Lula: Blond Beasts Maybe Not So Bad
- March 29th, 2009
- Posted by 7thmin
The Brazilian President – Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – who has blamed the financial and economic crisis on the machinations of people with “blond hair and blue eyes†— has signed on to cooperate with the Europeans and others, at this week’s meeting of the G20 in London.
DEAL IN BRASILIA
The summit President, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the United Kingdom, has been on a lobbying trip to continental Europe, South America and the United States, to get advance agreement on what the summit might decide.
In Brasilia on Thursday (26.3.09) he saw the Brazilian, “Lulaâ€, (pictured, centre, among South American leaders with Brown), and forged a broad-ranging agreement on the benefits of international cooperation.
The text reads in part:
“The President and the Prime Minister reaffirmed their shared vision of a world free from hunger and poverty, in which the benefits of education and health are widely spread, and in which all people can live with dignity and in safety. They underlined the central importance of democracy and the rule of law, the promotion of economic growth through inclusive trade and open markets, the need to address urgently the threat posed by dangerous climate change, and the reform of international institutions to make them more legitimate, effective and representative …
“The two Leaders agreed that the depth and breadth of the current global economic crisis is affecting people and businesses in every country in the world, increasingly so in developing nations, and that the crisis is beyond the scope of any one country to resolve.
“The President and the Prime Minister agreed that countries should work together to stabilise economies, restore conditions for growth, normal credit markets and regular financial flows, avoid a retreat towards protectionism, and set a course for a sustainable, low carbon, recovery. They discussed the Brazilian and British responses to the crisis and shared the lessons learned. They agreed that protectionist policies would only serve to deepen the global recession, and re-affirmed their commitment to an early and comprehensive resolution of the Doha Development Round on the basis of the significant results achieved so far. They agreed to work together to ensure that countries abide by the commitment made in Washington to not raise new barriers to trade and investment. They called jointly for this commitment to be reaffirmed and strengthened at the London Summit.
“The President and the Prime Minister agreed that the London Summit on 2 April, which will bring together the Leaders of the world’s major economies and major international organisations, would be a vital opportunity to take the international action required …
(Statement full text, see reference below)
NOT ALL ON SIDE
Thousands of protestors in European capitals — many among them blond people with blue eyes — have begun a week of demonstrations over the impacts of the crisis, to coincide with the G20, 2-3.4.09.
Organisers of the summit report that they have been talking with leaders of the protest movement to get a co-operative balance, so the business of hosting several world leaders in London can be managed with minimum disruption.
Groups wanting to put pressure on the summit range from environmentalists pressing for urgent climate change measures, to proponents of stepped-up regulation of markets, the unemployed, and left activists confronting the management of a stumbling economic system.
The Group of 20 (G20) is made up of the leading industrial and “emerging market†countries, formed at the end of the 1990s following international financial crises of that decade; together representing 80% of world trade.
A forum to promote stability in the world economy, it usually brings together Finance Ministers and heads of the Central Banks; Heads of Government attend its summits, as at London this time.
The membership consists of 19 countries and the European Union*. Britain, France, Germany and Italy are also there among the 19 separate nations. Australia is being represented at the G20 this week by the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd.
Pictures: G20
Reference:
The London Summit (Home), “Latin America Comes on Board: Joint statement with the Brazilian Presidentâ€, 26.3.09). http://www.number10.gov.uk/Page18772,m (29.3.09)
G20-2009 (Home), http://www.g20.org/, (29.3.09).
* Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea,Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, EU.