The G8 in Scotland and the problems of the poor countries dominate the agenda also in the German press. Writing in Die Welt (06/07), Matthias Kleinert writes: “ Now a common strategy needs to be developed that is not limited to pouring money or to spontaneous actions of aid. As in the rest of the world, for Africa too the rule holds good that growth is the basis of prosperity and prosperity is the premise for stability. The key to all this is the much maligned globalization. […] The decisions of the G8 at Gleneagles cannot be limited to fresh aid and to further debt cancellation. The West and the African States must reach agreement on the fact that in the end only the free circulation of capital, services and goods can bring prosperity and stability. But this is possible only if democracies founded on the rule of law are created in the developing countries and if the values associated with them are really put into practice”. A comment in the Frankfurter Rundschau (06/07) reads: “ Generally, the G8 are relaxed occasions for informal meetings between men of State. But at the G8 of Gleneagles… the participants are engaged in a serious combat to achieve a final communiqué… The reason is the pressure of public opinion, and that of their guests from China, India and from a series of developing countries, to which the Eight are exposed. The mass campaign for Africa… cannot be forgotten as easily as the uproar of a few hundred anarchists and ‘anti-capitalists’ who in Edinburgh, as at every meeting of the G8, try physically to challenge the power of the state. Moreover, the government of the nation hosting the event feels responsible for the gravity of the situation“. And the weekly Der Spiegel (04/07) notes: “ At the G8 in Scotland, the Western industrialized states wish to decide on an aid programme amounting to billions of dollars for Africa. But experience teaches that with money alone it is impossible to defeat poverty. The countries that receive most alms are those afflicted with greatest poverty”. “ It’s a paradox. The richest countries of the planet are witnessing a renewed interest in the black continent at the very time it is registering encouraging performances”, says Jean-Pierre Turquoi in Le Monde (06/07), commenting on the meeting of the G8 in progress at Gleneagles (Scotland). “ Economic activity in Africa grew by over 5% in 2004 (twice that of the European Union) and 2005 will also be a year of growth”, emphasises Turquoi, adding that “ we ought not to underestimate the efforts of African leaders to improve the governance of their countries and put into practice the rules of good government requested by the donor countries“. The commentator also points out that “ aid is not the only means of action that the Western countries have at their disposal to wrest Africa from underdevelopment“. He cites “ the opening of markets to some agricultural products, such as cotton, since as a result of EU subsidies, African farm products are not competitive“. He further adds that “ a reform of medical research in favour of Africa” is also indispensable “ as a strong gesture aimed at the eradication of certain diseases that represent a serious drain on the continent. At the present time he points out 90% of pharmaceutical research is aimed at improving the life of 10% of the world population”. The Catholic Herald (01/07) also dedicated its front page story to the fight against poverty, in view of the meeting of the G8, recalling the open letter addressed by five Christian, Islamic and Jewish leaders to Tony Blair on the eve of the Gleneagles summit. “ The letter says Dan Frank is the first occasion on which the five leaders have spoken with a single voice after their joint stance against the war in Iraq in 2003“. The paper of the diocese of Glasgow, Flourish (07/05), publishes an article with the title “ Jesus and the remission of debts“, in which Noel Donnely underlines that “ the prayer for the remission of debts comes directly from the mouth of Jesus himself, towards the end of the “Our Father”. “ Thank God he comments at the end our churches have always been supporters of the international movement for debt relief. May each of us be numbered among those who walk with a generous step towards the poor!“. “Only a few days are lacking before the tenth anniversary of the most terrible massacre that happened in Europe since the end of the Second World War”: so the Spanish daily El Paìs of 5/7 commemorates in an editorial the atrocious massacre of Srebrenica (11 July 1995), the Moslem enclave in Bosnia where the Serb militias of General Ratko Mladic killed and threw into common graves some 7,000 men aged from 14 to 70, without the Dutch UN peacekeeping forces intervening to stop the carnage. “It is a source of satisfaction for all democratically minded people says the paper -, even for the Serbs, to have seen the atrocities committed in the name of this cause on television in recent days, so that in this way they may be finally persuaded of the truth of what was committed by those wearing Serb uniforms”. Now the whole matter is in the hands of the international war crimes tribunal in The Hague. But “Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic, accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide” continue to remain at liberty. “Only once they are in prison concludes the Spanish paper will Serbs and Bosnians be able to consider this terrible event as history”.———————————————————————————————————– Sir Europa (English) N.ro assoluto : 1403 N.ro relativo : 52 Data pubblicazione : 08/07/05
