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| what a bunch of wimps |
paraclete |
07/10/05 |
Reaction polarized as G8 concludes
Blair: 'It is a beginning, not an end'
Saturday, July 9, 2005 Posted: 0610 GMT (1410 HKT)
leaders concluded an economic summit shaken by terrorism, offering an "alternative to the hatred" -- aid packages for Africa and the Palestinian Authority and a pledge to address global climate change.
But reaction to the outcome was polarized: Rockers Bob Geldof and Bono, two of the world's best known Africa fund-raisers, declared victory. But aid groups said the pledges didn't go nearly far enough.
"We speak today in the shadow of terrorism, but it will not obscure what we came here to achieve," British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the summit host, said Friday as he closed the three-day gathering, referring to Thursday's bus and train bombings in London.
"It is in the nature of politics that we do not achieve absolutely everything we hope to achieve, but nonetheless I believe we have made very substantial progress indeed," Blair said.
With a last-minute pledge from Japan, Blair won a key victory, announcing that aid to Africa would rise from the current US$25 billion to US$50 billion by 2010.
Geldof praised the leaders for pledging to double aid to Africa, saying it will save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. "The world spoke and the politicians listened," Bono added.
But aid groups didn't see it that way.
"What Africa needed from the G-8 was a giant leap forward. All it got was tiny steps," said Caroline Sande Mukulira of ActionAid. "The deal that has been announced falls way short of our demands. We have some aid, but not enough, some debt relief but not enough and virtually nothing on trade. Once again, Africa's people have been shortchanged."
Peter Hardstaff, head of policy for the World Development Movement, described the summit's final declarations as "a disaster for the world's poor."
"The agreements on trade, debt, aid and climate change are nowhere near sufficient to tackle the global poverty and environmental crisis we face," he said. "We are furious, but not surprised."
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz praised the G-8's plan on Africa, but insisted success depended on rich nations and African leaders delivering on their commitments. Wolfowitz also said further progress was needed on fair trade to ensure developing countries could compete.
"It is very important to stress that it is a partnership," he told AP. "It is not just about spending more money. It is about having African leaders who understand their responsibility to make sure that that money is spent wisely."
In a separate joint statement on terrorism, the leaders pledged new joint efforts against terrorism in light of the London bombings, including cooperation to improve the safety of rail and subway travel.
Blair lost his push to get all summit countries to commit to boosting foreign aid to an amount equal to 0.7 percent of national income by 2015. Instead, a summit document said the European Union had agreed to that support but did not mention the United States.
U.S. President George W. Bush had refused to be bound by the 0.7 percent target. The United States is giving 0.16 percent of national income, the smallest percentage of any of the G-8 countries.
Blair ticked off a list of accomplishments from a meeting that nonetheless produced less than he hoped. The major failure was in global warming, where staunch opposition from Bush thwarted Blair's efforts to get a U.S. commitment to firm targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming.
But Blair noted that all the G-8 leaders took the unusual step of signing the final summit communiques as a way of demonstrating their determination to meet the new goals.
"If we implement this, we will make poverty history," Blair told reporters.
French President Jacques Chirac said finding new ways to finance the support that rich country's give Africa was crucial. He put in a plug for his idea to have all countries levy a tax on international airline tickets to support poverty relief.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has been accused of rolling back democracy in Russia, said it was important to protect democratic freedoms in the battle against terrorism. He said they "want to use the instruments of democratic society to destroy democracy."
German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said the summit had been "overall successful," with leaders able to deal with the summit agenda in spite of the London bombings.
Aside from the increase in aid for Africa, the leaders pledged to set a date for ending subsidies on farm exports, which Blair said he believed would be done at a meeting of the World Trade Organization in December in Hong Kong.
The leaders also endorsed a deal reached by their finance ministers last month to cancel the debt of 18 of the world's poorest nations, pledged universal access to AIDS treatment, renewed their commitment to a peacekeeping force in Africa and heard African leaders promise to move toward democracies that follow the rule of law.
"All of this does not change the world tomorrow -- it is a beginning, not an end," Blair said, with leaders of the G-8 and five African nations standing behind him. "And none of it today will match the same ghastly impact as the cruelty of terror. But it has a pride and a hope and humanity at its heart that can lift the shadow of terrorism and light the way to a better future."
Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo thanked the leaders for focusing on Africa and for "their resolve not to be diverted by these terrorist acts."
The G-8 also agreed on an aid deal of up to US$3 billion per year for the Palestinian Authority over the next three years, their joint communique said. Blair said the deal would allow "two states, Israel and Palestine, two peoples and two religions (to) live side by side in peace."
The leaders, struggling to keep to their mission in the aftermath of the London bombings, shortened the summit's final day to allow Blair to rush back to lead a government panel dealing with the blasts. Bush also left Gleneagles earlier than scheduled Friday.
Blair left the summit for several hours Thursday to confer with officials at Scotland Yard and calm a nation shocked by the worst attacks on the capital since World War II.
Within hours of the London bombings, Bush and the other leaders issued a special joint statement that condemned "these barbaric acts."
"We are united in our resolve to confront and defeat this terrorism that is not an attack on one nation, but on all nations and on civilized people everywhere," the leaders said.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
This is nothing more than business as usual thinly disguised under a veneer of aid to the underprevledged. It doesn't address the underlying problem of loaning poor nations money without creating the mechanism to pay it pack, which means removing the protection from the "fat cat" american and european farmers, nor does it progress the debate on the environment which is now of lesser value than it was under George WH Bush at least he was big enough to admit a problem.
What it really says is, it's all too hard, let's throw some money at it and it might go away. comments |
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 07/11/05 12:05 pm:
Just curious ; Will Myanmar be allowed to take it's place as the chair of ASEAN ?
Clarification/Follow-up by Itsdb on 07/11/05 3:38 pm:
Geldof cast as 'Mr Bloody Africa'
Singer and campaigner Bob Geldof has dubbed himself "Mr Bloody Africa" for his role as a reluctant spokesman on issues concerning the continent.
Visiting Africa "bores me profoundly" but the media has confused the roles of politicians and celebrities, he said.
"Who's interested if the leader of Niger goes on Newsnight?" he told Radio Times magazine. "It's 'get Geldof'. I'm 'Mr Bloody Africa'."
Geldof will get a lifetime achievement honour at the Brit Awards next week.
He was also voted the person listeners of BBC Radio 4's Today programme would most like to see be made a "people's peer".
But the Band Aid and Live Aid organiser and former Boomtown Rats singer still describes being a musician as his "real job".
Of his work in Africa, he said: "I'd dearly love not to have to go there the day after tomorrow.
"More often than not, it bores me profoundly - the pace of change is far too slow, and Africans excuse their own complicity in exactly the same way as our politicians.
"Bizarrely in our society, there's confusion between politicians and celebrities.
He and U2 singer Bono, a fellow global campaigner, were "under no illusions" about their real vocation, he said.
"We have an ability to articulate the great wound of the 21st Century, and have access to politicians. But would Bono prefer to do this or be in U2? Hello?"
Music was "what I want to do", he said. "Business I need to do, and the political stuff I have to do. What I want comes first, but I'm not successful enough."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Maybe that's why Geldof has been soft on Bush lately, he doesn't want anyone to recall how Africa bores him profoundly?
Clarification/Follow-up by tomder55 on 07/12/05 9:19 am:
or perhaps he is just feeling a little guilty of his role in the
Ethiopian famine
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