In February the news channels have been overtaken by Donald Trump imposing sanctions on certain countries. It made me think how sanctions can so easily be placed on other countries by the President of that specific country, even when others are affected in their everyday lives.

The general public knows what sanctions is, but not many knows what the process is or what is done or the consequences when implemented. There are different types of sanctions that are applied. Economic sanctions are a ban placed on the trade between countries, which is when the goods and services between countries are prohibited for a certain time. Diplomatic sanctions are when diplomatic ties between countries are removed or lessened; the representation of a country in another country is removed. This can be in the form of one person, a group or even a building which stand in representation of the specific country. Military sanctions are a ban on military help or interventions from one country to another; one country removed their soldiers form another country during times of war. Sports sanctions is another ban where a specific country are banned from competing in international sports events, like the Olympics.

With all these types of sanctions that can be implemented when one country feels they have been wronged, there can be understood why sour ties between these countries could exist even after lifted. Sanctions are certainly needed when gross human rights violations have taken place from one country to another. Where people’s dignity have been taken away or horrible violence, one can understand when heavy sanctions is placed on the country guilty of these crimes. This is seen especially in times of war when horrific acts of torture and violence is committed on innocent people caught in the crossfire between two countries fighting. Implementing these sanctions on the country allowing these war crimes to continue under their order would be fair to do and preventing future crimes of this magnitude; but what if sanctions are implemented without doing research into the truthfulness of what the specific country is accused of, that warrants these sanctions?

Since Donald Trump’s new tenure of Presidency began he has unapologetically enforced new rules and regulations for not only his country if the United States of America but also restricted aid to other countries. One of the countries sanctioned is South Africa. On 8 February Donald Trump signed an official executive order to cut off aid to South Africa. Donald Trump’s main reasoning for these sanctions in the form of cutting off aid to other countries is that the governance of his tenure should only focus their country; the USA comes first. Every president of their country has a general responsibility to put its country and the citizens first as they preside over everything in the country. On the other hand is cutting of aid a good decision when looking at the impact on the ties of these countries? This can lead to a tit-for tat where the governance of each country go back and forth which leave the citizens to suffer and in most cases bear the consequences of food prices ascending and unemployment rising.

Sanctions is not such a clear-cut process and should not be. There should be long considerations taken to conclude if it is a wise decision to take for the countries involved. The everyday people suffer most when countries go against the other, be it war or sanctions in the form of cutting of aid or other. When governments cut ties, everyone bears the consequences in what form that may be.