We have another exciting G8 meeting this month, this time hosted by Japan. Big deal!
This is another photo op designed to have certain World leaders show that everyone is getting on well with everyone else. It’s the annual chance for the World’s most powerful states to sit down together, and discuss the hard-core issues that are affecting the globe together, and then…..do absolutely nothing about it. Considering Russia fought so hard to get into this club a few years ago, their inclusion hasn’t meant anything to the overall projects follow through and concrete result. It just means another voice at the table, defending it’s own dubious record.
When these summits began 30 years ago, it appeared to be a move forward from the Cold War stalemate that the world was in. It appeared that everyone that mattered outside of the Evil Empire could actually sit down and talk about how to work together to make the planet a better place, and to find answers to the two major problems of the 1970’s: High Oil prices, and poverty. That rings a bell.
Despite the addition of Canada (There’s a World power for you!), and now Russia, the G8 have failed to do anything about these two evils. In fact, energy prices a higher, stocks are thinner, and Poverty has grown. Thanks, boys! Having expensive meetings every few years, and being able to speak informally to each other about what is really going on globally, not only has nothing been acheived, things are actually worse. I think that this group is simply a get-together so that everyone can introduce themselves to the new Italin Prime Minister -after all, they go through governments almost on a monthly basis! My car lasts longer between services than most Goverments in Rome. Another reason may be to laugh at Japan’s economy – one that has been in recession, technically, for about 15 years. This is one of the 8 greatest nations on earth? A country that hasn’t balanced it’s chequebook since Mike Tyson was World Champion?
Of course, if you peek behind the curtain, there is something else going on here. It’s a bunch of old white guys (Apologies to Germany’s Chancellor Merkel), of basically the same religious backgrounds that meet to ensure that the status quo remains the same, and that no-one with a religion different, or a skin tone darker than theirs gets a look in. It reminds me of the British Empire in the years after WW2. It was ‘in charge’ in name alone, and did the right thing by dismantling the entire edifice, leading to something quite extraordinary: A global collection of diverse countries that pooled their talents to make life better for their citizens. The British Commonwealth is a collection of about one-third of the World’s population that recognise their colonial background, and still request help from the old tyrant. They are in the club of their own free will, and see it as a place where evrone (except the UK) is the same because of what they have gone through.
The G8 no longer reperesentative of the World’s most powerful nations, nor the greatest producers. If that was simply the entry fee, there are about 5 other countries that are far and away more productive than the Old Boy’s Club. Are they the greatest populated countris? Not even close. They are the ones holding the strings of ebvery other nation, and they are determined to stay that way. What work are they doing that The United NAtions, World Bank, or NATO not doing?
There is talk of expanding this to a G13 or a G20 – in fact any size that would recognize the changing face of the world, AND keep them in the decision making chairs.
If we need an overseeing group that can make global decisons, and follwo throguh onthe, it’s time to double the size to include the BRIC countries that are the bioggest and fastest moving. How about the Northern European and Scandinavians that have taught the world how to feed and medically aid their peoples, save money and manage their resources beter than most. You could even rotate membership as the World changed. Hows that for ripping the whip from the same old driver’s hand?
If everyone stopped meeting after Yokohama, they couldn’t do any worse to the World than they have done since we were all dancing to disco. We have gone through a thirty-year period of fabulous wealth, growth, and opportunity and what do we have for it? The same old white Christian guys talking the same game, and their inaction has led us to a world in worse shape than it was before they began.
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