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

sorry, not SEAT shops sweat shops

{worries that i'll get world of leather into trouble... but actaully if i do- they ahd it coming]

And also -i'm sorry abut your grany, that must be tough

I'm going to be attending the G20 summit as a freelance press photographer, (I'm working it for some agencies and a daily newspaper). Are there any specific shots that you're after? I might be able to help you out.

Lots of things that previous people have said - but also, in terms of Co2 etc - more money needs to be put into setting up proper scale production of small energy schemes - which will reduce the cost to a level where it would be cost effective for a lot of us to contemplate ground source heat/solar/small turbines, then on a slightly larger scale, combined heat & power on a neighbourhood, leading up to a district wide level. If all of this sort of technology was considered properly now it would be possible to build a lot of the new houses that are planned to a specification that there would be an easy modification to allow the residents to tap into such schemes when they become available.

And how about street trees/trees in urban areas, trees generally (in developed countries) - they can help to reduce temperatures by several degrees in hot weather - carefully planned services would allow more street area to be used for tree planting etc.

Sorry to hear about your grandmother.

Maternal mortality is still a real issue. Each year half a women die during pregnancy and childbirth. In some countries the risks are enormous - for instance in Niger a woman's chance of dying in childbirth during her lifetime is 1 in 7. This compares with about 1 in 8200 in the UK (and even lower in many other European countries).

In addition there are also many more woman who suffer long term disability such as obstetric fisula (which leads to incontinence and often ostracisation from the community).

The main reason is lack of access to care - in particular skilled care at delivery, but also antenatal and post-natal care. Even when care is available it may be unaffordable.

The long term economic and social affects are enormous - families are plunged into debt due to the cost of seeking care (a ceaesarian may be a years wages for many), orphaned children are more likely to die and have poorer life chances. There are frequent reports from parts of Africa of women being "imprisoned" in maternity hospitals until they have cleared their debts.

Sorry, it's turned into a bit of a lecture. If you could do anything to highlight this or bring out any discussion it would be great. I can get you any further info you want.
Cheers

Sorry to hear about your grandmother Policy.

Ooh, is Policywonk one of the "10 high profile and eclectic bloggers"?!?

Well done Justine and Co for getting in on this!

Hello all

Just wanted to say I can't get much done until this evening but thanks very much for all of this - will sit down later on and have a proper read.

And don't get me started on China. A country that still enforces the one-child policy, forcing many women to have abortions up to their term date, many more abandon their unwanted children at the side of roads on in rubbish heaps. The majority of abandoned children are girls and those with special needs. The orphanages are a mess - think Dying Rooms. They have an appauling human rights record. Many people were made homeless as their homes and land were demolished to make way for the Olympic Stadium. Their country is responsible for 25% of world mercury emissions and 12% of CO2.

34.9% of it's people live on less than $1 a day.

What are they going to do about it?

I'd like to know how America and the UK can justify bombing the shite out of Iraq, alledgedly so they could bring democracy to that country, yet they will sit back and do nothing about Zimbabwe. People are dying whilst their leader lives it up. He has drained that economy dry. Soon there will be no-one left to populate Zimbabwe.

What are we, as a country, actively doing atm about this? Because from where I'm sat, I can't see a right lot going on.

Have I missed the link about animal dung? Is it being licenced and marketed by British American Tobacco?

I have some scary stats on water somewhere - will try to find them.

COPD not just animal dung - it's all smoke from indoor cooking with insufficient ventilation, etc - affects children and women primarily, and is very debilitating.

(In midst of an OU course, hence the odd assortment of knowledge!)

PW, you know there's only one solution to global poverty.

Which is steal from tax the rich to give to pay the poor.

REspect to the Wonk! and that I have no life to have been up for this...

It would be worth checking out the Millenium Development Goals which is something that is probably going to go to shite in the light of the financial crisis

< I mean PW>

PW, i'm in a bit f a rush and may be able to come back later..
a few weeks ago there was 1 dya of news about somehting that i think was absoltuelt monumental in terms of world health/politics

one of the big big drug companies decided to relax the pricing for third world countries... to a level that really was ver very helpful. the company was asking other drug companies to do the same.
then i heard nothing more....

it was one day about a month ago- or maybe a litle longer.

and echo the nestle problem,
female education,
infnt and maternal mortaily,
seat shops.. women and kids and
err
will think of more.

and congratulations, i think you'll be fab

Hi policywonk - good luck! It sounds like it will be a really amazing experience, although slightly scary!

I agree that issues like maternal/infant mortality and girls education are angles that Mumsnet has a natural interest in.

I'm concerned that with the global financial crisis that G20 countries will be looking to cut their development aid budgets, so I would be looking for a commitment that won't happen ... and can the leaders of the G20 commit to ringfencing more money within their aid budgets so that it goes to infant/child mortality and girls education?

Often aid budgets (including the UK's Department for International Development) are channelled through general 'budget support' whereby large sums of money are given to the governments of recipient countries but it isn't targeted at specific issues or projects and can easily get swallowed up by other things.

Has anyone mentioned Nestlee in the Third World yet? Surely that's a MN area of interest?

Oh, and don't forget the hope factor now that there is an articulate human being in the White House!

When does Kyoto get renegotiated? Will the US take a protectionist stance or be at the heart of environmental policy?

Fab news. Congrats Politywonk! Best choice!!

I guess I would want to know what the political agenda is behind pushing only one hypothesis for environmental issues in the media - is it the media doing their own thing and ignoring an alternate so's not to confuse readerships or is it something else. I mean the whole 'incnvenient truth' issue. There are a lot of inconvenient truths about it, not least that its main function seems to be keeping Al Gore's profile up and netting him millions on the speech circuit.

The alternate hypothesis is about redirecting resourses into local environments to help people on the ground develop flood defenses, and facilitate organised migration away from flood zones, something that Kyoto and such agreements wouldn't help. People like Bjorn Lomberg who propose these arguments are't nutters, nor are they climate change denialists, they are offering alternate hypotheses about resourse distribution - crucially a less centralised system such as Kyoto, and this is the reason many countries, including the US, didn't sign the Kyoto agreement, not because they are climate change denialists (tho they exist of course).

Why are the public not being given a fair precis of these arguments in the media? Envieoinmentalism is a humanitarian cause that seems to have been hijacked by politics, with the result that we, the public, aere not being given the information we need to make informed choices.

The issue on the role of the media passing on unbiased informnation so we can all make informed choices based on facts not opinions, is pretty central to all issues - poverty included. The government has expereience of this itself, as we all get our politics via the filter of the press. With such a huge influence on people, isn't it time that the self-regulation of the press is seriously invesitgated? Political reporters now think themselves peers of politicians. It's a ridiculous state of affairs.

The freedom of the press should always be protected, but we also need a body set up specifically where people can go to get information before it is spun? A well funded, highly visible body. There are no mechanisms within the press to guard against human foibles as there are in science and, a lesser degree, politics. This is a massive oversight in view of the massive influence the media has on society, isn't it?

Hello policywonk,

Am glad you are on the case (and not taking the role too terribly seriously!!)

I'll keep posting as my thoughts/ dcs allow, but here are my personal bugbears:

1. FGM (female genital mutilation -- very complex issue, bring it up and watch the room scatter)
2. EPZs (export processing zones, often employing primarily women in substandard conditions -- the discussion is far more complex than to label them all sweatshops, as often they provide opportunities to women in less tangible ways, but still need to be regulated)
3. education for young women
4. sex education for both sexes
5. provision of adequate healthcare, especially ante- and post- natal
6. sigh

Policywonk -- There was some nice sounding sensible man on the Today Program this morning at about 08:00. Must have been right before Prayer for the Day...

Anyway, nice sensible man who put John Humpheys in his place by being polite, suggested that water supplies were the key in global poverty, in addition to agricultural techniques where apparently a large amount (60 - 70%?) were wasted in the developing nations...

Could we broaden hush puppies to slip-ons, perhaps? Extra points for grey?

oh yais. it was in my best jean brodie voice.
am irritated with self that i can't think of better tallies.

dandruff on dark suit. there's one. there will be a lot of 'ruff i think.