out of hand. Emotions run high when people are low on facts; countries (especially the United States of America) started abusing their power, applying sanctions without much of a thought. The most severe of the USA sanctions was the one on Iraq, as they stopped supplying basic commodities like medicines and sewage facilities treatment, resulting in a massive humanitarian crisis which continues to plague and haunt Iraq to this day. Despite agreeing, under difficult circumstances, to sell $2 billion worth of oil to USA, the deal still hasn’t gone through; Iraq remains mired in problems.

And this one case study clearly illuminates the problems regarding the utilization of sanctions. Scaling remains an art that not many have mastered. In international politics, the entire world is regarded as one country, and each country as one individual. But the human part of the conversation astonishingly remains absent. Humans are treated as mere commodities and no more in the global politics.

A popular perception which pervades thought and dictates our thinking is this: “Sanctions lead to the country buckling down under pressure, thus leading to peace.” However, that is not necessarily the case. Iran represents this scenario. Removal of the economic sanctions from Iran will result in the per capita welfare rising to 3.7%; a lot, considering the state of the poor and the weak there.

Sanction critics have often highlighted this fact. Many have termed sanctions as ‘crimes against humanity’, and some have even called for the elimination of Article 41 (the article which gives power to use sanctions) in the United Nations charter.

This humble writer is of the opinion that sanctions serve no purpose as far as maintaining international peace and security is concerned. Citizens often get caught in the crossfire and are often the first to fall, tragically. And thus, this can be termed as the modern “damnatio memoraie”, the only catch being that the victims are innocents. Sanctions carry with them a cornucopia of banes, and only few, if any, positives. At some point, we have to ask ourselves: “Is this worth it?” Is it desolation or is it peace that we are heading towards?

Another phrase of Cicero, during his ‘The First Catilinarian’ speech has achieved global fame.

“O tempora, o mores!”

“Oh, what a world we live in!”