Yes folks, it was another round of self-congratulatory back patting by the G8 leaders for their commitment to keep their promises to provide international aid to those countries less fortunate than them.
I'm sorry, but what sort of double-speak, bullsh*t statement is this (from PM Tony Blair): "We have recommitted ourselves to all the commitments we made a couple of years ago at Gleneagles."
WAH?
You mean those original commitments you made that you are ALREADY FAILING MISERABLE TO MEET?
Recommitted to your commitments my arse.
Canadian PM, Lester Pearson, in 1969, first proposed that each industrialized nation promise to contribute 0.7% of it's GDP to foreign aid. This amount is now the official UN target for donor countries. In 2005, as part of that 0.7%, Blair proposed each nation promise to double their international aid contributions by 2010 - going from 25 billion to 50 billion (25 billion of it going to Africa). The startling and embarrassing failure to come close to meeting these promises is one of the reasons Canada and so many others are being harshly criticized these days (don't hate us because we're stupid, Mr. Geldof). PM Stephen Harper reported Canada will fall 700 million short of its goal for international aid.
Here's where we all currently stand on meeting the 0.7% goal:
(click to enlarge image)
(ODA=Official Development Assistance)
Notice that Sweden, Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands, and Denmark have met or exceeded their goals. And notice where the 3 largest industrialized countries fall in the ranking.
Charming.
Yeah, some of the same countries that devastated Africa through colonialization so many generations ago have decided they can't just DO.THE.RIGHT.THING.
Nope. It seems some of us have more important ways to spend our wealth:
- The amount spent by the US on the Iraq war: 432 billion
- The amount spent by Canada on the Afghan mission: estimated 4.3 billion up to 2009
Meanwhile:
- The number of US troops killed in the war: 2892
- .....................since "Mission Accomplished": 2784
- The number of Iraqi civilians killed in the war: 65,000 (conservative estimate)
- The number of Canadian troops killed in Afghanistan: 57
- The number of Africans dying of AIDS EVERY DAY: 5800
- The number of African lives lost from AIDS in the last year: 2 million
- The number of people in sub-Saharan Africa living with HIV/AIDS: 24.7 million
- The number of African children orphaned by HIV/AIDS: 12 million
The G8 countries have pledged to "continue... efforts towards these goals to provide at least a projected 60 billion U.S. dollars over the coming years, and invite other donors to contribute as well. These contributions will supplement efforts by African governments."
HOWEVER,
States an Oxfam policy advisor, "We must not be distracted by big numbers. What the $60 billion headline means at best is just $3 billion extra in aid by 2010. Before this summit, Oxfam showed the G8 were set to miss their 2010 target by a massive USD 30 billion. Today`s announcement may only close that gap to USD 27 billion."
I don't know. Is it just me or does it all just seem ...WRONG?
And there has been little movement on the plan to increase HIV/AIDS prevention & care programs. And there is still a major brain drain out of Africa and into industrialized nations. For example, there are more Malawian doctors practicing in Manchester, England than there are in Malawi. They are being poached with the lure of more money & a better lifestyle. But sure, why shouldn't they have those things - they deserve them just as everyone does. But it's the fact that wealthy nations are luring them away from where they are most needed - leaving their home countries with precious few healthcare workers to care for the sick. Further reducing the ability for African countries to heal themselves.
Here are a couple of excerpts from Race Against Time regarding the Lilongwe Central Hospital in Malawi's capital. Author Stephen Lewis describes a scene he walked into there in 2002:
"There were two people to every bed, head to foot and foot to head, and in most instances, someone under the bed on the concrete floor, each in an agony of full-blown AIDS. With demonic, rhythmic regularity, another aluminum coffin would be wheeled into the ward to cart away the body of the person who had most recently died.""...on the ten-hour shift, to care for between sixty and seventy patients - each and every one of whom would have been in intensive care in a Canadian hospital - there would be one nurse."
sigh.
And I'm not even touching the G8 climate change debacle.
p.s. Awesome quote of the week from Bono: "I might be a rock star but I can count.”
