Crimes and sanctions
When in recent years the activity of the American administration in our region intensified through the introduction of sanctions against dear and dear people who mark the local political life and economic entities connected with them, the reaction of many was - 'that's what the Americans will say. That country is far away - we don't plan to travel there, we don't own accounts or property either, therefore, our political and economic life continues in a completely normal tone - in a similar way, many of those sanctioned got rid of the accumulated discomfort that putting them on the colloquially called black caused the list.
It is possible that their political rating has also increased partly with their own supporters who have an unusual love and affection for people who are fighting alone against the system, and their elected representatives are in turn like that: the global system is not fair, it is far from fair and only thinks of ways to subjugated the small nations and their free-thinking representatives so that the blacklists had always prepared a heroic response to the painful and blatant injustice to which they were exposed. That evil and insufficiently informed West constantly, 24 hours a day and 365 days a year, only thinks of perfidious ways to subjugate our local pacifist politicians, fearless fighters for justice and human emancipation, constitutional experts, presidents of this or that, various ministers, prosecutors and similar political to the bullion. This is, admittedly, written ironically, but individuals affected by the sanctions have justified their blacklisting in similarly predictable and witless ways. And then evil fate played with them and dealt them a targeted blow, maybe even partially below the belt, and they expeditiously ran out of a bank account, some cards and probably a token or a mobile banking application.
World Bank figures are not definitive, but it is believed that more than one quarter of the world's population does not have a bank account, so the evil fate of our political workers should not be viewed with sadness and regret: in countries such as Morocco, Vietnam, Egypt and the Philippines, the number of people without a bank account ranges between 60-70%, while in developed countries the number of these people, the English language has a specific term for them - the unbanked - ranges around a low 5-6%. When we already touched on the Anglo-Saxon world, the main agitator of Brexit Nigel Farage, relatively recently a prestigious British bank closed the account because it did not fit their standards.
The fate of domestic politicians deprived of bank accounts was partly predictable: after the Russian aggression against Ukraine, comprehensive financial sanctions became one of the main instruments of foreign policy of Western countries. Some even call them a liberal response to war, which avoids the use of military power and compensates for it with economic and other sanctions. Thus, for example, Roman Abramovich was forced to sell the soccer club FC Chelsea below the market price, the oligarchs were deprived of their private property, symbols of power such as yachts, their magnificent mansions were confiscated and their bank accounts were frozen. A similar fate was experienced by the property of countries such as Libya, whose goods were confiscated and simply disappeared.
Comprehensive economic and related sanctions imposed on states throughout history have not proven to be effective. American political scientist Robert A. Pape wrote about it, whose analysis showed that comprehensive economic sanctions throughout history were not very successful. The author was referring to international sanctions against Iraq during the Gulf War, which indirectly led to the death of the most innocent in every society, children. Economic sanctions from 1990 to 1995 in Iraq, as Sarah Zaidi and Mary Smith Fawzi write about it in more detail, led to a humanitarian and human catastrophe: war, no purchasing power, the collapse of the health system indirectly led to the death of over half a million Iraqi children. The number is probably not exact, but it faithfully shows that economic sanctions have a dark side that breaks through the backs of the most vulnerable groups in society. The sanctions imposed on Cuba led to the complete distancing of that country from many of the civilizational streams to which it belonged; the tragic famine in completely isolated North Korea is partly conditioned by sanctions, and in many countries sanctions additionally antagonize political regimes and broad masses against Western societies, encouraging isolationism. But then the sanctions were updated and became personalized, targeted, and thus affected.
The logic of targeted sanctions is very simple: they are a response to violations of fundamental international norms, sometimes due to disruption of peace, repeated extra-institutional activities, corrupt practices, political obstructionism and other negative phenomena. Most of the mentioned phenomena constitute the very DNA of Bosnia and Herzegovina's political reality, and experience teaches that such phenomena are extremely difficult to deal with without help from outside. Although we do not rejoice because of the sanctioned individuals, we are still amused, even laugh at the thought of how the daily interactions of the financial type are difficult for the mentioned individuals. No more ironing cards, installment payments, booking arrangements and flights online. Goodbye, cheap loans, addio, ordering via online stores, auf Wiedersehen, subscriptions for video streaming, au revoir, sending money to family members, goodbye, mobile banking and until svidanya, that pleasant sound of an SMS message when the earned salary lands in the bank account. Although they certainly violate some of their fundamental human rights - that's exactly why we don't rejoice, targeted sanctions became an effective mechanism when they interfered and made the everyday life of the individuals on whom they were imposed difficult.
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