[b e s ty - // u p d a t e s]

Sorry about the rather large blog post about to come your way, but finally, the Make Poverty History message within Australia is getting to government. Or, at least, the Opposition of the Government, Recently, Deputy leader of the Labor Party, Julia Gillard, recently wrote an article for Melbourne's The Age on the missed opportunity that the G20 Summit had been. A transcript of the article is below.

_______

Mr Treasurer, sadly history passed you by

The made-for-television movie, The Girl in a Cafe showed an enigmatic and beautiful young woman gain entry to a G8 summit as a result of a liaison with a shy civil servant.

At the formal dinner, immediately before being hustled out by security, she dramatically makes the point by clicking her fingers that a child dies every three seconds as a result of extreme poverty.

Click, click, click.

At Melbourne's G20 summit, our own enigmatic Tim Costello, and the Make Poverty History group, made the point that 30,000 children die each day from poverty.

His brother Peter responded by disputing the figures and suggesting the figures were inflaming protesters. But at least brother Peter did meet Bono.

So what should history really record about the Melbourne G20 summit?

The truth is the G20 meeting needed a better script. With Peter Costello in the chair, the opportunity for Australia to show leadership on key issues such as overseas aid, climate change and trade was wasted. At the same time the meeting highlighted our path towards increasing debt and higher interest rates.

Helping the world's poorest did not even make it onto the agenda. Tim Costello is right to highlight this indifference and neglect that Australia ranks 19th of the 22 OECD donors. Increasing our development assistance budget should be a priority of the Howard Government. It's a moral question and a national interest question given that our own Asia-Pacific region is lagging when it comes to reducing poverty. Treasurer Costello's claims about increased aid are hollow and incorrect because he cut aid during his first period of office.

Climate change did not make the formal agenda either. Because Treasurer Costello is at worst a global warming sceptic or at best a reluctant convert, he missed the opportunity to make climate change a central part of this event.

Treasurer Costello's comment that "this is not a meeting of environment ministers" is symptomatic of his Government's indifference and neglect of this economic question.

Australia cannot even claim a record of achievement on the hard economic questions the G20 discussed.

While the G20 called for a resumption of world trade negotiations and the success of the Doha development round, Australia's voice was diminished by the AWB scandal and our recent pursuit of bilateral trade agreements at the expense of a broader and more significant multilateral agreement that will benefit not only our own rural exporters but the world's poor.

Australia's pursuit of bilateral agreements distorts our trade situation, and we have actually seen our trade deficit increase with countries with which we conducted free trade agreements.

The failure of the Doha round and the overall failure of the Howard Government's trade policies has seen Australia notch a record 54th consecutive month of trade deficits. Despite the resources boom, we have an annual trade deficit of $14.5 billion, a current account deficit of $54.4 billion and a record foreign debt of $493 billion. While Treasurer Costello was happy to talk about the G20 and its importance in the 21st century what about the long-term implications of these numbers on Australia's future prosperity?

The G20 dialogue on global energy and the minerals markets was a useful initiative but it raises the question of whether it is enough for Australia to rely solely on its resource exports as a path to future prosperity? And the fact that attention is being placed on the supply of these key resources suggests our present boom, already one of the longest on record, is unlikely to see continuing record growth in prices. This was acknowledged by Treasurer Costello.

Although the value of our resource exports has grown strongly over the past five years, this has largely been driven by price, not by volume.

Other export sectors, such as elaborately transformed manufactured exports - the value-adding component of manufacturing, have seen the massive growth from the last Labor government slow to a trickle. Between 1983 and 1996 elaborately transformed manufactures growth averaged 12.9 per cent, but over the past five years it has averaged only 2.7 per cent and recent figures have actually gone negative. Likewise, our services exports have declined and we continue to rack up foreign debt.

The Howard Government's inability to look beyond the short-term political cycle has seen infrastructure bottlenecks and a skills shortage inhibit our export growth and damage our resources industry at a time of record tax revenue.

In other words, the negligence of Treasurer Costello will result in higher inflation and higher interest rates for Australian families.

The American financial press reported the major outcome of the G20 meeting as central banks needing to raise interest rates further to curb inflation despite a predicted slowing of world economic growth.

In the movie The Girl in the Cafe, the girl and the middle-aged public servant manage to make history at the fictional G8 meeting. Unfortunately, at the real Melbourne G20, Treasurer Costello may have made headlines, but he didn't make history. He could have and should have.

(Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/mr-treasurer-sadly-history-passed-you-by/
2006/11/30/1164777718030.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1)
__________________

So that was after the G20 Summit, on December 1st.

Today, Tim Costello, CEO of World Vision and Co-Chair of MPH Australia wrote this article, also in Melbourne's The Age.

__________

We've become a laggard in fighting world poverty

Thousands of people flocked to the Make Poverty History concert last month and hundreds of thousands watched the event in other venues across the country.

Collectively they were raising their voices to demand that Australia does more - its fair share - in striking a death blow to global poverty in our world, a grinding poverty that kills 30,000 children a day.

Today there is now emerging the first sign that their voices are being heard.

Recently, new deputy Labor leader Julia Gillard (Opinion, 1/12) said the Australian Government could and should have done more to put poverty on the agenda at the G20 summit in Melbourne.

Her leader, Kevin Rudd, has spoken about the moral obligations his Christian faith demands of him - that power should be used to protect the poor and the vulnerable at home and abroad. Yet before Rudd's ascension to leader, Labor had yet to commit to concrete efforts to tackle global poverty. The challenge now presents itself to the new Labor leadership team. It is an issue I plan to press with Rudd and Gillard in a meeting.

There is also evidence that the hundreds of thousands of people across the nation that have joined the Make Poverty History campaign are also being heard by the Coalition.

Many Coalition MPs I have spoken to have expressed their desire that Australia do more to tackle global poverty, specially when we have delivered a string of budget surpluses.

As Bono wrapped up his Australian tour he spoke to me about his bewilderment at the two Australias he had encountered. There was the new Australia: proud Australians who told him they want their country to be a leader, not a laggard in facing the great challenges of the age such as global poverty. These were the soccer mums, the kids who went to his concerts, student activists, church and development groups.

Yet he also saw an Australia that was no longer taking a leading role on these issues. Leadership on both sides of the political divide that was following rather than leading on issues such as poverty and climate change.

It is a contrast that is genuinely bewildering. Even more confusing is trying to understand the logic of those arguing against any move by Australia to boost aid and offer debt relief to the world's poorest nations.

It is argued that trade is the panacea for the poor and not aid. Even leaving aside the fact that the Doha round of the world trade talks appears to be terminally stalled, the argument is a false one. Make Poverty History is not arguing against trade but it argues for it to be effective. For the poor it must be accompanied by aid that builds bridges, roads and ports to provide market access.

We've seen in countries such as India and China that even with exceptional economic growth often the poorest do not benefit. In India, despite 11 years of stunning growth, the World Bank estimates that some 47 per cent of children are malnourished and 20 per cent still don't get to go to school.

Back in 1970 Australia and other developed countries first agreed to provide 0.7 per cent of their gross national income as aid. Today 16 of the 22 countries have now committed to reach 0.7 per cent by 2015. Australia's level of aid is 0.3 per cent now and there is still no timetable to take it to 0.5 by 2010 or 0.7 per cent by 2015.

Our contribution to the Global Fund to fight tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS is at $18 million - our fair contribution would be $60 million. Even President George Bush had taken the United States' commitment to the fund from millions to billions.

Other world leaders such as Britain's Tony Blair understand the importance of overseas aid and that you cannot win a war on terror or climate change without winning the war on poverty. As a result, he ensured that the 2005 G8 summit in Gleneagles had global poverty and the plight of Africa firmly at the top of the agenda.

With the federal election due next year, there is still hope that Australia can become smarter in its policies on poverty.

The Make Poverty History five-point plan calls for leaders to ensure the quality and volume of aid is improved, debt relief is given to those countries struggling to halve their poverty levels by 2015, trade talks are revived, greenhouse pollution is cut and corruption is tackled on our own shores as well as in developing countries.

There is no magic bullet to fighting poverty. It is only through tackling all five areas that we will make inroads.


(Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/weve-become-a-laggard-in-fighting-world-poverty/
2006/12/12/1165685676324.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1)

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There isn't any magic wand to eradicating poverty. But we do have concrete steps. 2007 will prove to be a huge year in the achievement of the MDGs, as July 7th is the half-way point for the MDGs. But we need to keep all our governments accountable, and make them keep their promises.

Just found out about the nuclear test that North Korea did today. There has been a bit of media hype here in australia about the test, and I've put an article below from the News.com.au site about the test and our PM's reaction. I must say that i didn't think that they would actually do the test (if indeed they did) but will be watching closely. The last thing we need now is another armed conflict ...

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Outrage at N Korea nuclear test
October 09, 2006 02:48pm
Article from: Font size: + -
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JOHN Howard has called for UN sanctions against North Korea, and has proposed trade and travel restrictions as world outrage grows at the Stalinist regime's announcement of a nuclear test today.

"I am advised that there is seismic confirmation that North Korea conducted a nuclear test earlier today," the Prime Minister told Parliament.

"In those circumstances I would condemn, and I would assume I would have the unanimous agreement of the House in doing so, the test in the strongest possible terms."

Mr Howard said North Korea was mistaken if it thought that a nuclear test would improve its bargaining power.

"The test has destabilised the region, it's eroded North Korea's own security," he said.

"A strong international response is called for and Australia will give full support to that response."

Mr Howard said developments with North Korea would be a significant test for the UN.


"This issue represents a great challenge to the United Nations," he said.

"If the United Nations is to come up to scratch on this issue ... it will win great respect and an enhanced reputation, but if the United Nations fails to act effectively against this outrage from North Korea it will represent a further diminution of its authority."

Chinese state TV officially condemned the test, and Japanese PM Shinzo Abe said that the test was a "grave threat" to regional stability.

A South Korean defence ministry official quoted by Yonhap news agency said the test was carried out at Hwadaeri near Kilju on North Korea's northeast coast at 10:36 am (1136 AEST).

There was no immediate official confirmation in the South of the test. But the presidential office said the state intelligence agency had detected a 3.58 magnitude seismic tremor in North Hamgyong Province, where Kilju is located.

The Stalinist state's official news agency made an announcement of the test, which was later confirmed by testing.

"Our science research section has safely and successfully conducted an underground nuclear test on October 9," said the official North Korean news agency, KCNA.

"The nuclear test was conducted by 100 per cent of our wisdom and technology," it said, claiming there was no danger of radioactive leaks.

The People's Republic of China received a 20-minute warning from North Korean officials, which was passed on to the US, Japan and South Korea "immediately," according to officials.

The test is believed to have been conducted in a horizontal tunnel.

It appeared to have been conducted in a 360-metre-high mountain northwest of its Musudanri missile base in Hwadaeri, according to Korean politician Chung Hyong-Keun.

He quoted an intelligence official as saying: "In consideration of the height of the mountain, the test appeared to have been done in a horizontal tunnel."

South Korea's intelligence agency detected a 3.58 magnitude seismic tremor at the time of the test, a foreign ministry spokesman in Seoul said.

But the US Geological Survey has said it has detected no seismic activity that might be expected from a nuclear test within the last 48 hours.

"We haven't seen any activity either seismic or otherwise within the last 48 hours on the Korean peninsula," USGS geologist Rafael Abreu said.

South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun immediately called an emergency meeting of security officals because of what the foreign ministry said was "a grave change in the situation involving the North's nuclear activity."

News of the test came as Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe landed in Seoul seeking its support for a common line against the reclusive North.

Mr Abe said Japan was yet to confirm the test, but said officials were gathering and analysing information on the situation.

The Japanese Government has announced the formation of an emergency task force, with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's "right-hand man," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki present, along with senior government officials at the PM's office.

US intelligence sources were unable to confirm the report, but South Korea's official Yonhap news agency quoted an unnamed official as citing intelligence reports saying the test may have been conducted this morning."President Roh Moo-hyun called in an emergency meeting of related ministers to discuss the North Korean nuclear issue," South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted foreign ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-Ho as saying.

"The Government has received a report that there was a tremor of 3.58 sensed from North Korea's northern Hamkyong province at 10:36am (1136 AEST)," Choo Kyu-Ho said.

North Korea has claimed it will not exercise a nuclear first strike option, but has an advanced missile programme. Questions remain about its ability to arm a missile with a nuclear warhead.

On July 5, North Korea test-fired seven missiles which fell into the sea - including a Taepodong-2 believed to be technically capable of hitting the US.

The Stalinist state has claimed to have banned the transfer of nuclear weapons and technology.

"The ... nuclear weapons will serve as reliable war deterrent for protecting the supreme interests of the state and the security of the Korean nation from the US threat of aggression and averting a new war..." it has said.

North Korea had kept the world guessing for almost 20 years about its progress towards a bomb, declaring only in February 2005 that it possessed nuclear weapons.

The US had said it would press for mandatory UN sanctions after any test, but played down the prospect of a military response - something Seoul has also ruled out.

Analysts had said a test may trigger a regional nuclear arms race and leave international non-proliferation efforts in tatters.

Source: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20548724-2,00.html

Article from the GCAP site. Let's just hope that the UN Millenium + 5 Summit doesn't fail.

Less than three weeks away from the UN World Summit, the world’s largest ever anti-poverty campaign is gravely concerned that countries including the United States are undermining the Summit outcome, and ensuring its failure.
Powerful countries set to betray hopes of millions at UN World Summit

The Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) warns that by cutting agreed wording designed to end poverty, governments are trying to edit away the future of the world’s poorest people.

The current draft of the Summit outcome declaration contains strong statements on fighting poverty. However, the United States has proposed deleting key wording on tackling global poverty and disease. The proposed US changes include cutting all references to the Millennium Development Goals - the internationally agreed targets for halving world poverty. The US also wants to cut all references to small arms controls and weaken wording on all governments’ responsibility to protect civilians in cases of mass killing such as the Rwandan genocide.

The United States is the main culprit in trying to water down the proposals, with the tacit approval of many other governments. Japan’s Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder are even threatening not to attend the crucial Summit.

If the declaration is so substantially weakened, the largest gathering of world leaders in history will result in failure.

Currently, 1.2 billion people around the globe live on less than one dollar a day and half the world's population - three billion people - live on under two dollars every day.

“The World Summit could go down in history as the meeting where the most powerful people in the world turned their backs on the poorest,” said Kumi Naidoo, chair of the Global Call to Action against Poverty. “If leaders refuse to even mention the commitments they made at the millennium summit, they will leave no doubt about their intentions towards the world’s poor.” “Importantly,” Naidoo continued, “a growing number of citizens in these rich countries are showing greater commitment to fighting global poverty than their governments, who are, in fact, betraying their citizens’ sense of a common global humanity.”

Millions of people across the world as part of the Global Call to Action against Poverty are calling on their leaders to honor their word and keep their commitments. United by the campaign’s global symbol, the white band, world leaders will be ‘woken up’ to poverty on 10 September, just before leaving for New York, by alarm bells, marches and iconic buildings wrapped with the white band.

(Source: http://www.whiteband.org/PressCenter/PressRelease/gcappressrelease.2005-08-29.1822568864/en)

millenniumdevelopmentgoals, millenniumdevelopmentgoals

Hey all,

My sympathy goes out for all the victims of the Katrina disaster.

From what I have seen here in Australia, and the images I have seen on television, I am horrified. The images that I have seen recently of New Orleans are images I would expect to see from a developing country. But, when I see these images from the United States, it makes it more terrible. Of course, no-one in this world shouyld besubject to the anarchy that can be seen at the moment in the States. But, when the richest country in the world has responded to the Katrina disaster the way it has, people start questioning the government, and that with good reason!

May God be with all those affected.

Besty

globalnews, globalnews

Hey hey all,

If you live in Australia, you have undoubtedly heard about the attempted suicide of John Brogden. If you don't live in Australia, here is a bit of background. John Brogden is the opposition leader of the Liberal Party in New South Wales, Australia. Recently, after allegations of racial and sexual remarks directed towards then Premier Bob Carr's Wife, Helena, and two journalists at a function in inner sydney, Mr Brogden quit his position as Liberal Party leader.

Last night, Mr. Brogden was found by ambulance officers and police at his electorate office, slumped over his table, with minor self inflicted stab wounds and a bottle of alcohol beside him. He was rushed to hospital, and was discharged earlier this afternoon.

Mr Brogden did the right thing in quitting as leader of the Liberal Party. He himself admitted that what he did was wrong, and that he was sincerely sorry for his actions.

After resigning, newpaper articles and front page covers damned John Brogden for his actions.

It is said that a certain journalist from the Daily Telegraph in Sydney 'taunted' Mr Brogden about his actions, and was planning to publish other allegations that had cropped up after Mr Brogden had relinquished the leadership position of the Liberal party.

Wether or not this is true, it is a sad fact tha the Media can potentially drive a public figure, such as Mr Brogden, to the point of suicide. If the media can do this, it shows how much power they really do have.

My best wishes go to Mr Brogden, his family and his colleagues.

Besty

australiannews, australiannews

Interesting article that I found in my Inbox today. Courtesy of IYPF! :)

Global Aid System Stalled as Niger's Crisis Deepened

By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service

BIRGI DANGOTCHO, Niger -- In a clearing among the millet fields of
this starving village, tiny red-earthen graves are sprouting in a
row.

Yet what perplexes village chief Issufu Ibrahim, who can count 24
mounds from the past few months alone, is not the tragedy of so many
children dying but the apparent unwillingness of anyone to help
alleviate the worst spell of hunger in local memory.

Aside from three sacks of grain that arrived from neighboring
Nigeria,
Ibrahim said, his village of 500 families has seen no evidence that a
massive international aid effort is underway.

"We always are hearing, 'They have given something, they have given
something.' But on the ground, we have not seen it yet," said
Ibrahim,
his words tumbling out in a rush of frustration. "We are crying, 'Why
are they not giving to us? Why are they not giving to us? Our
children
are dying.' "

Actually, international donors are giving to Niger -- $22.8 million
has been contributed so far to ease its food crisis -- but the help
is
arriving too late for many children here. The reasons, said aid
workers and analysts, have more to do with miscalculation and
hesitation by the international aid bureaucracy, which initially
underestimated the severity of the crisis, than with reluctance of
the
world to pitch in.

"This is not a story of donors being mean," said Paul Harvey of the
Overseas Development Institute, a research group based in London.
"This is a story of a failed system."

Although the hunger crisis was brewing for many months, it was not
until the BBC aired several dramatic reports from Niger in July that
major donations began to pour in. Moreover, officials of the U.N.
World Food Program said they initially tapped only $1.4 million from
their emergency reserves for Niger, fearing a larger commitment would
leave them unable to respond to other crises.

The U.N. food program receives more than $2 billion a year, but most
of that is restricted by donors for use in specific countries or
regions, leaving little for emergencies. Also, in most cases, the
program's revolving emergency fund can be repaid only with money
later
raised for a particular crisis. U.N. officials say they would have
borrowed more money earlier from the fund to pay for operations in
Niger had they been more confident that donors would eventually make
substantial contributions to the effort and thereby allow the fund to
be replenished.

James Morris, the program's executive director, said a series of
recent withdrawals for Niger, made after the rush of media attention,
has left the emergency fund dangerously low, at just $26 million. He
said a standing fund of several hundred million dollars was needed so
the program could more efficiently launch operations in such places
as
Niger where little-noticed food shortages suddenly become acute.

"It went virtually unnoticed for a good many months" in Niger, said
Morris, adding that last winter and spring, world attention was
focused on the humanitarian crisis caused by the tsunami in South
Asia. "People do get preoccupied by the high-profile emergencies."

Only after the BBC reports from Niger generated an international
public outcry did the World Food Program initiate a massive
distribution of free food. Now, after a month of frantic, expensive
operations including airlifts and truck caravans, the first of that
emergency food has begun arriving in the past week.

In most of Niger's hungriest areas, where a combination of drought,
locust infestation and profiteering has made food dangerously scarce,
there has been little or no relief. Babies suck on breasts that have
long gone dry. Cattle collapse from hunger. Villagers eat bitter
leaves and sour fruits they would never touch in better years.

"This emergency response came late -- very, very, very late -- if not
too late for some of the children," said Johanne Sekkenes, the top
official in Niger for Doctors Without Borders, an international
medical aid group.

Belka Garba, governor of Maradi state in south-central Niger, one of
the most severely affected areas, said there was little evidence of
the U.N. food program providing meaningful aid. "If I talk of them
helping people," he said in an interview in his office, "I would say
they have failed in the region."

The contrast between the U.N. response and that of Doctors Without
Borders, which is privately funded, is striking.

At clinics run by Doctors Without Borders in Niger, doctors saw cases
of severe malnutrition surge in January and triple by March. In
April,
the group put a $13 million plan into action that enabled it to set
up
more clinics and feeding centers and send triage teams into the
worst-hit areas. Almost all the money had been raised since the
tsunami, when the group used the huge outpouring of donations to
create an emergency fund for less visible crises.

The World Food Program, which relies almost entirely on donations
from
foreign governments, first forecast trouble in October. It made its
first appeal for aid in February: a $2.9 million request that aimed
to
feed 400,000 people. But with the tsunami still dominating world
attention, nobody responded to help Niger, a deeply impoverished
country of 11.7 million.

The first BBC television crew arrived in mid-July, and soon images of
emaciated children and dying babies were broadcast across the world.
As other media joined in, donations skyrocketed, with an average of
$1
million a day pledged between mid-July and early August.

"It's crazy," said Sekkenes, of Doctors Without Borders. "It's the
famous CNN effect, but this time it was the BBC effect."

As the spotlight turned to Niger, World Food Program officials dug
deeply into their emergency fund, directing $19.4 million to the
country. They also scolded the world's donors, saying they should
have
reacted earlier. But Harvey, the analyst in London, said that early
U.N. appeals were partly to blame, because they suggested the food
shortage was more a problem of underdevelopment than a full-fledged
crisis.

The government of Niger, in turn, has asserted that the food shortage
was merely a manifestation of chronic poverty. Last week, President
Mamadou Tandja told BBC Radio, "The people of Niger look well-fed, as
you can see." The government initially favored offering subsidized
food, fearing free handouts would undermine markets and a long-term
goal to lift Niger out of poverty.

This year, World Food Program officials said their food has reached
520,000 people in Niger through schools, work sites and clinics. They
said the delivery was accelerated as the severity of the crisis
became
clear.

But the first general emergency food distribution to villages did not
occur until Aug. 8 -- 10 months after the program first warned of
trouble.

The World Food Program's new emergency campaign is expected to feed
2.7 million people over the next several weeks, with a budget that
has
soared from $2.9 million to $57.6 million.

Officials said food will soon reach hundreds of far-flung villages
like this one, north of the city of Zinder. Meanwhile, though, the
parents of Birgi Dangotcho have continued burying their children.

Last Wednesday, year-old Fassoma Abdoulsalam died after weeks of
being
sick. She vomited; she had diarrhea; her hair turned dark orange.
These signs of chronic hunger were nothing new to her parents, who
said their six other children had died in earlier lean times.

"We heard on the radio that organizations are giving food," said her
father, Abdoulsalam Bukari, about 40, "but it's not here."

Two hours after Fassoma's death, her parents said, villagers dug a
hole in the clearing among the green millet stalks, laid her
shriveled
body inside and covered it with dirt. They placed freshly cut
branches
on top to ward off hungry animals.

About a foot away from the baby's grave is another dirt mound, then
another and another. But they are harder to see. It is rainy season
now, and the storms have already begun washing the tiny graves away.

millenniumdevelopmentgoals, millenniumdevelopmentgoals, millenniumdevelopmentgoals, millenniumdevelopmentgoals