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Fighting Global Poverty - Debate on the Web
Http://observer.guardian.co.uk/polit...499616,00.html
Oil wealth urged to save Africa
Gaby Hinsliff, Mark Townsend and Lorna Martin
Sunday June 5, 2005
The Observer
The fabled wealth of the oil-rich Gulf states is to be targeted in an attempt to salvage a major debt relief deal for Africa ahead of the G8 summit in Gleneagles.
Although Chancellor Gordon Brown is now confident of a breakthrough deal with the White House on debt relief, which could be worth up to $1 billion a year, he is still seeking to plug a £20bn hole on aid.
Brown will challenge the Arab world to stump up more money - increasing the moral pressure at the same time on President Bush to give more generously.
Despite their riches, boosted by oil, the Gulf states have had little tradition of donating overseas aid.
Writing for The Observer today, on the eve of crucial talks between Tony Blair and Bush in Washington, Brown argues that, to tackle global poverty 'it is critical that all wealthy countries, including the richer oil-producing states, join in'.
Paul Wolfowitz, the new head of the World Bank and a former key figure in the Bush administration, is understood to be interested in Brown's plan.
The Chancellor has opened discussions with opposite numbers in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Details are expected to be discussed at the G8 summit in Gleneagles next month.
Separately, the Treasury has brokered a groundbreaking agreement with the US to cancel its International Monetary Fund debt for Africa - meaning the US would have offered more on debt relief than Germany or Italy.
Crucially, however, it has also offered extra money ensuring the debt relief will not be paid for by cuts in other aid programmes, at least for two years.
The final amount remains under discussion, but the deal follows months of lobbying, led by Brown, of his US counterpart, John Snow.
Blair will, meanwhile, move this week to reassure Bush that aid increases would not be squandered on corrupt regimes.
One option is for African leaders to sign up to new anti-corruption measures at the G8 summit.
'We will look at some very practical measures which first of all demonstrate the international community's ability to help on transparency and governance,' said a senior Whitehall source.
The two leaders will also discuss security in Iraq and the next round of elections there, plus progress on the Middle East peace process.
But there is growing evidence of a divide between the Blair and Brown camps over G8 negotiations.
With Downing Street privately lowering expectations of a deal in Washington, the Treasury remains bullish about a deal.
And while some around Brown argue it is time to spend the political capital gained from Iraq to push Bush into a deal, Downing Street insists it is wrong to portray him as an obstacle.
'It's about the personal relationship between Tony Blair and George Bush in advancing the agenda,' said the official.
Britain aims to raise $100bn through Brown's International Finance Facility, $80bn from EU countries' contributions and the rest from the US.
Bush's rejection of the IFF idea has left the $20bn gap, part of which could be filled by American funding through other channels than the IFF, part possibly by contributions from the Canadians and Japanese, but part could come from oil producing states under Brown's proposals.
Soaring oil prices are creating hundreds of new billionaires in the Gulf.
Yet after the tsunami disaster, Gulf states were slow to donate.
Privately, Brown believes involving them would change perceptions that the West invests in Africa out of a sense of 'colonial guilt'.
Sources said the Gulf states had not only a humanitarian but a security stake to combat rising Islamic extremism in Africa - a case Blair will also make in Washington.
In his article today, Brown also puts the case for his scheme to research and fund the purchase of millions of vaccines.
'Years from now,' he writes, 'people will ask of Aids and Africa: "How could the world have known and failed to act?"'
Aid agencies, however, warned against Britain settling for a fudge over Africa.
'The temptation with four weeks to go to Gleneagles is for Blair and Brown to do a deal on debt with the rest of the G8, no matter how far it is from what they and the Africa Commission have called for,' said Max Lawson, policy adviser at Oxfam, adding that the proposed debt relief deal was 'nowhere near what is needed'.
Fears that the G8 summit could be subject to violent disruption increased this weekend after the Tayside Chief Constable, John Vine, responsible for co-ordinating security, conceded the risk of hardcore activists targeting it.
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Http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/pol...p?story=644258
Focus: Can the celebrity super-rich really make poverty history?
Not on their own, no.
But three million other Britons are also wearing white bands in support of the campaign that inspired Bob Geldof to plan Live8.
So what do they want, and what makes them think they can persuade world leaders to agree?
Katy Guest finds out
05 June 2005
This is all Bob Geldof's idea, isn't it?
No, although it is the inspiration for the Live8 concerts he is holding on 2 July, which have received so much attention.
Madonna, Robbie Williams and U2 are among the superstars performing in London, Paris, Rome, Berlin and Philadelphia.
But 20 years after Live Aid, Geldof doesn't want our money.
He wants to influence the decisions that will be made when the heads of the G8 countries meet in Scotland the following week.
And the reason he wants to influence them is that he is a supporter of a campaign called Make Poverty History.
Geldof and his famous friends - there are wild rumours that everyone from the Spice Girls to Pink Floyd and Tony Blair's old university band will re-form for Live8 - are only the glittering tip of an enormous iceberg.
Since it started a year ago, Make Poverty History has grown into a coalition including 463 organisations, from Unicef to the TUC.
Its members are global charities and local faith groups, rockers and girl guides, British luvvie lefties and the American religious right.
In this country, more than three million people are already wearing the white bands that are the symbol of the campaign.
The only things all these people really have in common are that they are horrified by the status quo and convinced that something can be done to put it right.
Geldof supports the campaign but is not in charge of it.
So where did the campaign come from?
Calls for rich countries to give the poor a chance by cancelling crippling debt repayments began in the late 1990s.
Campaigners formed human chains in 1998 to persuade the G8 to act.
The Chancellor, Gordon Brown, already sympathetic and emboldened by the scale of public support, lobbied hard for debt relief.
However, the international results were disappointing.
As the anniversary of Live Aid approached, activists decided to try again.
They included the writer Richard Curtis, who used campaign footage from Africa in his New Year edition of The Vicar of Dibley.
By the time the sitcom finished, his characters were converts to Make Poverty History.
So were many of the eight million viewers.
After the programme, visits to the campaign website went from 150 every 60 seconds to 17,500 per minute.
Sales of white bands soared.
"Thirty years from now," said Richard Curtis, "our children will be saying there was a holocaust and nobody thought it was worth bothering about." Every day, 30,000 children die because they are poor, he says.
That is one every three seconds.
For the rich countries to double their aid would cost each of us about the price of a pint of lager per year.
What does the campaign want?
Three things: trade justice, the cancellation of debts owed by poor countries and more and better aid.
Britain hosts the G8 summit - the annual gathering of Britain, France, the US, Germany, Japan, Italy, Canada and Russia - in Gleneagles in Scotland on 6 July.
The campaign is trying to persuade the heads of these nations to drop the unpayable debts of the world's poorest countries, immediately and without imposing crippling economic conditions.
Debt repayments cost Africa more than £5.5bn a year.
That's £7 per citizen, in a continent whose citizens live on an average 60p a day.
The campaign also wants rich countries to double the aid they give to poor ones - also without conditions.
The G8 countries have already promised to provide 0.7 per cent of their joint national income in aid;
They must now set a date by which to do that.
The final target is "trade justice": ensuring that producers are paid fair rates for their goods, and that developing countries can trade with richer ones without crippling restrictions.
This would then allow governments of poor countries to choose their own solutions to poverty.
Poverty will never really be history, so isn't this all hopelessly naive?
"There will always be some people poorer than others," says campaign chairman Richard Bennett, "but abject poverty of the kind that kills a child every three seconds is solvable by the right aid and trade conditions."
If I want to support the campaign, what do I do?
This is not like Live Aid: they do not want your money.
They want your voice.
Make Poverty History is about persuading eight men on 6 July that their citizens really want them to end poverty.
The easiest way to show your support is with a white band.
The campaign website shows you where to get one, as well as how to email and write to world leaders and tell them what you think.
Make Poverty History is holding a massive, peaceful rally in Edinburgh on 6 July.
"The G8 leaders have it in their power to make history," says Bob Geldof.
"We've never been wealthier.
We know what it costs.
Do it."
www.makepovertyhistory.org
'If money is spent, life will be better.
It's simple'
Richard Curtis, founder of Comic Relief, on how he persuaded Bob Geldof to stage Live8
The first time I remember getting involved with Make Poverty History was at a meeting at the Treasury, with the president of the World Bank, former Archbishop Carey, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Bob Geldof, Bono by videophone ...
I remember emerging with the feeling that on the anniversary of Live Aid there would be the perfect opportunity for a meeting of the stars for a breakthrough on poverty.
I mean the heavenly stars, not the pop stars.
If things are not wrenched around this year, they will just become dreams and dust.
Of course, nothing is now or never: I still believe I have a chance of getting into the Rolling Stones - if they all die.
But the next G8 is in Russia;
Certainly it will be five years before people start thinking like this again.
The Pope, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama have all been asked to make their presence felt in some way, because this is such an important moral issue.
We're going to put a white band around St Paul's Cathedral.
All you can do is do all you can.
I haven't done anything to attempt to affect government decisions before, but it's just got to be worthwhile.
Bob Geldof told me that by having tea with President Mitterand of France he probably made more money for Africa than from the whole of Live Aid.
This is not just about Africa - Comic Relief has been working in India and Peru, for example - but some of the things I see there are just beyond belief.
A mother with Aids who can't afford to buy milk and is too afraid to breastfeed her baby, so the baby dies.
I've just sat in room after room with girls who have Aids and are too afraid to get their babies tested because their hearts are already broken.
The difference that this could make to health and education for them is huge.
If more money is spent, life could be so much better.
It's just such a simple thought.
HOW AID CHANGES LIVES
Leaders of the rich world, Joyce has a message for you
Joyce Mbwilo raises both her hands, arms outstretched, towards the Tanzanian skies and declares: "We are struggling.
We don't want to remain poor.
If I could talk to the heads of the G8 summit I would ask them to put themselves in our shoes, walking long distances to collect water and not able to send our children to secondary school."
And Joyce knows about walking.
For two decades, the 30-year-old mother of four walked for 10 hours each night to fetch water so that her family could wash, cook and clean the next day.
Leaving her village of Uhambingeto at midnight with other women from the village, she would return with a heavy 20-litre bucket of water at 10 the following morning.
Each year Joyce covered 5,200 miles, a total of three circuits of the globe.
Life was a relentless struggle.
"We would come back very exhausted," she says.
"Sometimes we would fall down in the dark on the way back and spill the water and have to go back.
We had to spend more time working than sleeping because our children need water, they need food, they need to go to school."
Sitting in the shade of her home, next to this year's maize crop, half of which has already died because of erratic rainfall due to the changing climate, Joyce says life is slowly improving.
The British aid agency Tearfund and the Anglican diocese of Ruaha have provided aid for water to be piped into the village.
And Joyce's children now go to primary school because Tanzania's partial debt relief has meant the dropping of school fees, extra classrooms and renovation of a previously run-down local school.
Yet life remains a struggle on less than 60p a day.
Secondary school will be beyond her children, says Joyce, because of the prohibitive fees.
Making any kind of living is hard.
The villagers have taken advice and formed a co-operative, to pool their farming tools.
They are diversifying into more drought-resistant crops.
But because the roads to the nearest town of Iringa are so atrocious, Joyce and her fellow villagers cannot sell the maize they do manage to grow directly.
"We have no ability to get our food to market to sell because of poor roads, and no trucks visit our village.
We end up relying on middlemen who are exploiting us for little or no profit on what we sell."
Full cancellation of debt by the G8 would mean her children being able to attend secondary school.
New global trade rules would enable Joyce to sell goods at a fair price, and Tanzania's fledgling industries and businesses to thrive and grow.
More aid, better spent, would lead to better healthcare, schools, and infrastructure, including improved roads.
"We can do some things ourselves," she says, "but we still need outside help."
www.tearfund.org
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Http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/pol...p?story=644301
Anarchist groups plan takeover of Geldof's march as DJ attacks Live8 line-up as 'too white'
By Steve Bloomfield and Paul Kelbie
05 June 2005
Anarchists from around the world are planning to cause chaos at next month's G8 summit in Gleneagles as a row broke out last night between Bob Geldof and DJ Andy Kershaw over the absence of black musicians at events staged to benefit Africans.
With police fears mounting over Geldof's call for one million people to protest at the summit, Kershaw last night condemned the almost exclusively white line-up for the pop concerts to coincide with the summit.
"If we are going to change the West's perception of Africa, events like this are the perfect opportunity to do something for Africa's self-esteem," he said.
"But the choice of artists for the Live8 concerts will simply reinforce the global perception of Africa's inferiority."
Bob Geldof last week called on one million people to descend on Edinburgh on 6 July - a move branded irresponsible by city leaders and local police.
Geldof's fellow campaigner, Midge Ure, later claimed the one million figure was "symbolic" and talks between the campaign groups and police appear to have resolved any potential problems for the march.
But The Independent on Sunday can reveal that anarchist groups that have rioted at previous G8 gatherings are planning similar disruptions in Scotland and plan to hijack Geldof's "long march to freedom" on 6 July and the Make Poverty History rally on 2 July.
Anarchist groups will encourage protesters to "Make Capitalism History" instead.
Several organisations will meet at an undisclosed location in south-east England on Saturday to discuss plans to disrupt the G8 summit.
These include a series of blockades and protests, which they hope will bring the event to a standstill.
Over the coming weeks teams of security experts are slowly turning the Gleneagles complex and the 850 acres of countryside surrounding it into a technological fortress.
In addition to fears that militant anarchists could cause havoc there is also the recognition of just how tempting a target the summit could appear to the forces of terrorism.
Already work is well advanced on the construction of a steel perimeter of "ripper mesh" fencing, several miles long, which is intended to withstand an assault from rioters or terrorists.
Arranged in triangular cages, more than 10,000 interlocking panels of the 6ft-high fencing have been erected around the hotel to provide an exclusion zone of almost a mile in diameter.
Police snipers on the roof, backed up by an SAS team on standby in the locality and military personnel armed with anti-aircraft weapons will present an umbrella of security around the complex.
While the threat from international terrorists is unknown, police are bracing themselves for a series of clashes with anarchists and anti-capitalist protesters.
A group called G8 Blockades is organising a series of blockades in the countryside surrounding Gleneagles "which aim to disrupt the functioning of the summit".
On 4 July, campaigners are hoping thousands of demonstrators will converge on Faslane military base, home to Britain's nuclear Trident missiles, to "non-violently blockade" the base.
Also present at Gleneagles will be the White Overalls Movement Building Libertarian Effective Struggles - the Wombles.
They have been at every global anti-capitalist demonstration since Prague in 2000 in their distinctive white overalls.
They claim that the police are "trained to hurt people" and encourage their members to wear crash helmets, protect their torsos with cushions tied to their chests, and carry aluminium dustbin lids to use as shields.
The People's Golfing Association has also vowed to do its utmost to disrupt events.
The organisation, which started in Canada but also has branches in Britain, claims that "the surreal bubble in which the elite have retreated will be punctured".
"Golfers" from around the world are being encouraged to make their way to Gleneagles, preferably carrying golf clubs.
Travel to Scotland, however, may be tricky.
Ironically, many anti-capitalists may be able to get there thanks only to the generosity of Sir Richard Branson.
The Virgin tycoon has agreed to provide free trains and a special Virgin flight to Edinburgh in the week leading up to the march
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Quote: : One of my friends is a left wing anarchist OUR COUSIN'S BEST FRIEND MET HILLARY DUFF ONCE.
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Quote: : OUR COUSIN'S BEST FRIEND MET HILLARY DUFF ONCE.
Who is Hillary Duff?
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An ex-gf of mine made me go see the lizzie mcquire movie while I was still dating her.
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Quote: : an ex-gf of mine made me go see the lizzie mcquire movie while I was still dating her.
AND YOU BROKE UP WHY?
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Http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/06/op...06mon1.html?hp
Just Do Something
Published: June 6, 2005
Next month could be a historic turning point for the more than 300 million Africans who live on less than a dollar a day.
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain has been busily lining up international support for his proposal to attack poverty in Africa by ramping up foreign aid.
Serious studies commissioned by the British government and the United Nations have identified promising new paths toward economic and human development.
The leading nations of Europe have pledged long-term financial support.
Leading entertainers like Madonna, Bono, Will Smith and Elton John have announced a set of simultaneous concerts to take place in London, Rome, Berlin and Philadelphia to mobilize grass-roots enthusiasm.
Only one crucial element is still missing - the wholehearted support of the United States government.
Unless President Bush joins this effort in the five weeks remaining before the summit meeting to be held in July in Scotland, Africa's hopes will be disappointed and America's image in the eyes of a world that once looked to it for enlightened leadership will be further diminished.
Mr.
Blair will be in Washington this week trying to persuade Mr.
Bush to do the right thing.
This really should be a no-brainer.
At a time when the image of the United States abroad is at rock bottom in many parts of the globe, President Bush could go a long way toward re-establishing the world's richest country as the moral leader it was in the last century.
He can do that by supporting his most reliable international ally in this crucial effort and taking to heart the world's poorest and most wretched place.
Two weeks ago, the European Union announced that its members would double their aid to poor countries by 2015.
The announcement came after France, Britain and Germany - all members of the G-8 - had each laid out timetables for meeting the United Nations' target of increasing foreign assistance to poor countries to 0.7 percent of gross national income by 2015.
The European announcements further isolated the American government, which gives only 0.18 percent, and has remained mute about getting to 0.7 percent.
Africans, after long years of accepting the rule of brutal and corrupt dictators, are finally dragging themselves to their feet to say, "Enough." But there are two paths they can take.
With help, African countries can take the route of development and progress, and finally enjoy lives that are about more than just scrounging day in and day out for food in one's stomach and shoes on one's feet.
Without that help, those same countries can take the path that cycles back into civil war, poverty and life expectancies so low that 13-year-old girls are considered old women.
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Http://news.independent.co.uk/world/...p?story=644850
Blair adopts 'softly softly' approach with Bush over aid
By Andrew Grice, Political Editor
07 June 2005
Tony Blair will try to prevent next month's G8 summit at Gleneagles ending in failure by appealing to President George Bush to drop his opposition to more aid for Africa and action to tackle climate change.
On a flying visit to Washington today, the Prime Minister will reject pressure from Labour and Tory MPs for him to demand a "payback" for his staunch support for America on Iraq.
Instead, he will adopt a ''softly, softly'' strategy, denying that he wants a "blank cheque" for Africa and stressing that he shares the United States' commitment to tackling corruption in the continent.
As Mr Blair flew to America last night, Downing Street played down the prospects of an immediate breakthrough, saying the Bush administration would not declare its ''final position'' until the summit in Scotland on 6-8 July.
But Mr Blair is hopeful of nudging a wary President towards a position that would allow Britain to claim some progress at Gleneagles.
Africa and climate change will top the agenda when Mr Blair and President Bush discuss Britain's G8 goals in talks with officials and over a one-to-one dinner at the White House.
Mr Blair is also due to meet prominent US campaigners on both issues.
Cherie Blair, who spoke in Washington last night for a reported £30,000 fee, may attend a separate function at the White House.
Chris Grayling, the shadow Leader of the Commons, described Mrs Blair's trip to the White House as ''quite extraordinary'' because Downing Street had said her separate visit was entirely private.
''This is completely unacceptable and it makes the commercial nature of her visit even more inappropriate.
It amplifies my view that she should give the proceeds of her visit to charity,'' he said.
The Bush administration has poured cold water on Britain's proposal for an international finance facility which would ''front load'' aid from rich to poor countries.
But Mr Blair hopes the US will make a gesture towards the Make Poverty History campaign by boosting its aid to Africa.
However, President Bush is unlikely to back British calls for the richest nations to sign up to the United Nations target of 0.7 per cent of their national output on aid and may attach conditions about good governance to any extra money.
Despite the turmoil in the European Union over its stalled constitution, Mr Blair will side firmly with Europe on African aid in an attempt to push America further.
The EU has agreed to meet the United Nations goal by 2015.
Progress at Gleaneagles on action to save the planet looks a remote prospect.
But Mr Blair is trying to build support for what has been dubbed a ''Kyoto lite'' treaty which would draw the US, China and India into the international moves to cut carbon emissions.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman suggested that Britain might have to change tack to make progress given the US's opposition to its specific proposals on Africa and climate change.
''You can either have endless discussions on areas we know we are not going to agree on or widen the lens,'' he said.
The sticking points
AID LEVELS
Britain has persuaded its EUpartners to meet the UN target of spending 0.7% of output on aid by 2015.
The US says it already spends more than anyone else, andwants Africa to improve governance and curb corruption.
Prospects of success: US may agree to more money for Africa - but with strings.
INTERNATIONAL FINANCE FACILITY
Gordon Brown's flagship policy would double aid to $50bn by 2015 by borrowing on capital markets.
But the US says its budgetary process makes it hard to pre-empt funds.
Prospects of success: Slim;
Britain may have to go ahead without the US.
DEBT
Mr Brown has proposed 100% debt relief on money owed to IMF andWorld Bank.
But the US, Germany and Canada oppose plan to sell IMF gold to pay for it.
Prospects of success: Improving, if not enough for campaigners.
CLIMATE CHANGE
With the US refusing to accept scientific evidence, Mr Blair may have to settle for a "Kyoto lite" to draw the US, China and India into moves to tackle the threat.
Prospects of success: Not great;
Some limited movement by US possible
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Http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comme...500696,00.html
Getting Bush on board
Leader
Tuesday June 7, 2005
The Guardian
Tony Blair's journey to Washington this week can be characterised as a dangerously quixotic mission: to keep alive hopes of meaningful progress with the Bush administration on helping Africa and taking action on the causes of climate change.
With a month to go before the Group of Eight meeting of leading industrialised nations in Gleneagles, time is certainly getting short to bring the US onside.
But the cause is not yet hopeless, or presumably Mr Blair would hardly bother making a flight across the Atlantic just to risk humiliation.
On the issue of Africa, the first meeting of G7 finance ministers in February took place in a toxic atmosphere.
US representatives were said to have disdainfully rejected any involvement in the plans for assisting Africa tabled by other members.
Since then, thankfully, the air has cleared somewhat.
But even now the US makes it very plain that it is unlikely to sign up to any of the more intricate aid schemes on offer, such as the international finance facility - a complex frontloading of aid - or proposals for taxes on international transactions.
The signs of hope come as the US arm of the Make Poverty History campaign - the One campaign - shifts up a gear, and the US public and media becomes engaged with the issue.
The best bet, as things stand, appears to be a US and UK deal over a plan for the G8 nations to write off Africa's multilateral debts and follow up with further contributions of the same size to the World Bank's international development agency.
One prize the Americans appear to be determined to win is the credit.
If such a breakthrough is to come, then expect to hear it from Mr Bush's lips.
That, so far, is the most optimistic scenario, but far from an ideal one - which will disappoint those whose hopes have been raised by the British government's rhetoric in the last year.
There is a further danger of which Mr Blair must beware.
The priority of winning US support is very high, for practical and political reasons, but the other major donor nations of France, Japan and Germany must not be left in the cold.
Already there are suggestions that those three governments are discussing their own debt relief proposal: a highly circumscribed set of criteria that would give only temporary, limited relief to a handful of African countries that were having difficulties servicing their debts.
This would be a distinct step backwards, and should be rejected as a feeble attempt at a solution.
Nevertheless, it does underline the significance of not overlooking the other six members of the G8.
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My favorite line, 'and the US public and media becomes engaged with the issue'
Our media and public are engaged on the issue?
Then why have I only found one editorial in us papers on this issue?
And remember, I read The Washington Post, The NY Times, The LA Times, and Salon.com.
None of them care, (which has made me very disappointed in salon.
Actually, I have become terribly and increasingly bothered by Salon's shrill stance, lack of content and reliable analysis, and stuff their pages with mostly entertainment commentary).
At the same time it is the constant discussion of the Guardian and the Indepedent, the two british newspapers I read (the moscow times also isn't carrying coverage of this, but that matters little).
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Bush, Blair Agree on Aid For African Famine Relief
But Leaders Disagree on Amount and on Global Warming
By Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 8, 2005;
Page A13
President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who forged a close and complicated relationship over Iraq, agreed yesterday to increase financial assistance to developing African nations suffering from famine, AIDS and war.
But the two leaders parted ways over how much money rich nations should provide to Africa and how they should ease global warming.
In their first visit together at the White House since winning reelection in campaigns dominated by Iraq and U.S.
Foreign policy, Bush and Blair trumpeted a new U.S.
Plan to spend $674 million more on famine relief and said a deal to erase millions of dollars owed by poor African nations is imminent.
"Helping those who suffer and preventing the senseless death of millions of people in Africa is a central commitment of my administration's foreign policy," Bush told reporters.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrives at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington on Tuesday, June 7, 2005.
Blair is meeting with President Bush at the White House on Tuesday afternoon.
Bush, however, refused to endorse Blair's more ambitious plan to double aid from rich nations to $25 billion each year and $50 billion annually starting in 2015.
Instead, Bush promised more U.S.
Money and a deal on debt relief at next month's economic summit of the world's seven wealthiest nations and Russia, known as the Group of Eight (G-8), which Blair will host in Scotland.
"We know there's a lot more to do," Blair said.
In a news conference that highlighted their complex alliance, Blair defended Bush over the "Downing Street memo," in which a top British official alleged in 2002 that the United States was manipulating intelligence to justify a military invasion of Iraq.
The memo surfaced in the British media last month.
"The facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all," Blair said.
This was neither the first time Blair has rushed to Bush's defense on Iraq nor the only time the president did not reciprocate by providing the prime minister complete cover back home.
Blair's unwavering support for toppling Saddam Hussein proved instrumental in Bush's war planning.
The prime minister provided thousands of troops, more than any other nation beyond the United States, and, perhaps more important, has offered a passionate intellectual and emotional defense of the war and efforts to create a democracy in Iraq.
The friendship almost cost Blair an unprecedented third term this year.
The war remains very unpopular in Britain and a source of controversy and distraction for Blair's ruling Labor Party, which sustained heavy losses in the parliamentary elections.
The British tabloids frequently lampoon the prime minister as Bush's "poodle" who gets little in return for the support Britain gives to the United States.
While sensitive to Blair's domestic problems, Bush often stops short of meeting the prime minister's political needs.
When the two leaders met in April 2004, for instance, Bush praised Blair's support for the Iraq war but broke with the prime minister over the Middle East peace process, including the disposition of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Many Britons saw Bush's position as a setback for Blair.
Yesterday, both said they were committed to negotiating a peace deal that would create a Palestinian state.
This time, the White House leaked word of Bush's plan to announce increased aid to Africa the night before Blair arrived as way to divert attention away from the president's refusal to back Blair's more ambitious plan to dramatically increase global financial assistance to Africa.
But the prime minister still made clear that he would have liked more.
The plight of Africans is taking center stage in international politics, as Blair travels the world asking rich nations to double aid;
U2 and other bands plan a summer music tour highlighting AIDS and famine epidemics;
And atrocities in Sudan command the attention of lawmakers, Christian activists close to the White House and the news media.
Bush is often criticized for not doing enough -- both to stop what he calls a genocide in Sudan and provide more money to supply medication and other assistance to people with AIDS and food for the needy.
The Bush administration has tripled aid to Africa to $3.2 billion in 2004 and promised several billion more annually through the "Millennium Challenge" account, though that money has yet to be delivered.
The president has also pledged almost $3 billion in annual AIDS relief, most of which will go to Africa.
The new $674 million commitment, which comes from money already approved by Congress for humanitarian relief, would mainly provide food to Ethiopia, Eritrea and a few other African nations threatened by famine.
The White House said this money should provide food for 14 million people.
Several advocacy groups said the amount of money is insufficient unless it is coupled with debt relief and additional financial assistance.
"I see we've got a fantastic opportunity, presuming that the countries in Africa make the right decisions.
Nobody wants to give money to a country that's corrupt, where leaders take money and put it in their pocket," Bush said.
On global warming, Bush and Blair did not appear to make much progress.
Bush has long opposed the 1997 Kyoto treaty that the United States refused to ratify.
Blair, who plans to make the issue a key topic at the G-8 summit, wants world leaders to agree on the science of climate change and to lead an immediate worldwide effort to find solutions.
"I think everyone knows there are different perspectives on this issue," he said.
Climate change was a key topic of a British Embassy breakfast Blair held for a bipartisan group of senators yesterday, with some Democrats urging him to lobby Bush more forcefully on the matter.
Toward the end of the hour-long meeting, Sen.
Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) told Blair he had the best chance of persuading the president to embrace mandatory carbon dioxide emission cuts.
"More than anyone sitting around this breakfast table, our president owes you a great deal," Carper told him.
"I would not be shy about reminding him of that fact." If he did, it did not appear to work.
Bush, who has challenged studies suggesting man-made pollutants are causing Earth's temperatures to rise, said: "In terms of climate change, I've always said it's a serious long-term issue that needs to be dealt with."
Staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.
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One thing that's eluded me so far is why not help Asia and South America as well?
I know they might be richer than Africa, but once again the money is only in the hands of the few.
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Quote: : One thing that's eluded me so far is why not help Asia and South America as well?
I know they might be richer than Africa, but once again the money is only in the hands of the few.
Http://www.guardian.co.uk/hearafrica...501676,00.html
Broken promises leave three million children to die in Africa
As Blair and Bush close in on deal over debt, UN report reveals human cost
Larry Elliott and Patrick Wintour in Washington
Wednesday June 8, 2005
The Guardian
Three million children will die in the poorest countries of sub-Saharan Africa as a result of the failure of the global community to meet its promise of slashing the death rates of the under-fives by 2015, the UN will reveal tomorrow.
The grim figure emerged as George Bush paved the way for a landmark deal on lifting the huge debt burden on Africa's poorest countries when he announced that the US will stump up extra cash that in the long term will cancel $15bn (about £8.2bn) of accumulated debt.
Article continues
Following talks with Tony Blair in Washington, he also said he would do more on aid, but did not set out a specific figure.
The UK is looking for an initial $25bn boost from across the G8 industrialised nations and the EU.
A study by the UN development programme, timed to put pressure on G8 leaders ahead of the summit at Gleneagles next month, showed that on current trends, the global community will miss by a wide margin the targets it set for poverty, infant mortality and education in the millennium development goals agreed by the UN in 2000.
"These numbers should serve as a wake-up call for G8 leaders," said Kevin Watkins, director of the UN's human development report office.
"Africa cannot afford to see the world's richest countries sleepwalk their way to a heavily signposted human development disaster."
In 2000 the UN said that by 2015 it would cut infant mortality by two-thirds, halve the number of people living on less than a dollar a day, and put every child in school.
On current UNDP projections, there will be 5 million under-five deaths in Africa, compared with 2 million if the goals were achieved;
115 million children deprived of an education;
And 219 million extra people living below the poverty line.
President Bush's officials said that following the talks they believed he would provide more aid, possibly targeted at specific projects such as girls' education, water sanitation, malaria and peacekeeping.
The outline deal on debt requires further consultation with the Germans and some other EU finance ministers and it was accepted by British officials that most of the progress had been made on the cancellation of multilateral debt to the World Bank, rather than the International Monetary Fund.
President Bush disappointed environmentalists at the press conference by implying he did not see the scientific case of manmade climate change as being unanswerable.
Mr Blair wants to make climate change alongside Africa the big theme of his G8 summit.
President Bush said of climate change: "We need to know more about it.
It is easier to solve a problem when you know a lot about it."
But the Washington trip will be remembered for the progress Mr Blair made on debt cancellation and the assertion by President Bush that lifting Africa from poverty "is a central goal of my administration".
On debt cancellation the Americans promised not merely 100% cancellation, but also additional funding to ensure that the World Bank does not lose out over cancelled interest payments.
America had been insisting the World Bank was recompensed through cuts in aid programmes to Africa.
Now it will provide additional cash.
President Bush told a White House press conference: "We agree that highly indebted developing countries that are on the path to reform should not be burdened by mountains of debt.
Our countries are developing a proposal for the G8 that will eliminate 100% of that debt and that by providing additional resources will preserve the financial integrity of the World Bank and the Africa Development Bank."
He omitted any mention of the debt owed to the IMF since America is opposing the British proposal of funding the cancellation by the revaluation of IMF gold reserves.
Mr Bush insisted he would not lift aid to a fixed formula but said he had already tripled aid.
He added: "We have got a fantastic opportunity presuming the countries in Africa make the right decisions.
Nobody wants to give money to a country that's corrupt, where leaders take money and put it in their pocket.
We expect there to be reciprocation."
Mr Blair also stressed the proposed $25bn extra aid was not a figure taken out of the air.
He said, in comments designed to attract the president, that over the coming weeks the cash could be allocated "on the basis of an analysis of what Africa needs".
He listed areas such as malaria, Aids, peace enforcement and education.
It is possible the American extra aid cash will not go through multilateral institutions but through funds set up in Washington along the lines of their existing anti-Aids programme.
Mr Blair also stressed, like President Bush, that the aid was not unconditional.
He said: "We require the African leadership to be prepared to make a commitment on governance against corruption in favour of democracy.
"What we're not going to do is waste our country's money."
President Bush bridled at suggestions that America would not provide any extra aid cash.
He said: "We've got a lot of big talkers.
What I'd like to say is my administration actually does what we say we're going to do."
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Bush is unlikely to change his mind.
In the meantime, Europe needs to restructure its economy.
As pleasant as social programs are, they become a detriment to society when they keep the national economy depressed.
They can still keep good social programs, they just need to cut back.
The United States, however, has no such excuse;
Its excuse for not having these programs is that the budget is too small, a situation artificially created by tax cuts.
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I always thought more people died in Asia including children.
Should children take priority over adults and other age groups?
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