Dr. Syed Muhammad Haroon Bukhari (University of Gujrat)
We all studied in school that there are 7 continents and 195 countries in the world. But no teacher ever told us that out of those 195, there are 50 countries whose total population is not even equal to one neighbourhood of Lahore, and whose area is even smaller than Islamabad. Yet they sit in the United Nations, they have a flag, they have a Prime Minister, and their one vote is bought by America, China and Russia for millions of dollars.This article is the story of these rented countries.
Which are these 50 countries? They are scattered in three places.
First Group:
The first group is the Caribbean. You must have heard the name of the West Indies cricket team, it is actually not one country. It is a collection of 15 separate countries. Like Saint Kitts and Nevis (area 261 km, population 53 thousand), Antigua and Barbuda (area 440 km, population 1 lakh), Dominica (area 750 km, population 72 thousand), Saint Lucia (area 616 km, population 1 lakh 80 thousand), Grenada (area 344 km, population 1 lakh 12 thousand).
Second Group:
The second group is the Pacific, where the smallest countries in the world are. Nauru (area only 21 km, population 12 thousand), Tuvalu (area 26 km, population 11 thousand), Palau (area 466 km, population 18 thousand), Marshall Islands (area 181 km, population 42 thousand), Micronesia (area 702 km, population 1 lakh 15 thousand).
Third Group:
The third group is inside Europe. Vatican City (area 0.44 km, population 800 people), Monaco (area 2 km, population 39 thousand), Liechtenstein (area 160 km, population 38 thousand), San Marino (area 61 km, population 33 thousand), Andorra (area 468 km, population 77 thousand).
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The question is, how do they survive?
They have no army, no agriculture, no industry.Why don’t they end? Why has this cruel world kept them alive? Before 1945, the law of the world was that the powerful will eat the weak. But after the Second World War, a new law was made that no country will erase the border of another country. This one law gave these 50 countries eternal life. Now it is very expensive to eliminate them and very cheap to keep them alive.
There are four big reasons for keeping them alive.
First reason, they are tax-havens for big powers.
You must have heard the name Cayman Islands (area 264 km, population 68 thousand). It is a colony of Britain. 90 out of the world’s 100 biggest companies have an office there on paper. Almost 2 thousand billion dollars of black money of the world lies there. Britain and America will never want these islands to end.
Second reason, they are hotels for tourism.
Antigua has 365 beaches. Every beach is visited by American and British tourists. In a country with a population of one lakh, 10 lakh tourists come every year. If there is unrest here, the American tourism industry will be harmed. That is why America itself protects them.
Third reason, they are passport shops.
Most of these countries sell their passports. Give 2 lakh dollars and take the passport of Saint Kitts or Antigua, on which you can travel to 150 countries without a visa. This business gives more than 500 million dollars every year to these small countries.
Fourth and most important reason is the vote at UN.
Why have America, Europe, Australia, India kept these fake countries alive and how do they sell their flag? There are two prices for the survival of these 50 countries, one is a flag and the second is a vote, and both are a cheap deal for the big powers.The first deal is of the flag which is called Flag of Convenience.
Suppose you are the owner of a large ship in Europe. If you put the flag of Germany or France on your ship, you will have to bear heavy European taxes, expensive European employees and strict laws. But if you put the flag of Panama (area 75 thousand km, population 44 lakh), Liberia (area 1 lakh 11 thousand km, population 53 lakh) or Marshall Islands (area 181 km, population 42 thousand) on the same ship, you don’t have to pay tax nor will anyone ask you.
That is why today 70 percent of the world’s commercial ships fly the flag of these small countries. These countries run their government by taking 10 to 20 thousand dollars fee per ship annually, and American and European companies save billions in taxes through it.The second and even bigger deal is the vote in the United Nations. There, America with a population of 34 crore also has one vote and Nauru (area 21 km, population 12 thousand) also has one vote.
So if you buy 20 small countries, you get power equal to 20 big countries. That is why China, America and Australia buy their vote by giving them 50 to 100 million dollars in annual aid, a stadium or a road.
Now calculate, occupying them means keeping an army there, running the administration, taking defamation in the United Nations which costs billions of dollars. Whereas keeping them independent and renting their flag and vote costs only a few crore dollars. That is why this cruel world has cleverly decided that it is expensive to eliminate them, cheap to keep them alive.
How is a vote market set up? There is a strange democracy in the United Nations. America’s population is 34 crore, its vote is one. And Nauru’s population is 12 thousand, its vote is also one. That is, if 20 small island countries join together, they become equal to the votes of 20 big countries like Germany, France, Britain and Japan.
Now the market is set up here.
Story No. 1: China vs Taiwan
Taiwan wants the world to recognize it as a country, China says no one should. Both go to these small countries. In the last 10 years, China has built roads and parliaments worth billions of dollars for Vanuatu (area 12 thousand km, population 3 lakh), Solomon Islands (area 28 thousand km, population 7 lakh) and Kiribati (area 811 km, population 1 lakh 20 thousand), and in return they have left Taiwan and accepted China as their father. Taiwan now has only 12 countries left, of which 5 are from this list of 50.
Story No. 2: America and Israel
When there is a vote on Palestine in the United Nations, the whole world votes in favor of Palestine. Only 8 or 9 votes come in favor of America and Israel. These 9 always include countries like Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Palau, Nauru. Why? Because their entire budget runs on American aid. America gives them 100 million dollars a year and in return takes their vote.
Story No. 3: The drama of climate change
Countries like Tuvalu and Maldives (area 300 km, population 5 lakh) say we are drowning in the sea. Europe says we will give you funds to save you, but you vote in our favor.So this is not democracy, this is a market.
In Pakistan, the vote of one community is sold for 5 thousand, at the global level the vote of a country is sold in exchange for a stadium or a road.In the end the question is, are these countries foolish? No, they are very clever. Their rulers know that they have neither oil nor army. They have only three things, their flag, their beach, and their seat in the United Nations.
They have been alive for 100 years by selling that same seat.It is in no one’s interest to eliminate them. If they end, where will big countries buy their cheap votes from, where will Europe’s billionaires hide their money, and where will the world’s tourists go to cheap beaches in winter?That is why these 50 fake countries are the most real pillars of the real world’s politics.
Just like in our country small fake, artificial, incompetent leaderships are created, their Tanga parties are registered, they have no organizational structure, no national service. But they are used for the politics of alliances. In the end the slogan is raised 9 stars, 18 stars alliance… Due to this alliance they are given one, two seats in the parliament and the politics of maneuvering continues.
And what should our Pakistan learn from this?These 50 fake countries are a mirror for us Pakistanis. The only difference is that there a small island sells its flag and vote to feed its people, and here our big political parties sell their flag and their vote to fill their own pockets. When a country like Nauru (12 thousand population) takes 100 million dollars from America, it builds a school and a hospital for each of its citizens, while here billions of dollars of aid, IMF loans and deals of support from foreign masters are made only to save the chair of power.
In the United Nations, even the vote of a small island has a price because it is sold in the interest of its country, but in our parliament when the vote of our own representative is sold, that day it is sold not in the interest of the country, but in the interest of masters sitting in London, Dubai or Washington. That is why those 50 countries which we are calling fake are at least alive from their rent, while we, being a real country, are also running on rent.
