The G8

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 12 July 2005 14:20:05

Four days, a watered-down deal and several horrific bombs later, and the world seems to have forgotten about the G8. The Beautiful Day has got away, and the sort of deal we all hoped for didn't happen.

I haven't even seen a meaningful bulletin about it on the news. I can recommend the Make Poverty History response though - check out their site.

It was a unique chance to change things. Yes, it probably has set a process in motion which will lead to improvements. There are good parts of the deal. But the scale of the challenge has not been met. Millions who could have been lifted out of poverty have been kept there; millions will die who didn't need to over the coming years. The lack of a deal on trade means that Africa will remain as the dog begging for scraps under the table rather than the partner around the table.

So it's not the time to let up. More can be achieved. Maybe the great achievement of the last few weeks is not the end of poverty, but the beginning of a global determination to end it. Congratulations to those in the movement that started that - and congratulations as well to our government who tried to mobilise the world behind it. For the first time in my life, I feel proud of what our government has done on the world stage.

But that's not the issue. Poverty and unnecessary death is. And we need to keep working to end it, because the world's leaders failed to last week.