Sunday, July 03, 2005
Went to Edinburgh for the Make Poverty History Demo...
and it was huge. The police with their usual underestimating said there were only three people present of which one was an anarchist with a dog on a piece of string. The media said 100-150,000 talk on the demo was of 250,000 and upwards. The demonstration followed a 2.5 mile route around the city centre and back to the park. I was queuing with tens of thousands of others for two and a half hours before I got out of the park and onto the march. Behind me there were still tens of thousands. So huge was the demo that the front of the march re-entered the park before half of us had left. It was a stunning display of anger and concern about world poverty. All the people I spoke to said that they wanted things to change, they could stomach no longer the death of any child from starvation, they wanted an end to war, they wanted a fairer distribution of the world's wealth. End the debt, where there is need meet that need. It was gripping stuff and the G8 ignore this at their peril. For my part I think the G8 are a bunch of ruthless crooks who will do as little as they can get away with, but the demonstrators I think and will not be so easily fobbed off. The next demonstrations will be bigger. Watch this space, as they say!
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laughed at your comment on the reports of the size of the event - reminded me of a post I just read. Thought you might be amused. The post is entitled "How I know the media lies" and is a remembrance of demonstrations past....
http://sweetlife.blogster.com
Sorry Dan, gotta jump on my soap-box for this one. Y'know I applaud Live 8 & all that the concerts & demos have done to raise public awareness of the appalling situation in Africa, but the answer to the solution is not about Free trade issues, absolving debts or how much the G8 can give. The problem is that Africa is run by corrupt politicians & if you get rid of this lot, they'll be another lot just as bad waiting in the wings.
I come from a small country (pop. about 370,000). The last 30 yrs or so, millions have been poured into the country for development...right into the politicians pockets. A former president L.F.S. Burnham who came from a dirt-poor background, died the 3rd richest black-man in the world....he plundered our country to the ground & there is no hope of recovery that will happen in my lifetime. I could go on & on....but that's where the problem is - how can you stop the corruption & get the money to the people who need it?
THANK YOU TWINE!!!
It's what I'm trying to tell them folks over there but not one o' them is HEARING me!!!
Corruption runs so deep in almost every institution [and you can read Wole Soyinka and other African writers...just google it: "corruption...Africa...writers and critics"...] it is stifling growth, thought, development in practically every quarter.
Here in our country I call it "Spite and Bribe".
Twine your absolutely right about corruption but that must be for the resident population to sort out. Democracy is the solution to that. But how do these leaders become corrupt? Through arms deals, trade deals, sweeteners, bribes, etc from Western Companies and Governments. For instance the Dep President of South Africa has recently been sacked for taking bribes from a French arms company. Remember the West is hypocrital about corruption, think of Mobutu in Zaire, Suharto in Indonesia, Pinochet in Chile,Houphoet - Boigny in Ivory Coast, Eyadema in Togo, Marcos in th Philipines, every one of these brutal rulers surivived for decades on the basis of Western aid and support. And that's without listing today's tyrants, Mugabe and his cronies for instance who apparently have billions stashed in France and Switzerland. There are real questions to be asked about African rulers who connive with the G8 leaders and multi-nationals at the expense of their own people. Which is why I support Africans who fight back via strikes and demonstration such as we currently see in South Africa. Major demonstrations and strikes in the Cape Town and Free State areas. There are ongoing demonstrations against corruption and poverty in Niger and Kenya. In Zimbabwe trade union leaders have called for another two days of strikes. If you want to read more look up Socialist Worker in the UK, their newspaper is on line and has more details than I can fit in here.
Made a typo error GG you didn't take me up on...pop of Guyana is about 730,000 not 370,000!
I agree with you totally Dan, the West keeps corrupt 3rd world politicians in power, when it suits them. The biggest culprit of all is the US, an example of that is how it funded the brutal Duvalier regime in Haiti just because it didn't want the country to be taken over by the communist Fidel Castro. (He was the 'little mouse that roared' and the huge US was scared of, hehe. And to think that he's still in power after all they tried to get rid of him) I'm rambling on now, but another big problem is even if African countries are able to form democratic parties, there will always be the inter-house tribal fighting. I dunno.........
Oh, yes, Twine, I noticed, then forgot to correct.
By the way, have you seen what Castro's done to the business people who FOOLISHLY thought they could invest in Cuba? Now they're all pulling out, don't know if they will ever recoup their losses.
[Did you read about Castro's industries...in rum, cigars...and the profits are his...?]
I don't agree that someone can MAKE a person corrupt.
Corrupt people will find avenues, whether assisted or not by the West. [I'm looking at this from a psychological point of view].
As Wole Soyika, Nigera writer in exile said, in the end, the solutions have to come from the people themselves.
thanks twine and gg - being fr US I always feel guilty for saying "but..." when full responsibility is laid on G8 etc. to "fix" it all, as if simply putting down money would do it.
I'm a capitalist, pure and simple. I believe it works. It is not capitalism to take things that have been paid for by tax payers (trains, energy, water) sell them to the highest bidder and then subsidize them. It is not capitalism to make the richest pay the least for goods and services. It is not capitalism to attack Iraq to secure fat contracts for Halliburton. Those are corruptions of capitalism permitted in the west. Why a democracy permits these corruptions, I haven't a clue.
Every time major corruption is permitted, it destroys the economy. In the US we are doing it with give-aways to the rich and with poorly thought out wars for profit. In other countries.. Indonesia, for example (Africa isn't the only place with a corruption problem) the corruption is immediate, direct, and prevents an economic base from even taking hold.
Castro isn't a good guy, even though we've no business messing in his back yard.
The enemy is corruption in all of its many forms. That is what we should be decking our energy against.
Hayden mate, with all due respect you make Capitalism sound positively benign when it is in fact a theiving pillaging system that steals the wealth produced by the many and then hands it wholesale to the few. The rich and powerful are not so because of some psychological flaws it's the way capitalism is designed. Mass exploitation dressing itself up as the most advanced stage of human development. The American Dream is a con, if it was so easy how come only the tiniest fraction can live it, and of that tiniest fraction the majority inherit their wealth. Capitalism makes the majority pay and what little democracy we have has had to be fought for, and fought for and fought for again. Look at Florida in the last two Presidential elections if you want to see people having to fight just to vote. Corruption is riven into capitalism, it is a system that does everything it can to avoid democracy and openness. Why deal honestly when you can pay off your friends, when you can buy influence with handsome rewards to those who are willing to be bought. Corruption can only be avoided through open democracies and accountability, where everything is transparent. Perhaps we should take heart from the thousands in Bolivia who are striking and calling for a new politics. Last Monday 500,000 demonstrated in La Paz, the President Carlos Meza offered his resignation. In the last two years, there has been massive demands for change in Argentina, Ecuador, Venezuala (though Chavez's govt is a step in the right direction). As a Marxist I'm opposed to capitalism and the war, pestilence, and privations it brings. I want a better future not based on greed but on fulfilling need. A productive system not based upon exchange but upon feeding and clothing everyone regardless of their means. We live in a world of abundance such as history have never seen but billions live in poverty and face misery and early deaths, never to reach their full potential as human beings. Well mate, I'm sick of capitalism, and I think I'm not the only one.
Dan, Dan, Dan...you should see what socialism did here. People got MURDERED. Properties got TAKEN AWAY and given to favoured people.
Ohhh, I can just go on about how they stole from those who had, from those who WORKED for what they had, and gave it to those who didn't do a day's work.
As they say, he who feels it knows it.
By the way, did you get to read Wole Soyinka's essay, The open sores of Africa?
Gyal,
I believe every word you say about these tyrants and condemn them and their crookery. These people are not socialists, in fact they seem more like the big capitalists, they certainly act like them. And they will be remembered not for what they called themselves but for what they did. I hate corruption and I'm not bothered by what name it goes, it's still corruption.
I'm looking up the Soyinka essay to read. Will let you know when I've found it.
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