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THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE No. 179 (July 2005) This issue’s contents: COVER STORY: The G8, Poverty and Africa The G8 Africa brouhaha: Hot air and little substance By Charles Abugre Amidst great fanfare, the leaders of the Group of Eight (G8) major industrial countries met in Gleneagles, Scotland on 6-8 July, with one of their principal objectives being the need to address the problem of poverty in Africa. Charles Abugre argues that the meeting can hardly be considered a success. Far from registering significant strides in tackling the issues of aid, debt and trade to the continent, the G8 summit outcome will more likely lead to decades of dependency and begging. G8 summit pledge on aid - not a done deal yet By Eurodad There are some worrying aspects to the G8 summit's pledge to increase the amount of aid to developing countries. Gleneagles, Blair's Commission and Wolfowitz' Bank By George Dor The decisions agreed by the G8 leaders at Gleneagles on aid, trade and debt cancellation do not reflect a new-found concern for Africa nor a commitment to combating African poverty. Instead, they are no more than the latest in a long line of measures that constitute neoliberal exploitation of the continent by the rich North. By Devinder Sharma By their failure to make a serious commitment to eliminate their countries' huge agricultural subsidies, the G8 leaders have displayed a striking lack of will to translate into action their pledge to make poverty history. How import liberalisation cost Africa $272 billion By Claire Melamed The losses sustained by sub-Saharan African countries as a result of two decades of trade liberalisation under World Bank/IMF economic programmes far exceed the $40 billion worth of debt relief offered by the G8 Summit. Claire Melamed explains.
HEALTH & SAFETY People's Health Assembly demands right to health for all By Lim Li Ching The Second People's Health Assembly, which convened in Ecuador in July, reiterated its call for the realisation of the goal, set out more than two decades ago by the Alma Ata Declaration, of 'Health for All'. Fallen leaves, broken lives By Edward Tick Thirty years after the fighting stopped in Viet Nam, Agent Orange still wages war.
ECONOMICS WTO pressures will build on developing countries from September By Martin Khor An end-July meeting at the World Trade Organisation held to revive negotiations on international trade reform ended without any results. There will be more intense talks from September, and developing countries should prepare to face great pressures from the developed countries determined to pry open their markets. The globalisation of 'locusts' By Kavaljit Singh The phenomenal growth of hedge funds has renewed public concern about their dubious short-term investment strategies and their lack of transparency and accountability. Increased surveillance and tighter regulation of these financial 'locusts' is long overdue. The two sides of Brazil's agricultural crisis By Adhemar S Mineiro Brazilian President Lula has had to tread a delicate path as he attempts to maintain tight neo-liberal restrictions on public spending in the face of an agricultural crisis which threatens both rich agribusiness interests and small family farms and landless workers. 22 dead in Yemen riots over World Bank-backed price hikes By Emad Mekay Some 22 people were killed and more than 300 injured in July when riots erupted in Yemen in protest against price rises for petrol, diesel and kerosene. The price hikes, which were an integral part of an economic programme promoted by the World Bank and the IMF, have since been reversed by the Yemeni government.
WORLD AFFAIRS Famine in Niger By Jeremy Seabrook Jeremy Seabrook wonders whether the 'economy' has become so disarticulated from human needs that it was possible for representatives of international financial institutions to pour lavish praises on the government of Niger's economic reforms and its poverty reduction strategy just as famine was breaking out in that country. Hiroshima memories: The struggle against forgetting By Renato Redentor Constantino On the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima, Renato Redentor Constantino reflects on whether the compelling lessons of this ghastly act of mass slaughter have indeed been learnt. India is entering uncharted, risky territory By Siddharth Varadarajan India's new military agreement with the US will help advance Washington's strategic goals in Asia and expand the global market for American defence contractors. But it is not clear what good it will do for India and Asia. Blair's bombs By John Pilger John Pilger says that the London bombings are the senseless repercussions of British and Western interventions in the Middle East and that British troops should return home.
HUMAN RIGHTS Terror as anti-union strategy The violent suppression of labour rights in Colombia By Anastasia Moloney Anastasia Moloney draws attention to the plight of Colombian trade unionists who face persecution and death from government armed forces and right-wing paramilitary groups.
WOMEN A union of scrap collectors By Madeleine Marie Slavick Scrap collectors in the Indian city of Pune - some 90% of whom are women - have managed to organise themselves into a union. In addition to fostering a sense of community, unionisation has brought them many benefits.
VIEWPOINT Health, wealth and terror By Satya Sivaraman In this provocative piece, Satya Sivaraman wonders whether the new set of International Health Regulations recently adopted by the WHO's 192 member states has more to do with the US war on terror than with public health. Britain: imperial nostalgia By Seumas Milne Britain not only conveniently still forgets the crimes of its imperial past, but it has also again begun to romanticise its colonial achievements and declare them a proper source of pride. For subscription and enquiries: THIRD WORLD NETWORK Tel: 60-4-2266728/2266159; Fax: 60-4-2264505; Email: twnet@po.jaring.my
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