'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 Roldós, 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
Roldós 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

=========================

"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



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)



"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



"...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

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