Post your thoughts/ideas/musings on global poverty and climate change for Policywonk - Mumsnet's blogger at the G20 summit...

Thanks for those links Rhubarb, will have a look later.

Good question about the banks and Zimbabwe - does anyone know the extent of international banks' involvement in the regime?

Yes, good point about the husbands

I must say I think Dambisa Moyo's argument is extremely strange (but I've only read a potted version of it). I'm sure it will come up at the discussions.

Thank you for that link thready. I like your last paragraph a lot.

Thanks also for that advice OhBling - I'll try it tomorrow.

Re. Zimbabwe - I see the point you're making. What's the alternative though - sending in UN troops to force Mugabe out?

Re animal dung - (sorry, but just playing devils advocate again) - what are women supposed to use other than dung, which is a freely available and recyclable resourse for them? Why do women in developing copuntries who have hard lives already have to worry about air pollution? Yes, I know it might not be great for their immediate environments, but if it's a question of trade offs (which everything is) providing your family with food and warmth from sustainable local resources must be the priority. mustn't it? Humans have been burning dung for energy for millenia. If we are worried about the respiratoiry health of developing countries, shouldn't we be targeting British and American Tobacco rather than women simply tyring to survive?

MT - animal dung is a common fuel for indoor cooking fires in developing countries and its effects on air quality are particularly awful (edited an article about it once and it's stuck in my head ever since).

Um, I didn't say conspiracy! I don't think there is a conspiracy, just a possible ineptness. Though people do mistrust Rupert Murdoch, but strangely not the media he controls...odd. But I digress!

I just mean people are not being given equal opportunity to examine other hypotheses in the media - the fact you think my post eccentric (deviating from the norm?) might simply demonstrate this, I dunno. Its my expereince that people don;t know why many countried were not supporters of the Kyoto protocol, and were given the impression in the press that objections were from the nutty David Belamy brigade only - this isn't an accurate representation at all. Because if this, we are affectily disemopowered from making informed choices. I'm not promoting any freaky conspiracy just highlighting a discrepancy with the flow of information and yes, maybe saying, it isn;t impartial all of the time. It shouldn't be a suprise that this happens when so much money is involved - it would be very unusual for corrunption not to be attempted somewhere. I wopuld just like to see some skeptical (read, not cynical, do not preempt the answers) questions asked. So much is at stake here especially for people living in flood zones that they need more practical help than Kyoto would offer. Kyoto more and moire seems like an abstract discouyrse to salve werstern guilty conscioulsnesses - but again, I dunno. I'm just asking questions about the information that we are being fed.

The Al Gore scenario is interesting indeed. I will dig ourt some stuff for you to read if you want. You don;t have to agree with it, but it will serve you and us better if yoiu know both sides of the debate??

Cheers, will give it a go!

Rhubarb - I have just purchased "Dead Aid" by Dambisa Moyo. Apparently a very interesting take on the ineffectiveness of traditional aid to Africa. I am planning to make a start on it this weekend. You might also find it interesting.

Oh and on the subject of Zimbabwe, could you ask what they are doing to help Aid agencies struggling to deliver aid to these countries.

And now that some of the banks are state-owned, will they stop them financing Mugabe's regime, like Barclays were doing?

Policywonk, on the issue of China, here are some links for you to look at.

Good Rock

British Medical Journal

BBC In this one, dated Sept 2007, the Chinese government have rejected calls for them to relax the one-child policy and have even declared it a success!

I have just returned from a BBQ at my neighbours house in sunny Oz.

He has built himself a woodfired pizza oven and I have partaken (if that is a word) of several bluecheese, garlic mushroom and rocket pizzas

How many dolphins/climate change doodars/ozone layers have I put at risk?

tia

Oh, and on Zimbabwe, I'd like to know why they all think it's Africa's problem - no one thought Iraq was the broader ME's problem! I'm tired of SA being blamed for Zimbabwe and would like to know what the rest of the world is planning to do or really think.

[on a lighter note, can you ask some questions about what the male partners of female delegates will be doing during the summit? I am always fascinated as the lady partners of the men always seem to be off looking at houses or whatever but what happens to the husbands?]

Policy- the press office at 10 Downing Street should be geared up to handle this kind of query. I would call them as I would imagine that Sarah Brown's standard approach would be to direct any queries to her directly back to the press office - I cannot imagine that there's an open chatty dialogue between her and any journalist who calls.

when you call them, emphasise what you're writing about, why it's of interest to her, who (and how big) your audience is and then, of course, the tight timeline. If MN has PR people, they might also be able to help out.

I like this article on the felt need for international/global regulation of banking.

When the credit crunch first hit, it seemed like a massive step back for globalisation of financial systems -- because an internationalist banking system was having to be bailed out and consequently (more tightly) controlled by national governments. ( "global banks are global in life, but national in death".) States seemed important again.

But over the last few weeks it has become evident that national controls are so inadequate to the task that future banking regulation will have to be undertaken internationally -- by the IMF.

So the failure of international finance will have done as much as its success to undermine the sovereignty of the nation state.

Do global institutions like G20 make individual people stronger or weaker? Do they make national citizens more powerful by allowing their elected governments to tackle international issues in partnership? Or are they an acknowledgement that nations and national electorates are feeble?

Arctic that is great, thanks. I have emailed Katy Woods. If you know her, you might like to contact her to explain that she's going to be getting a slightly random email from a mumsnetter.

That info is brilliant. I'm off out for a walk in the sunshine but I will sit down and go through it properly later on.

And best wishes to you too.

Hi Lemontart - thanks

My head is still spinning and I am WILDLY over-excited so I freely admit that my plans are probably grandiose in the extreme.

One of the reasons I'm asking for information on all of these different issues is so that I can feel thoroughly prepared. I don't imagine I'll get a chance to raise every single one of them - or possibly even most of them - but at the moment I just don't have the faintest idea how this thing is going to work, or which issues are likely to come up. So I want the security of feeling that I've got some reliable info at my fingertips about the major issues, just in case.

I'm sure you're right that the really interesting stuff will take place at the low-key sessions. I'm guessing that the more junior the person we speak to, the more likely we are to have an interesting conversation!

errr.. a random "best wishes" appears to have arrived in the middle of the text....

Hi PolicyWonk. Thanks for picking up the MNH think - and yes, the N is really important - I should have said. The White Ribbon Alliance are excellent on advocacy - would certainly be worth contacting them so you could maybe hitch your star to their wagon. Email for Katy Woods at the UK office is kwoods at whiteribbonalliance dot org
If you said you had access to the Mumsnet millions I'm sure they'd be interested to hear from you. They're very busy at the moment with the "million mums" campaign so may take a few days to get back to you.
As you rightly say, Sarah Brown is their patron, and in fact is very active in the global safe motherhood movement (both in that capacity and more independantly). She's knowledgeable and committed on the issue. I'm afraid I don't have her contact details though.
Best wishes
In terms of what to ask for - greater commitment to, and more funding for MNH. However, to maximise effectiveness this will require a review of funding strategies and the developement of innovative funding channels, where, for instance, different donor countries can pool resources for individual countries or regions.

There also needs to be concensus on the central importance of skilled attendance at delivery. Many countries continue with traditional birth attendant training, but there is unfortunately no real evidence of effectiveness. What's needed is a strong midwifery profession with skills to manage normal deliveries and identify complications, supported by inpatient facilities to deal with emergencies (e.g. c sections, blood transfusions).

Cost is a huge issue - services need to be affordable to all (which in many countries will mean free at point of use).

Other areas that are worth considering (which will also indirectly reduce maternal mortality) are increased access to contraception, and development and enforcement of legislation on age of marriage (in some countries marriage in girls under 15 is common, and they have massive risk of mortality if they give birth). There is also a very strong like with female education - educated women tend to have babies later, and make better use of services.

Sorry for the epic! Do let me know if you want any more info.

sorry no personal mobile numbers for Obama, Sarah Brown or Terry Wogan but just a quick (and unhelpful) post to say:

1. Good Luck and hope you really enjoy it.
2. Don?t worry too much on the general issues everyone will be reporting/blogging etc and try to focus on the "mumsnet" angle and soaking up the nuances and atmosphere - much more interesting and revealing than the bleated standard statements the pollys usually spout. 3)Take plenty of photos if you are allowed 4)Totally agree that a lot of it is likely to be about the same few statements "fiscal stimulus" "not our fault, it is a global downturn" and "safely steering us through difficult times" but hope that the smaller talk sessions and the informal discussions might give you the opportunity to draw them away from the bigger, vaguer topics and onto more specific issues
3. Did I say have fun?

Really excited for you!

Hey, look at that! I've finished my homework.

Contact for Sarah Brown pleeeeease. C'mon, this site is stuffed with journos.

Hello spider - good point.

I don't know much about the Kingsnorth issue. Is it a carbon capture scheme? Doesn't the government claim that it will help the UK to achieve its carbon reduction targets? I'm not saying that the government is correct - just that we want to ask questions that don't allow room for stock responses.

Can anyone fill me in?

Hello stuffit - I'm quite cynical myself. I'm sure most of the business done will be about the West's economic crisis - everything else will be firmly sidelined I expect.

I will try my best to convey some of the atmosphere.

Deep corporate lobbying sounds interesting - do you know much about it/any links?

Thank you mistlethrush, that's interesting.

cloudwalker - don't know whether Justine and co have any budget for photos. I was planning on bringing my own camera to take snaps to post on the blog. But if you want to meet up while you're there, feel free to email me - [email protected]

Aretha's not a woman to argue with, is she?

OK folks

Can anyone find me a contact email for Sarah Brown? Don't want to go through the Downing St site really, it would probably take ages to get through to her and we don't have long.