G-8 Summits - the issue at stake is that of fairness and justice
Seble Demeke, UNOG
Poverty, causes of poverty, reduction of poverty, eradication of poverty, fight against global poverty etc. have become part of the vocabulary of the world during the 20th century and moving steadily and surely to the 21st century in particular for those of us working in the international organizations. When we hear something again and again we tend to forget what the issues and/or the messages are behind these words. In the particular case of the G-8 meetings, agreements and disagreements about what is being discussed and decided upon as a policy guideline for economic cooperation of the globe is, in simple words, about people, billions of them impoverished and condemned to unacceptable situations which happens far away for most, but not always out of sight once again thanks to information and modern communications technology.
The issue is not to make everybody rich because that is
not possible since even in the rich countries there are so many homeless
and poor people. It is rather to reverse the unacceptable standards
of living without the basic necessities, e.g. food, clothing, shelter,
education and medical facilities, for billions of people, with the worsening
situation of diminishing hope and no light at the end of the tunnel.
There is no question that the heavy debt burden on the poor countries
is one of the main factors causing deterioration of social and economic
progress of the people and that there has to be an end to the rich countries’
tariffs and subsidies, which are excluding Third World products from
the global market. In one of his recent speeches on G-8 Summit, the
British Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons that, “the
wealthy nations of this world simply cannot any longer ask the developing
world to stand on its own feet but shut out the very access to our markets
necessary for them to do so. Reform of the Common Agricultural Policies
will be vital in this regard” (source: addistribune.com of 06-06-
03). This stifling of the already weak economy of the Third World countries
compounded with the obligation of servicing external debt, of course
results in extreme poverty. This is what the peaceful protesters of
the western hemisphere and the taxpayers of the rich countries are against,
and making their opposition known to the G-8 groups of countries (Canada,
France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russian Federation, United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America). I am
not sure if the G-8 is a policy-making, decision- making body or rather
a forum for discussion. All I know is that every time they get together
they decide on the fate of the rest of the world.
The purpose of my article is mainly to say thank you to the people of Europe, North America and others who are tirelessly putting forward their agendas, asking for fairness and justice on behalf of the impoverished people who are living below a particular line, one US dollar a day. In some Third World countries, this category of people account for over 80% of the population. The world population is about 6 billion of which 5 billion are living in the Third World and of the latter over 50% are living on or under one US dollar a day. Therefore, the people in the relatively rich countries, who have a comfortable standard of living, did not have to protest; they could just be indifferent and enjoy their privileged way of life. But as the essence of life is making a choice and a decision, they chose not to be indifferent. I sincerely hope that, sooner than later, the concerned people in the other part of the globe will join them in their efforts and peaceful protests to make the world a better place to live for everyone.
I must tell you a short story, which happened during my recent holiday, in my country, Ethiopia, related to the recent G-8 meeting held in Evian, France. It is typical of Ethiopian culture and generous hospitality to invite people to your home to share whatever you have. Sometimes people have very little or nothing to share but they will still invite you to come along and it is up to you to take your chances - who knows what you might get - for sure lots of love, affection and care. Hence, during my holiday, I was invited to stay with a cousin living in Addis Ababa. I was very happy that I was invited, because there were so many international conferences going on at that particular time, from African Development Bank (ADB) to the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), and other conferences which I did not really know about. My guess is that as they are were international, they were probably conferences discussing the usual issues such as poverty eradication or how to obtain debt relief etc., issues that we keep on hearing and talking about for centuries and centuries. Because of these conferences, reasonably priced hotels were fully booked and I would have not found a room even if I wanted to stay in a hotel. Furthermore, I would have not been able to get that family get-together, laughter and enjoyment. One evening it was news time and I made sure to watch the television to be informed of the local and international news. In the news broadcast, I saw a brief coverage of the G-8 meetings and in relation to that they also showed the city of Geneva, the protests and the unfortunate violence against shops and other private properties which shaded the purpose of the peaceful and meaningful protests, and the efforts of thousands of people who travelled from all over Europe with an agenda. I said to my cousin and her daughter that this is happening near the office where I work, the United Nations Office in Geneva and that the city is not used to this kind of violent circumstances and that I hope people were not hurt. Immediately, I tried to explain to them what this commotion was all about, but discovered to my surprise, that what I was telling them was based on opinion rather than facts and general than specific. At the end I myself was not satisfied with my own explanation let alone convincing them and realized that I needed to do some further research on the subject. My major findings, and the reasons for the disagreements in the rich countries, between the concerned people and their governments about the current formula for economic and social developments cooperation of the globe, are as follows and of course these are just a few examples, which I obtained from different web sites and readings:
“Today, across the world, 1.3 billion people live on less than one dollar a day; 3 billion live on under two dollars a day; 1.3 billion have no access to clear water; 3 billion have no access to sanitation; 2 billion have no access to electricity; …” (Source: The Reality of Aid 2000, Earth scan publication, 2000, P.10).
“The poorer the country, the more likely it is that debt repayments are being extracted directly from people who neither contracted the loans nor received any of the money”. (Debt the facts, Issue 312 – May 1999, New Internationalist)
“Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names”. (The State of the World’s Children, 1999, UNICEF).
“Less than one percent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it did not happen”. (State of the World, Issue 287 – Feb. 1997, New Internationalist).
“The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants”. (Global Development Finance, World Bank, 1999).
“7 million children die each year as a result of the debt crisis…”. (The home page of “The Jubilee” 2000 web site, as of March 24, 2001).
“The 48 poorest countries account for less than 0.4 per cent of global exports”. (Human Development Report 2000, p.82, United Nations Development Programme).
These are just a few issues, among many more, which people even in the technologically advanced countries are not fully aware let alone those in the Third World, where information on the subject is scarce or does not exist altogether in some parts. So one of the major problems to be tackled on priority bases, seem to be lack of awareness by those billions of people in the Third World countries who are directly concerned.
Now the question is: How do we create such awareness ?
I would say this could be done through existing infrastructures, such as government media; radios are the best, through organized communities, associations, schools, churches and mosques, etc. wherever there is a concentration of people for different reasons. The awareness process must be simple and in a language which the targeted audience easily understand.
But I have also a special message and appeal to my colleagues, working for the United Nations system organizations, both at Headquarters and in the field, that each and everyone of us in addition to our regular work, should also accept the responsibility of being an information agent to the people that we have vowed and committed to serve. We cannot solve the problems solely by ourselves, but at least we can pass information through existing networks of UN field offices, NGOs, civil society organizations to create public awareness in the Third World through workshops and seminars, to inform them about their rights to a decent living standard, the debt crisis which is affecting their daily lives and how to go about it to change the status-quo. This way we can get involved and could make a difference. Some one had to take the initiative in this direction and I don’t see anybody better suited to do the job than the United Nations civil servants with their national development partners working around the world.