Bicnod's going to the G8 for you lot - come and post your thoughts, questions, ideas

[Bicnod]

Right, so I'm off to the G8 Summit on Sunday representing YOU LOT as part of the IF Campaign. This is a Very Scary Thing.

Original thread here - I was chosen because I am extremely clever and interesting, and not just because Justine picked my name out of a hat

I'll be there as part of the IF@G8 bloggers project - see here for mugshots - I'm the one at the bottom hugging a random child. I'm slightly unnerved by the blogging prowess of the others

The main point of the IF campaign is that there is enough food in the world for everyone, but not everyone has enough food. One in eight people go to bed hungry every night and over three million children die each year through malnutrition.

I think we're all agreed that this is not on.

IF the G8 leaders act now to increase aid, clamp down on tax dodgers, support small scale farmers and stop land grabs, then 2013 could be the beginning of the end for global hunger. More info on all the ishoos here

So what do you lot think? What do you want me to say to the G8 leaders if I get the chance? Are we still interested in biscuits or have we moved on? I can't remember if we ever got an answer from DC on that point.

Any opinions, questions, stories, general musings welcome.

I love MN by the way - I've been here since 2008. I first posted (different username) while on a work trip to Ethiopia. I found out I was pregnant with DS1 on the day I flew and needed some reassurance - I got it and have been here ever since.

I want to do you all proud so please pile in.

:)

Oh and liger just tweeted a quote from you

• helloooooo my fellow April Mum!

Got to go and eat dinner or I'll get into trouble - back later....

You've had far more informed and eloquent posts than any I could contribute. I can help with the trivial . Enniskillen is where I grew up (I'm currently just up the road outside Belfast) Fermanagh is a truly beautiful place and the Lough Erne resort is amazing. It is currently chucking it down outside (there is a reason Ireland is lush and green) Julian Fowler the BBC correspondent in the west says you need 3 things for the G8 - sunscreen, insect repellant and an umbrella. If you get a chance, have a drink in Blakes of the Hollow.

Ok, I'm back

Where was I...

@letsgoflyakite - I'm ashamed to admit I don't own the MN scarf does that mean I can't go now?

I am on twitter - quite new to the game - and will be tweeting from the G8. Come and find me @SarahRobinson78

AF - yes yes to women being the key and also bearing the brunt.

And arf again at your spamming the thread

Hi Bicnod, you will be great, will be thinking of you. I'm off to find out more about the IF project and will read all the interesting posts on the thread later. (trying to play catch up with work)

I think the problem with aid given directly to governments is that all to often the aid is offered on the basis that those governments allow the multinationals in. The money comes with strings attached and is basically a bribe to force neo-liberal reforms through in developing countries. Aid is not given to countries that refuse neo-liberal reform and privatisation, who will not use the money to make the countries tax situation and infrastructure, employment laws and trade agreements hospitable to corporations.

Countries that insist of following a course that benefits the people offering free education, free health care, a greater share of the national wealth to the working people, refusing to privatise oil or other natural resources are not generally offered aid.

Developing countries are rich in resources and multinationals seek cheap labour, lack of environmental protections and easy tax avoidance. These countries are not under developed but over exploited. This isn't new. I think we like to think that Africa and the middle east is backward but this hasn't always been the case. We have appropriated their resources to enrich us.

The land grabs are ensuring that displaced people can not feed themselves, becoming economic migrants in search of diminishing jobs, only to find that capitalist expansion and need for investment opportunities displaces them again. The slums are cleared at almost the same rate that the agricultural land is appropriated to private profit seeking agri-businesses. The profits from this exploitation of the land, made greater by tax avoidance must be reinvested into?????? well building flats and gentrifying the city. Again not something that benefits ordinary poor working people.

So my question would be, Mr Cameron can we stop using aid as a bribe to corrupt puppet dictators, can we stop using aid as a bribe to advance corporate interests and why is it that struggling countries that prefer to follow a more socially just democratic path are denied help and usually subject to trade embargoes (at the very least !)

I don't believe that our governments are totally transparent and I feel very strongly that my tax money is being used in such a way that it exploits the poor in developing nations and funnels my money into the pockets of wealthy share holders.

Government aid is not an act of good will but politically motivated to advance capitalist hegemony and greed.

@SacreBlue - thank you for your post, it's really helped to organise my thoughts a bit more.

Good point about how they will turn talk into action re: tax avoidance. I think some of this will be discussed at the Open for Growth event tomorrow so will be interesting to see the outcomes from that.

One of the main thrusts of the IF Campaign is to clamp down on tax havens as much as the corporations themselves. 1 in 5 of the world?s tax havens is controlled by the UK government and nearly all of the UK's biggest companies are using tax havens. Summary of the action the IF Campaign is calling for the G8 to take here

Did anyone in London see the tax haven pop up on the South Bank today?!

@SacreBlue again - transparency is a huge issue so big it makes my head explode - it links into so many areas of the IF Campaign.

As I understand it, the IF Campaign is calling for G8 countries to enshrine in law that companies have to report on the full impact of their business (environmental, social and human rights), so that they can be held to account for their actions.

Also, as you say, for G8 countries themselves to lead from the front and commit to being more open about their own budgets etc, and encourage developing country governments to do the same.

This is an issue I struggle to get my head around (can you tell?) - it's so mahoosive.

It seems to link neatly with the issue of land grabs as well. So if multinational companies are forced to be more open and honest about their actions in developing countries, e.g. land grabs, then the poor people adversely affected by those actions will have more opportunity to call them on it and demand adequate compensation, or stop it happening at all.

Does that sound about right?

I've just read in the G8 summit briefing that the IF Campaign is calling for G8 countries to make it mandatory for any investments involving land deals to document processes ensuring free, prior and informed community consent.

Sounds good but how that works on the ground I just don't know.

@Zulu - thank you for coming to play :)

Yes yes to corruption being an issue. I think the IF Campaign transparency (oh god, that word again) agenda links to this.

And also yes to it being the simple things.

I spent a bit of time in northern Uganda and the difference basic hygiene and sanitation education made to children's health was massive - just stuff like washing hands after going to the loo. So obvious to us, but really not that obvious if you've never been told why it's important.

And mosquito nets. Did you see the 'Mary and Martha' Richard Curtis film that was on the beeb in the run up to Red Nose Day?

What were you doing in Kenya by the way?

RE: what am I going to wear, I was asked if I have a MN t-shirt

No. I don't.

But I am going to be wearing jeans I think. I like jeans. They can be smart. It's going to be bloody freezing and I like jeans.

Tell me jeans are ok?

Are you suggesting that people in developing countries all need to be told to wash their hands? It really is buying into the idea that the west is the civilised saviour of these people rather than the truth. That encourages the idea that people in developing countries are all backwards and inferior. The same discriminatory ideas that have been used for hundreds of years to justify their exploitation. Racism isn't an idea, it's a justification that serves to make their "underdeveloped economies" look natural rather than created by us. IMO

@MiniTheMinx - thank you so much for your post. You are clearly very passionate and knowledgeable about this issue and I want to get a fuller understanding of it.

Do you have examples of countries where aid has been offered with strings attached? Also, countries where aid hasn't been offered because the recipient government felt the cost outweighed the benefit?

Do you think the IF Campaign aim of securing greater corporate transparency would address some of these issues?

And also, presumably greater transparency in our OWN government of how aid is distributed and on what terms?

@MiniTheMinx - xpost.

No! Not suggesting people in developing countries all need to be told to wash their hands at all. That was one small anecdote from a trip to a very rural part of northern Uganda where basic hygiene and sanitation education was making a difference.

But there's obviously more to it than that.

I agree with you that developing countries have been exploited for years and that a lot of the problems they are facing have been caused by the actions of developed country governments and businesses.

However, the point of all this (i.e. the IF Campaign) is what can be done about it now? In particular, what can the UK government, and the G8, do to help end hunger, and how can we get them to do it?

@shoofly - trivial is good. I like trivial at 10.50pm

You're the second person to recommend Blakes - I will have to mention this to the people organising my life at the G8.

I'm going to sign off now and head for bed. Will be back in the morning to check in.

G'night all :)

Hey Bicnod (I know yer real name, ner ner ner ner ner...)

What I'd like to know is why countries like the UK are not self-sufficient in the food department. We have tons of unproductive farmland laid to fallow. Don't we need to start ditching the idea of global trade in food?? Why are our green beans grown in Kenya? Why shouldn't they grow and keep their own, rather than air-freighting it to Waitrose (much as I like it), which also contributes to climate change (which affects less developed countries more than western countries)? Food miles and self-sufficiency is where it's at...

Good luck at the G8, you'll be great, looking 4wd to hearing all about it over a builder's next week xx

Off the top of my head, The U.S have invaded Haiti 4 or 5 times. The last time they invaded the U.N security forces introduced cholera. It killed thousands of people. They didn't die because they don't have good hygiene! They slaughtered all the livestock belonging to small farmers and confiscated their land. Imposed free market reforms and gave aid money that was channelled into the coffers of "American" multinationals.

Most U.S aid commits the recipient nation to buy U.S goods at U.S market prices, incl military spending.........In keeping with its commitment to capitalism the U.S government does not grant assistance to state-owned enterprises in third world nations, only to the private sector.....Most foreign aid never reaches the needy segments. A lot of it is used to subsidize cash crops exports (keep food cheap for us) at the expense of small farmers who can not compete or forced off the land. This has two effects, unemployed workers compete for work cutting wages, hungry previously self sufficient people must now buy food.

Aid is a powerful political tool because it is withheld when poorer nations dare to make social democratic changes that disrupt the flow of money to corporations and wealthy individuals. Any country that pursues reforms that benefit the poor are cut off from aid. Chile is a perfect example of this.

The world bank is a big problem too.

I kind of feel uncomfortable with the idea that for over 200 years we have exploited the third world but now we are invited to see ourselves as saviours.

Jeans are great. Sleep well. Can't wait to read some of the up dates.

Just wanted to say good luck, its great that you are doing this. We need more voices of the people, advocates of the unheard.

I really think that tax havens and corruption would be the thing I would like spoken up about. It is just criminal that the wealthy are able to avoid paying into society, leaving the poor without basics for life.

Women's education is so important in all this I think. Women seem so often to be passengers, without a voice, subject to the whims of the powerful. Criminal that their education is seen as less than vital.

the people organising my life at the G8

Oooh get you - you have people now!

Kenya? I did my medical elective there in a wee rural hospital in Meru district. We basically staffed the A+E overnight. It was terrifying (but I haven't been scared like it since in 12+ years of working in the NHS ). I have since had a nosy in a couple of Zimbabwean public hospitals which seemed a bit better (all relative of course). Obviously none of the white people would go there - they can afford the nice clean private ones. Some things never change in Africa I think.

Morning! Mine of info on here.
Just wanted to comment on the Malaria film Richard Curtis did (for Comic Relief?) Well, sat badly with me and my NGO friends here - all Africa needs is kindly American/British folk to fund malaria projects??! And Africans mere passive recipients to be "done to" as ever?!
To be honest, i was appalled.

Aid efforts will go nowhere if local people's skills/knowledge is not harnessed and developed to mainstream and sustain initiatives.

Very best of luck Bicnod! You will be brilliant. I will be thinking of you and reading all your updates.

I have nothing constructive to contribute apart from the practical matter that when I try and access this thread (to read the constructive contributions) through the iPad/iPhone app I get chucked out of mumsnet every time. Doesn't happen with any other thread. I guess this must be happening for other users too - is it something Tech can sort out? sorry if it has been mentioned upthread and I've missed it...

Morning

Hmmmm. My head is buzzing. I woke up very early thinking about climate finance... something we haven't talked about on the thread yet but I think is really important.

Anyhoo... need to go and spend some time with my boys but will be back later to read and respond.

@Zulu - I literally have no idea what I'll be doing over the weekend. IF Campaign dudes are organising everything.

All I know is I arrive late Sunday night and have to be up to leave hotel 6am Monday at least DS2 means I'm used to getting bugger all sleep

@Salbertina - totally agree about the angle of the Mary and Martha film, it was very swoop in and save.

It was the numbers I found staggering. I knew malaria was a huge issue but I hadn't realised quite how big until I saw that film.

I've been tweeted ! . A first for Liger!

Good luck Bicnod! I'm now typing from a field as am camping, so my input will be limited until tomorrow pm, but I'll sneak a peak every now and then x

Right then, I'm back. DC off to shops with DH so I've got some time.

Will read back up the thread and respond to peeps.

Thanks to everyone who has posted so far - it's getting close now, I fly tomorrow night (eek!)

@leenypies - hello my lovely - and yes to a cuppa next week. Assuming I'm still here, of course, and haven't imploded into a mess of jellified anxiety.

Interesting point about UK self-sufficiency. Article http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/8021327/Britain-least-self-sufficient-in-food-since-1968.html here which suggests a lot of UK farmers have been put out of business due to supermarkets paying so little for their produce and UK consumers wanting the cheapest possible prices.

I can't see a Tory government, or realistically any government, forcing supermarkets to pay more than the market value for food produced in the UK.

Hmmmm. I don't know much about this at all - interesting topic though.

Anyone else got any thoughts? Also, how would increased UK self-sufficiency impact on poor people living in the developing countries we trade with?