G20

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Livelihoods v Lives

April 2, 2009 in G20 by Mentalacrobatics | 3 comments

Douglas Alexander the UK government’s Secretary of State for International Development – a cabinet level position – has one of the hardest jobs at the London Summit as it falls on his shoulders to persuade us that this Summit intends to tackle the concerns of the people and countries who have been deemed not important enough to be represented here directly.

Alexander did this in his press briefing by throwing numbers around, for example:

This summit is the 1st time ever that global leaders have come together to forumlate a global plan to economic recovery.
90 million people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty in the next two years
70% of global economic growth has been in emerging markets
a World Bank Rapid Response Social Fund to stimulate trade needs USD 30 billion and the UK has pledged GBP 200 million towards it
The USD 250 billion that the IMF has at its disposal is not enough
90% of global trade requires either credit or insurance – in many cases both

Alexander is in the unenviable position in that many UK citizens feel that their government has lost focus on what should be its key mandate, domestic issues and tackling hardship at home in the UK in order to play big on the world stage tackling global problems.

To make Alexander’s position even more challenging when you consider that many of the initiatives this summit promotes, while helping some countries in desperate need of help, hurt others in the same position. Cheryl Contee who writes as Jill Tubman for the award-winning and top-ranked black political blog JackAndJillPolitics.com which she founded in 2006, and I came face to face with a such a scenario on Wednesday during the World Have Your Say phone in programme on BBC World Service. Asked to comment on the G20′s proposed initiative to close down tax havens both Cheryl and I spoke strongly in favour of the policy. Coming from Kenya where our former president the dictator Daniel arap Moi together with his cronies and family looted Kenya for over 20 years stashing away billions in these tax havens, my position is not that surprising. One caller from a tax haven, The Bahamas, emailed the BBC show to disagree stating that many people in the Bahamas relied on the tax haven financial system for their livelihood.

How would you balance all these competing interests as the UK’s Secretary of State for International Development has too?

Alexander’s response during the press briefing when remarking on the UK, but this could be equally applied to the caller in The Bahamas, was to remind us that yes in some places livelihoods would be lost however in other places lives would be lost and saving lives take priority over saving livelihoods.

Tags: dfid, Douglas Alexander, G20, g20buzz, g20voice, londonsummit2009

What can the ordinary African citizen do to make Africa relevant on the Global Scene?

April 2, 2009 in G20 by Mentalacrobatics | 14 comments

20 of the most powerful global political leaders gather to take decisions that will impact the whole world in far reaching ways and Africa is has only one seat at the table occupied by South Africa. This under-representation of Africa is sadly a recurring feature and indeed a defining characteristic of these international summits.

As Africans we have to start focusing our energy on adopting strategies to counter this state of affairs beginning with a harsh reality check. We are under-represented at these summits because we are increasingly irrelevant. On the global scene African countries have very little influence, even less power and no force at all (except against other African countries).

Relying on our current political leaders to draw up and implement a strategy to make Africa relevant in a positive way is a non starter. Indeed those who have succeed in making African relevant to international policy making have done so for increasing negative reasons, for example Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Bashir in Sudan. Ethan Zuckerman labelled the position taken by such political leaders as a strategy of, “If we act deranged enough, maybe they’ll just give us the country.”

The burden rests on us, the ordinary citizens of Africa, to come up with a strategy that will increase our positive relevance to important global conversations and thus make it impossible to ignore Africa, Africans and the issues they feel important. I would love to hear your thoughts on what this strategy should adopt.

As a first step we can start by breaking the cycle of ineffective negative political leaders. The veteran British political warhorse Tony Benn proposes 5 questions to ask anyone in power or who wants power:

What power have you got?
Where did you get it from?
In whose interests do you exercise it?
To whom are you accountable?
And how can we get rid of you?

Tags: Africa, G20, g20buzz, g20voice, tony benn

G20 Voices getting together before the G20 Summit

April 1, 2009 in G20 by Mentalacrobatics | 5 comments

G20Voice logo I am in London at the kind invitation of G20Voice. 50 bloggers will be your eyes and ears at the G20 Summit in London, April 2. We come from 22 different countries, and between us represent a global audience of over 14 million readers and online participants. Some are journalists who use blogging as their medium to disseminate their views. Some are ‘professional bloggers’, others of us are are ordinary citizens who have become known through our blogs.

We have been given the same media accreditation as the main stream media to enter the G20 Summit tomorrow and hopefully we will be able to make a positive impact for citizen journalists and some of you will be invited to the G8 and other high level meetings in the future.

So who’s here at the G20?

Leaders of the world’s major economies and of global economic financial institutions have been invited to attend the London Summit. This includes the leaders of the G20 countries, which represent:

90% of global GNP (gross domestic product)
80% of world trade
two-thirds of the world’s population

Having said all that only two African leaders are here:

Kgalema Motlanthe – President of the Republic of South Africa
Meles Zenawi – Prime Ministe of Ethiopia in his role as Chair of NEPAD

This is a dire state of affairs even if you go beyond the numbers. Motlanthe is just keeping the seat warm until South Afrcian elections later this month, and Zenawi well you couldn’t have asked for a better example of a “soft” dictator that are the bane of our continent!

So who speaks for Africa here? Or even – should Africa be speaking here? Should Africa want to be involved in the G20? I think the important thing is to keep a sense of perspective by keeping an eye on the big picture and to question even the basic assumptions.

Arriving in London this morning and making my way by tube from Heathrow to Westminster, in the heart of the city, (the Houses of Parliament, 10 Downing Street etc are only a few steps away) was notable only in that it was uneventful, none of the chaos that has been hyped to a ridiculous level by people with various agendas.

Tags: Africa, ethiopia, G20, g20buzz, g20voice, londonsummit2009, south africa, whitebandradar