2008-04-05
The Japanese government will host some Ministerial meetings before the G8summit in Toyako in July. As a part of the meetings, the G8 DevelopmentMinisterial Meeting is planned in Tokyo on 5-6 April. Those kinds ofMeetings had been held around the same time as the IMF and the WorldBank's annual meetings before 2002. This shows that the Meeting has beenstrongly influenced by major powers and big businesses.
G8 countries and transnational companies promoted 'development' in poorcountries, but it causes various problems everywhere such as abuse ofhuman rights, illegitimate debts, and global warming. Nonetheless, theJapanese government the host country does not think seriously about thepast failures.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda set three agendas on 'development' -healthcare, water, and education - for key critical issues in WorldEconomic Forum in Davos this January, but he never referred to the IMF andthe WB's Structural Adjustment Policies which force developing countriesto cut their public services including healthcare, water, and education.Also, he ignored debt problems which have led to further poverty indeveloping countries.
Fukuda officially announced that the government would help Africancountries to set up infrastructure of roads, power networks or the like.to facilitate private investment. The announcement clearly shows that theJapanese government and G8 countries aim to end the poverty THROUGHECONOMIC GROWTH WITH INCREASED PRIVATE INVESTMENT..
This traditional way of development is based on neo-liberalism. It resultsin violating human rights for many people such as workers, farmers, orwomen, massively destroying environment, producing huge profits formultinational companies, and finally triggering large protests againstmajor powers and big corporations all over the world.
African development and climate change are presented as key agenda of theG8 Summit by the Japanese government, which is the same with TokyoInternational Conference on African Development (TICAD) IV planned inYokohama around the end of May. Issues on African development will bediscussed as a top agenda at TICAD IV. The councils have already been setup as a forum for discussion between the government and multinationalcorporations like trading or construction companies
We organize a March against the Development Ministerial Meeting in Tokyo on 5 April to express our voices, 'Enough is Enough!', which will alsoserve as a good opportunity to think about issues of the dominance of theNorth over the South again. This is part of our activities against the G8summit in Toyako in July. We ask all of you to support our action for'another world' without poverty, violence, exploitation, and environmentaldevastation.
To endorse this call to support, please email kuroudog@hotmail.co.jp BY 4APRIL MIDNIGHT JAPAN TIME
[http://media.sanpal.co.jp/no-g8/?q=node/58]