G-Hate? Not worth the worry

Most people were let down by the ‘broken promises’ message that came out of the G8 Summit. Paul Dicken asks what did you really expect?

For campaigners, the mood cannot be one of disaffection. The popular mandate won’t be ignored and international opinion can and has been influenced. In case anyone forgot that the G8 is shorthand for power - power of the biggest, self-interested kind and fraught with diplomatic difficulties - the political spat between Russia and the US over missiles served as a reminder.

This year’s G8 summit was, for most people, a disappointment. In case anyone forgot that the G8 is shorthand for power - power of the biggest, self-interested kind and fraught with diplomatic difficulties - the political spat between Russia and the US over missiles served as a reminder.

Following the euphoric G8 summit two years ago in Gleneagles, expectations of a listening, sympathetic G8 had been heightened. Carried by popular expectation and bold statements, I, for one, believed the G8 summit of the Make Poverty History campaign was a turning point in international development.

We had reached a time when the powerful, developed world could see what needed to be done and was willing to do it. Only one of those promises has been met to date, namely debt relief for many countries.

The vast sums of aid money have failed to arrive and what is more frustrating is the headline from this year’s summit in Germany: that the promised aid to the developing world was $27 billion less in total than was pledged two years ago in Scotland.

The one thing that saved the summit in Heiligendamm for most commentators was the tacit agreement from the US that it would work in a UN framework on climate change – 10 years, at least, since the Kyoto agreement on emissions first appeared.

Apart from this the summit managed to play down the threat of HIV and AIDS in the developing world, and the equalising of trade rules became ever more distant as the powerful refused to move in negotiations. All of which leaves a slightly odd taste in the mouth.

For campaigners, the mood cannot be one of disaffection. The popular mandate won’t be ignored and international opinion can and has been influenced. Progress is being made, slowly, but there is a growing consensus on issues from fairer trade to protecting the environment.

The rapid pace of globalisation, though creating vast inequalities, makes such disparities less acceptable. It is the duty of everyone to see this through and maintain pressure on the powerful to move on the issues that matter.