12 Emerging World Cisis: Must We All Run "Mad" First?

 

Often times we assume that only the Unclad people on the streets are mad but recent studies have proved our guesses wrong as depression that leads to madness comes in form of persistent sadness, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness, guilt, restlessness, loss of interest in activities including sex, fatigue, decreased energy, and difficulty in concentration, insomnia or excessive sleep, overeating, loss of appetite, thoughts of suicide, persistent ache or pain.

Looking at the trends around the world, from the socioeconomic crisis to political upheavals and the rising profile of insecurity in Africa, Middle East, Asia and Europe,  the mental health implications is becoming more glaring than two years back when I wrote this article (Details of facts on the crisis in 12 countries can be found below after my submission).

Do you agree that the world is entering its most dangerous chapter in decades? The sharp uptick in crisis over recent years is outstripping our ability to cope with the consequences. From the global refugee crisis to the spread of terrorism, our collective failure to resolve conflict is giving birth to new threats and emergencies. Even in peaceful societies, the politics of fear is leading to dangerous polarization and appealing to people's prejudices.

This is accelerating vulnerabilities, multiplies the psychological, socioeconomic/political and physical impacts on the people and systems. Communities brought together only by fear are vulnerable because fear destroys trust, which is the foundation of any long-term human community. A much greater effort is needed to foster a positive sense of common purpose.

Lets forget about the what the systems is doing and not doing about these negative impacts highlighted above. The big question everyone should ask his/herself is: " What Can I Do to Protect myself and my loved ones?" I totally believe that the power to react to our environments lies with YOU and not THEM. Yes there are so many "circumstances beyond our control....beyond our reach" but YOUR response to these should be defined by YOU by taking charge. How you may ask?

I decided to share this article I wrote in 2015 with the hope that It will rekindle our interest on the underlying mental health implications of activities in our immediate communities and the next as well as the next. This is also an opportunity for some of my friends/new connections who may have missed this. Continue reading below. Don't forget to share your comments, views or personal experience at the comment box or via email. Enjoy.

February 27, 2015 was just like every other busy morning in the metropolitan city of Ikeja- Lagos, Nigeria; suddenly a lady “runs mad” on the way to her work.  An eye witness “caught a glimpse of her eyes before she crossed the road. She looked “normal”. She was well dressed like someone going to the government office nearby. And then, she just snapped!!!”

In another story, a passenger on a motorbike suddenly “runs mad” and started stripping himself in public at Ajegunle area of Lagos State, (Western Nigeria) at midday. He suddenly started shouting and ordered the rider of the commercial motorbike to stop. An eye witness said: “Before anyone could bring cold water to sprinkle it on his head, he began to remove his clothes very fast and also pull off his pant. He started to run and we gave him a hot chase so that he would not enter the market. He even bit someone after they managed to apprehend him. Later, he began to say incoherent things"  

The two people in the above stories looked and dressed like any other so called “normal” people in any continent before they suddenly “ran mad”. They never envisioned such heartbreaking life-changing experience. It could also happen to any “normal” person out there.

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So must we all “run mad” first before we pay urgent attention to our mental health just like we make conscious effort to maintain be physically healthy?

It is important to examine the role that we need to play in our own lives in order to stay mentally healthy.However, mental health is not only an issue for individuals, it is an issue that we as a community must begin to address.

We all have a role to play in our homes, schools, workplaces, streets, shops and social environments to ensure that our interactions with other people are ones that help them to feel safe and connected. We have a role to ensure that all people, regardless of age, race, culture, sexuality, disability, or income are able to participate in community events and feel that they belong. To do so will ensure that we all stay mentally healthy.

 We now need to start looking at mental health in a different way.Understanding the meaning of “madness”, well-being and health will provide a holistic view of mental illness and the need to change stereotypes about mental illness and take charge of your mental health. When the Line Between War and Peace Becomes Blurred, How Do We Keep Ourselves Safe? 

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 12 Conflicts to Watch in 2017 (International Crisis Group) 

1.United States

Trump's Immigration Ban sends Shockwaves

Does the travel ban affect you, your friends or loved ones? Much has been said about the unknowns of Donald Trump’s foreign-policy agenda. But one thing is that the uncertainty itself can be profoundly destabilizing, especially when it involves the most powerful actor on the global stage.

The most important and sweeping changes of Trump’s first days in office occurred in two areas. First, on immigration, Trump made a series of hugely consequential policy changes that will block refugee admissions for months and amp up detentions and deportations of unauthorized immigrants. And second, Trump blocked federal funding for any global health organizations that provide or even discuss abortion — not only bringing back a policy from past Republican administrations but vastly expanding it.

As at the time of writing this report, BBC news stated that Donald Trump is considering a new executive order after his initial ban on citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US for the next 90 days and suspends the admission of all refugees for 120 days, was overturned when an appeals court in San Francisco upheld a court ruling to suspend his original order.  He told reporters on Air Force One that a "brand new order" could be issued as early as Monday or Tuesday. It is unclear what a new US immigration order might look like.The president's seismic move was to ban more than 218 million people from the United States.

2.  Lake Chad Basin and Greater Sahel

Nigeria

 The economic recession has crisis is affecting almost everything, staple food items is skyrocketing on a daily basis, companies are either down sizing staffs or closing due to loss or high cost of materials. How about at family and individual level? The tales of each household is peculiar but the experiences is the same-" heart wrenching".

In the Lake Chad Basin, the security forces of Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad have stepped up their fight against the Boko Haram insurgency. A leadership quarrel has split the jihadi movement, but it remains resilient and aggressive. Kidnapping and abuse of women and girls and attacking soft targets are strategies used by this group. Understanding the various ways women experience the conflict should directly inform strategies to tackle the roots of the insurgency.

The Boko Haram insurgency, the aggressive military response to it, and the lack of effective assistance to those caught up in the conflict threaten to create an endless cycle of violence and despair. The humanitarian disaster is a major concern not forgetting the mental health crisis which could further alienate communities and sow the seeds of future rebellion.

Armed Fulani Herdsmen Attacks 

Read more at: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/01/southern-kaduna-crisis-nema-confirms-204-killed/

The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, a government agency confirmed that the crisis in Southern Kaduna between Fulani herds-men and the natives which has lasted months claimed 204 lives. The Catholic Church in its report however put the casualty figure at 808 as of December 2016, a figure that was disputed by the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Idris who did not give a contrary number. The Catholic Church also said 1,422 houses, 16 Churches, 19 shops, and one primary school were destroyed (Vanguard News).

On 16 March 2014, Fulani Muslim herders attacked three Christian villages and killed more than 100 civilians in Kano. The rampaging herdsman attacks have spread to almost all states in Nigeria. The most recent is the ambush of Nigerian police forces at Delta state, the south-south region by armed Fulani herdsmen, where the commissioner of police was allegedly injured and some officers wounded or missing.

3. Central Sahel

4.2 million people have been uprooted from their homes. Jihadist, armed groups, and criminal networks jockey for power across this impoverished region, where borders are porous and governments have limited reach.  In 2016, jihadis based in Central Sahel launched deadly attacks in western Niger, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire, underscoring the region’s vulnerability. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al-Mourabitoun remain active while a new group claiming affiliation to the Islamic State is developing. All appear likely to continue attacks targeting civilians, as well as national and international forces.

Mali is the U.N.’s most dangerous peacekeeping mission, with 70 personnel killed by “malicious acts” since 2013. Mali could face a major crisis this year, as implementation of the 2015 Bamako peace agreement threatens to stall. 

4. Democratic Republic of Congo

President Joseph Kabila’s determination to cling to power beyond his second term, in defiance of the Congolese Constitution, met with significant opposition and volatile street protests throughout 2016. Last September, at least 53 people were killed, mostly by security forces, when demonstrations against Kabila’s rule beyond the end of his mandate turned violent. Clashes between security forces and protesters in several cities around the end of his term, on Dec. 19 and 20, reportedly killed at least 40 people.

5. South Sudan

After three years of civil war, the world’s youngest country is still bedeviled by multiple conflicts. 1.8 million people were internally displaced and 1.2 million to were forced to flee the country. In December, President Salva Kiir called for a renewed cease-fire and national dialogue to promote peace and reconciliation. Whether or not these efforts succeed depends on the transitional government’s willingness to negotiate fairly with individual armed groups and engage with disaffected communities at the grassroots level. 

6.Ukraine

After almost three years of war and roughly 10,000 deaths, Russia’s military intervention defines all aspects of political life in Ukraine. Divided by the conflict and crippled by corruption, Ukraine is headed for even greater uncertainty.

Across Ukraine, there is growing disillusionment with leaders who were brought to power by the Maidan demonstrations of early 2014 but who now increasingly resemble the corrupt oligarchs thrown out. Western support for President Petro Poroshenko is ebbing due to Kiev’s unwillingness or inability to deliver promised economic reform and robust anti-corruption measures. Poroshenko’s problems may be compounded if early parliamentary elections are held in 2017, in which pro-Russia parties could gain ground. 

The United States and EU must press Kiev harder for reforms while using strong diplomacy with Moscow, including maintaining sanctions. Putin must be convinced that there cannot be a return to normalcy in Europe so long as various forms of hybrid warfare are used to keep the situation in Ukraine unsettled. Russia’s tactics — including the use of force, cyberattacks, propaganda, and financial pressures — send a chilling message across the region.

7. Mexico

A high level of tension between the United States and Mexico might seem inevitable after Trump’s campaign pledges to build a border wall, deport millions of undocumented immigrants, and terminate the North American Free Trade Agreement. He also famously characterized Mexican immigrants as drug dealers, criminals, and rapists and drew on support from white nationalist groups. In an early effort to avoid future confrontation, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto invited candidate Trump to visit the country in September — a move that initially backfired with a Mexican public already angry about high crime, corruption, and a weak economy.

Peña Nieto knows Mexico cannot afford to make an enemy of its mighty neighbor. Mexico’s political and business elites are reportedly out in force to convince Trump and his advisors to modify stated positions on immigration and free trade.

If the United States were to pursue a policy of massive deportations, this would risk triggering an even worse humanitarian and security crisis. Refugees and migrants from Mexico and Central America are fleeing epidemic levels of violence combined with endemic poverty. A 2016 survey found that armed violence in Mexico and the Northern Triangle had killed around 34,000 people, more than were killed in Afghanistan over the same period. Stepped-up deportations and border enforcement tend to divert undocumented migration into more dangerous channels — benefiting criminal gangs and corrupt officials. The United States can better serve its own interests by strengthening its partnership with Mexico to address the systemic failings that give rise to violence and corruption.

8. Syria & Iraq

An estimated 500,000 people killed and some 12 million uprooted after nearly 6 years of fighting. Analysts say the war against the Islamic State is likely to continue, and there is an urgent need to ensure it will not fuel further violence and destabilization. In Syria, two competing efforts against the group — one led by Ankara, the other by the Syrian affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — are entangled with the conflict between the Turkish state and PKK inside Turkey.

The Islamic State still claims a caliphate across parts of Iraq and Syria, although it has lost significant territory over the past year. Even if it is defeated militarily, it or another radical group may well re-emerge unless underlying governance issues are addressed. The Islamic State itself grew from a similar failure in Iraq. It is spreading an ideology that is still mobilizing young people across the globe and poses threats well beyond the borders of Iraq and Syria, as recent attacks in Istanbul and Berlin have shown.

Iraq

A study by British and Swiss researchers led by Madelyn Hsiao-Rei Hicks of the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London,  has found that US-led coalition forces in Iraq killed women and children at a higher rate than insurgents in the period 2003 to 2008. The analysis of the 92,600 civilian deaths was published in 2011 at the Public Library of Science Medicine Journal, also established a “Dirty War Index” (DWI) to measure the proportion of  women and children among civilians killed. The study found that the most indiscriminate effects on women and children in Iraq came from mortar fire(some of the types of weapons used by American-led forces during the invasion of Iraq in 2003 were not very precise) and non-suicide vehicle bombs caused by unknown perpetrators – these had DWI ratings of 7 and 54 respectively – but that coalition air attacks had a DWI of 69.

 

The fight against the Islamic State has further undermined the state’s ability to govern, caused enormous destruction, militarized youth, and traumatized Iraqi society. It has fragmented Kurdish and Shiite political parties into rival factions and paramilitary forces dependent on regional backers and competing over Iraq’s resources. The fight to defeat the Islamic State, whose rise has fed on deep grievances among Sunni Arabs, has compounded the damage done by the group’s rule. To avoid worse, Baghdad and the Kurdistan Regional Government need support and pressure to rein in paramilitary groups.

9. Turkey

A New Year’s Eve attack in Istanbul — which killed at least 39 people — seems like a harbinger of more violence to come. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, a departure from the group’s general practice in Turkey that could signal an escalation. In addition to worsening spillover from the wars in Syria and Iraq, Turkey also faces a spiraling conflict with the PKK. Politically polarized, under economic strain, and with weak alliances, Turkey is poised for greater upheaval.

The conflict between the state and PKK militants continues to deteriorate following the collapse of a cease-fire in July 2015. Since, collapse of a cease-fire in July 2015, the PKK conflict , 2,500 militants, security forces, and civilians have been killed . More than 350,000 civilians have been displaced and flattened several city districts in Turkey’s majority Kurdish southeast. The list goes on and on...

10. Yemen

The US military is investigating whether more civilians were killed in a raid on al-Qaeda in Yemen at the weekend, in the first operation authorised by President Donald Trump as commander in chief. Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens was killed in the raid on a branch of al-Qaeda, also known as AQAP, in al-Bayda province, which the Pentagon said also killed 14 militants. However, medics at the scene said about 30 people, including 10 women and children, were killed.

American Girl, Nawar Al-Awlaki was reportedly shot in the neck and died after bleeding out for two hours, her grandfather said

According to the U.N., approximately 4,000 civilians have been killed, the majority in Saudi-led coalition airstrikes.The war in Yemen has created another humanitarian catastrophe, wrecking a country that was already the poorest in the Arab world. With millions of people now on the brink of famine, the need for a comprehensive cease-fire and political settlement is ever more urgent. Yemenis have suffered tremendous hardships from air bombardments, rocket attacks, and economic blockades. All parties to the conflict stand accused of war crimes, including indiscriminate attacks on civilian areas.

11. Afghanistan

15 years after U.S.-led coalition forces ousted the Taliban from power as part of a broader campaign to defeat al Qaeda there is a serious threat to international peace and security. Today, the Taliban are gaining ground; the Haqqani network is responsible for attacks in major cities; and the Islamic State has claimed a series of attacks targeting Shiite Muslims that appear intent on stoking sectarian violence. The number of armed clashes last year reached the highest level since the U.N. started recording incidents in 2007, with large numbers of civilian casualties. Further weakening of the Afghan security forces would risk leaving large ungoverned spaces that could be exploited by regional and transnational militant groups. 

Afghanistan’s relations with Pakistan have long been strained due to Islamabad’s support for the Taliban and other militant groups. Tensions increased last fall as thousands of Afghan refugees in Pakistan were forced to flee amid increased violence, detentions, and harassment. All this on top of the country’s economic crisis adds heavy pressures on a dangerously weak state.

12. Myanmar

The new civilian government led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi promised peace and national reconciliation as its top priorities; however, recent flare-ups of violence have jeopardized efforts to end nearly 70 years of armed conflict. In November, a “Northern Alliance” of four armed groups carried out unprecedented joint attacks on urban targets in a key trade zone on the Chinese border, triggering military escalation in the northeast. Meanwhile, the fate of the Muslim Rohingya minority is drawing renewed international concern. 

The population has seen its rights progressively eroded in recent years, especially following anti-Muslim violence in Rakhine state in 2012. The latest round of violence in Rakhine was sparked by a series of attacks in October and November targeting border police and military in an area near Myanmar’s northwestern frontier with Bangladesh. Security forces hit back hard in a campaign that made little distinction between militants and civilians, with allegations of extrajudicial executions, rapes, and arson. By mid-December, the U.N. estimated that around 27,000 Rohingya had fled to Bangladesh. More than a dozen fellow Nobel laureates issued an open letter criticizing Aung San Suu Kyi for her failure to speak out about the abuses and calling for full and equal citizenship rights for the Rohingya.

The initial attacks were carried out by an armed group known as Harakah al-Yaqin (“Faith Movement”), whose emergence is a potential game-changer in Myanmar. Although the Rohingya have never been a radicalized population, the government’s heavy-handed military response increases the risk of spiraling violence. Grievances could be exploited by transnational jihadis attempting to pursue their own agendas, which would inflame religious tensions across the majority Buddhist country.