Bob Geldof in a recent interview with "Der Tagesspiegel"
"...Live 8 is probably the biggest movement of all time, certainly it's bigger than the civil rights or anti-apartheid movements..."
Wednesday 14 February 2007
Monday 12 February 2007
Another wall
Isn't it a bid odd for a former Eastener, the first female chancellor in Germany to be responsible for building yet another wall in Germany. This time it will only be 12km long; 2.50m high and at the little cost of 11 Mio Euro!
To be honest, it is more of a fence but still it is about fundamentally excluding people from Heiligendamm. Obviously, the official language is different - and it is about security and protection of the heads of state of the G8 countries as they are also expecting some 50.000 protestors. For sure, a fence that is built now and will be demolished right after the summit (lasting 6-8th June) to protect Merkel and her "partners in crime" is causing some controversy in an area in Germany with beautiful landscape but lack of employment options so that in fact there aren't that many people living anymore in or around Heiligendamm...but many will come and visit later this year; e.g. also some 16.000 police men
To be honest, it is more of a fence but still it is about fundamentally excluding people from Heiligendamm. Obviously, the official language is different - and it is about security and protection of the heads of state of the G8 countries as they are also expecting some 50.000 protestors. For sure, a fence that is built now and will be demolished right after the summit (lasting 6-8th June) to protect Merkel and her "partners in crime" is causing some controversy in an area in Germany with beautiful landscape but lack of employment options so that in fact there aren't that many people living anymore in or around Heiligendamm...but many will come and visit later this year; e.g. also some 16.000 police men
Wednesday 7 February 2007
One for my mum
This one goes to my mum! Yeah right - are you wondering how it all links to G8.
Well, it happens to be her birthday on Friday, the exact date of the first official meeting of the G7 Finance Ministers. This will take place in Essen while I will be enjoying myself on some holiday out of the country, for sure far enough away from Essen! But I managed to tick off crucial bits and pieces of my to-do-list and ActionAid will launch a report addressing the upcoming meeting. Big on the to-do-list of the Finance Ministers is hopefully to commit to a proper funding plan for the target of universal access to prevention, treatment and care of HIV/AIDS by 2010. The G8 leaders have promised to do so already back in 2005 - so far all talk but no action. It seems, that political decision makers want to ensure us with more talk that all promises will be kept, albeit we see no action...yet again the G8 agenda headline "growth and responsibility" is ringing an alarm bell (if only in my ears) that the G8 wants to hand over the responsibility of fighting HIV onto developing countries. However, in 2007 alone 10 billion are lacking to fight HIV/AIDS! Someone in Germany would dare to say it is peanuts (sorry for an insider)- for developing countries it is not; for people living with AIDS it is not.
With establishing the Global Fund it sounds like G8 has fulfilled its obligation and the call is thus for African countries to come up with appropriate health budget, strengthening health systems, formulation of comprehensive anti-AIDS strategies, and development of strategies to overcome the scarcity of professional staff in the health sector. As if those strategies don’t yet exist; as if those nurses and health personal are not dying of HIV; as if the health budget is not cut due to IMF economic conditionalities...
Well, it happens to be her birthday on Friday, the exact date of the first official meeting of the G7 Finance Ministers. This will take place in Essen while I will be enjoying myself on some holiday out of the country, for sure far enough away from Essen! But I managed to tick off crucial bits and pieces of my to-do-list and ActionAid will launch a report addressing the upcoming meeting. Big on the to-do-list of the Finance Ministers is hopefully to commit to a proper funding plan for the target of universal access to prevention, treatment and care of HIV/AIDS by 2010. The G8 leaders have promised to do so already back in 2005 - so far all talk but no action. It seems, that political decision makers want to ensure us with more talk that all promises will be kept, albeit we see no action...yet again the G8 agenda headline "growth and responsibility" is ringing an alarm bell (if only in my ears) that the G8 wants to hand over the responsibility of fighting HIV onto developing countries. However, in 2007 alone 10 billion are lacking to fight HIV/AIDS! Someone in Germany would dare to say it is peanuts (sorry for an insider)- for developing countries it is not; for people living with AIDS it is not.
With establishing the Global Fund it sounds like G8 has fulfilled its obligation and the call is thus for African countries to come up with appropriate health budget, strengthening health systems, formulation of comprehensive anti-AIDS strategies, and development of strategies to overcome the scarcity of professional staff in the health sector. As if those strategies don’t yet exist; as if those nurses and health personal are not dying of HIV; as if the health budget is not cut due to IMF economic conditionalities...
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