Nelson Mandela & ‘Make Poverty History’ at G7 this year

‘Make Poverty History’: People Power Gets to G7 by Sanjay Suri

LONDON – Nelson Mandela, 86, needed no support when he walked up to address thousands at Trafalgar Square in London Thursday. He had the support of a cheering crowd, and of one of the most powerful movements ever to gather against world poverty.

Mandela spoke at Trafalgar Square — London’s traditional venue for people to make a political statement — on the eve of the meeting Friday and Saturday of finance ministers from the G7 countries (the United States, Canada, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Japan). He was carrying a message for that meeting, and succeeded before it began.

Steps to counter poverty are already set to dominate the G7 meeting. Traditionally G7 finance ministers are more given to talk of exchange rates and macro multinational issues…

…civil society, backed by all major trade unions and the Church of England, has managed at least in substantial measure to set the agenda for a G7 finance ministers’ meeting.

”As you know, I recently formally announced my retirement from public life and should really not be here,” Mandela said. ”However, as long as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our world, none of us can truly rest.”

…”The Global Campaign for Action Against Poverty can take its place as a public movement alongside the movement to abolish slavery and the international solidarity against apartheid,” he said.

Mandela told the… crowd: ”I can never thank the people of Britain enough for their support through those days of the struggle against apartheid. . . . Through your will and passion, you assisted in consigning that evil system forever to history. But in this new century, millions of people in the world’s poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved, and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free.”

…”The steps that are needed from the developed nations are clear,” he said. ”The first is ensuring trade justice. The second is an end to the debt crisis for the poorest countries. The third is to deliver much more aid and make sure it is of the highest quality.”

Mandela said finally: ”I say to all those (G7) leaders: do not look the other way; do not hesitate. Recognize that the world is hungry for action, not words. Act with courage and vision.” Mandela was due to take his message directly to the ministers..

The task will not be easy, Mandela said. ”But not to do this would be a crime against humanity, against which I ask all humanity now to rise up.”…

Members of the Make Poverty History campaign point out that 2.8 billion people around the world live in poverty, and that 30,000 die from poverty- related causes every day….

[while tons of food rots in warehouses around the world]

This excerpt was: Published on Friday, February 4, 2005 by the Inter Press Service

the entire article can be found here:

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0204-01.htm =======================================================

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/31/1546207

Watch/Listen to an hourlong interview with John Perkins, a former respected member of the international banking community. In his book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man he describes how as a highly paid professional, he helped the U.S. cheat poor countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars by lending them more money than they could possibly repay and then taking over their economies. John Perkins describes himself as a former economic hit man – a highly paid professional who cheated countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars.

20 years ago Perkins began writing a book with the working title, “Conscience of an Economic Hit Men.”

Perkins writes, “The book was to be dedicated to the presidents of two countries, men who had been his clients whom I respected and thought of as kindred spirits – Jaime Rold ³s, president of Ecuador, and Omar Torrijos, president of Panama. Both had just died in fiery crashes. Their deaths were not accidental. They were assassinated because they opposed that fraternity of corporate, government, and banking heads whose goal is global empire. We Economic Hit Men failed to bring Rold ³s and Torrijos around, and the other type of hit men, the CIA-sanctioned jackals who were always right behind us, stepped in.

Watch and/or listen to the interview http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/31/1546207 read excerpt: http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/interviews/188

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“A world of glaring inequality is never going to be a fully safe world. For millions of people, the threat of terrorism, or of weapons of mass destruction, is remote compared to the daily threat of poverty, hunger, unsafe water, environmental degradation and disease. We have come to a decisive moment in history.” Kofi Annan =========================

“The developed nations of the world cannot remain secure islands of prosperity in a seething sea of poverty. The storm is rising against the privileged minority of the earth, from which there is no shelter in isolation and armament. The storm will not abate until a just distribution of the fruits of the earth enables men everywhere to live in dignity and human decency.” Martin Luther King, Jr =========================

“The day that hunger is eradicated from the earth there will be the greatest spiritual explosion the world has ever known. Humanity cannot imagine the joy that will burst into the world on the day of that great revolution.” Federico Garcia Lorca

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We cannot move on if we are entrapped in structures of economic or cultural privilege. Sharing, especially in a world where most live at or below the edge of misery, is as important and relevant as disarmament; in fact, sharing the resources of the earth is inseparable from the renunciation of war and violence. On such… ground, the architecture of a new world order based on human unity will be easy to conceive and enact.” (Richard Falk, Milbank Professor of International Law and Practice at Princeton)

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“Without sharing there can be no justice; without justice there can be no peace; without peace there can be no future.” The World Teacher http://www.share-international.org

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“…mankind [will advance] into a civilization and a state of consciousness in which right human relations and worldwide cooperation for the good of all will be the universal keynote.” Djwhal Khul