Sun 6 Nov 2011
Can the corporations? Yes they Cannes
Posted by South Africa / Madeleine under Balkers
[5] Comments
If you reached this Balkingpoints.com article by direct external link, stop by the front page for an incredible satellite view of the earth in rotation!
I was fool enough to hope for something from the Cannes G20 summit. It’s ended now, with a whimper, and we still face worldwide economic failure. Let’s leave aside for the moment the question of whether our current economic system could ever have been expected to work. Let’s just face the fact that we have to start from we are and fight our way out from here.
For a long time it has looked to me like the people versus big business. In the democratic West, where we more or less elect our governments, it is therefore governments versus corporations. But at this year’s G20 Summit at Cannes it was hard to draw a line between the two … since the corporations sponsored the event, and the sponsor calls the tune.
The power of the corporations is growing all the time. They dominate the contemporary scene. They dominate us, the people, directly, because we buy the goods and services they offer at the prices they set. Noncorporate producers are helpless against them, because they buy on their terms. They dominate the political scene because they finance elections. In a country like the US we see it quite clearly: a politician’s chances of being elected are proportionate to the funds he can raise. We also see how the best intentions of a powerful man like Obama (who, I still wanly believe, is well-intentioned) don’t stand a chance unless the corporations approve.
Worst of all, big business hasn’t a qualm about natural resources. Where profit is the motive, who cares about the public welfare? Or the future of this fragile planet, which is the only home we have?
Our governments have failed us. But whose fault is that? We elect them. It is we, the people, who need to re-educate ourselves and revamp our entire mindset. Then we can rethink the education our kids get, the way trade and production are organised, the priorities of the world.
Question number one: how do we alter our mindset and what guidelines do we follow?
What Say You
What would balance the world’s tilted tables?
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Very well done Madeleine – welcome back.
The Google news G20 search certainly has some negative reports, such as this one from NDTV of New Delhi -
http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/g20-summit-a-greek-tragedy-and-a-grand-failure-147279
It’s a farce if not so serious: Scheduled in the posh French Riviera, sponsorships sold to corporations, a Eurocrisis agenda which gets derailed by events of the Eurocrisis (Greece), knowing world markets will dive on disarray, still ending with it.
Hard to imagine it could have gone much worse…
And I say that with faith remaining in the G20 format, of necessity really. There’s little other option but for coordinated, properly-weighted global policy. Perhaps it will eventually be geared to the interests of workers & citizenry’s first – i.e. whether trade & finance deals operate in those interests at least as well as the corporate interests. Then we may finally get more positive results from them.
I know most people in Greece feel the arrangement being foist upon them means many years of hard austerity, that seems like too much. And I don’t disagree. They are entitled to vote on it IMO.
Should another global banking meltdown occur it’s rather clear from this year’s various uprisings, that no bailout of it will be tolerated without commensurate bailouts of the disenfranchised. Whom are tens of millions, cannot presently drive consumption, and must be accounted for before sustainable growth will be had by the major Western economies.
Which could then lift the world, if G20 ran the shop right. And if we are to be connected in a global economy (and there’s no reversal of it), then we all have a right to demand that they do just that. Inclusive growth, people first. Those locked out don’t need a handout, just a job. It’s not as if there are not pressing tasks and needs left neglected in each of our nations, and myriad opportunities to be realized in conversions to green energy and new technologies.
Very simply, those who’ve prospered the most under the current global order – now essentially failing – must be prepared to give back in a very substantial way to it’s more intelligent re-ordering. So that we all might get by. It’s better for everyone, than a global depression which might endure for many years.
Would our G20 leaders ever be able to craft it? I believe the reality is that at some point, they must.
2 videos to post, about Bill Gates going to the G20 that Roy brought up in the 7 Billion balk:
And this one is a longer interview: I’ll dig up some vids for the summit itself and put those up also.
a G20 wrapup:
UK Prime Minister David Cameron caught advocating pressure on Germany:
Thanks Jeff. The Gates videos above, are bullseye for Balkingpoints.com
World’s richest person, vilified by many for his firm’s practices (Microsoft) while he ran it (anti-trust violations & other predatory practices against smaller tech firms – all searchable at Google).
But Bill I suspect was always a Progressive at heart, and he retired early to use his billions in serious (not token) philanthropy, and challenge other wealthy elites to give back in a major way as well. See the Gates Foundation link at right, on the B/P Favored blogroll.
Now he’s making this same point at G20 that we make often on Balkingpoints / that indeed is a bedrock theme of the site. Use the vast capacities man has developed up to this point in history – communication, transportation, myriad other technologies, money – and devote it in a focused way to lifting up those persons and nations with the least means.
It’s not only humanitarian, but creates millions – eventually billions – more customers for all the things the world’s industries make.
As I’ve mentioned I believe in the capacity for global trade to create bi-lateral benefits & lift living standards. It has for centuries, and we’ve seen it recently happen in parts of Asia and South America. But it has to be adeptly governed to keep tables level, protect the interests of displaced workers, and fairly ordered to reach the many instead of the few.
The global economy is not to be feared, only properly regulated. Watch Bill above, make the point that nations once impoverished and recipients of aid – like China, India and Brazil – now are not only prospering, but able to join other wealthy nations in contributing dollars & expertise to global socio-economic progress. You just need effective spokespersons like Bill, Bono, Mia Farrow, Bill Clinton and many others, to keep pressing the matter.
They did crank out an action plan, so called anyway. It is a .pdf document so you need that enabled to see it. And right below it is a good history of the G20 from Wikipedia.
http://www.g20.org/Documents2011/11/Cannes%20Action%20plan%204%20November%202011.pdf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-20_major_economies
It really looks like more months of turmoil and maybe worse recession before most economies will get fixed. They have the next one scheduled for June 2012 in Mexico. We will see if home fronts are better or worse by then. Right now they seem to be on a plan of patching things up so things can go back to business as usual. But I hope as well, that they would have to admit things are basically broken and it can’t just be about paving smooth roads for big corporations. If things aren’t any better by next June, the Occupy thing may be right in their face and forcing some acknowledgements.