Pope to open World Food Security summit
tomorrow - but G8 leaders won't be there
by GINA DOGGETT
ROME, Nov. 15 (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI will be among the inaugural speakers but the leaders of the world's wealthiest nations will be conspicuous by their absence as more than 60 heads of state and government gather in Rome this week for a UN summit on the plight of the planet's billion hungry.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is the only leader from the Group of Eight industrialised countries expected to attend the "Hunger Summit" from Monday through to Wednesday, at the Rome headquarters of the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FGAP)
Also expected at the summit are Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe of arrived on Saturday with an entourage of about 60. His human rights record has seen him barred from travelling to the European Union, except for international gatherings, since 2002.
Humanitarian groups warned last week that the summit could be a "waste of time", calling for the commitment of new resources to fight hunger.
"It's a tragedy that the world leaders are not going to attend the summit," said Daniel Berman of Medecins sans Frontieres.
A draft declaration already circulating ahead of the meeting is "just a rehash of old platitudes", said Francisco Sarmento, ActionAid's food rights coordinator.
Oxfam spokesman Frederic Moussea said: "Rich countries are failing to show enough interest and urgency.
"At the G8 in Italy this summer they pledged $US20 billion ($A21.7 billion) for agriculture over three years, so they believe they have done enough. They haven't - and the $US20 billion ($A21.7 billion) is a mirage," he said.
Even the Italian Catholic Church warned of a possible "flop" unless the summit produces concrete commitments.
The Italian bishops' newspaper
Avvenire lamented that
the draft final declaration makes no mention of the $US44 billion ($A47.7 billion) a year that FAO chief Jacques Diouf is seeking for agriculture in poor countries.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will prod world leaders to step up the fight against global warming as well as hunger during his stop at the summit.
"Given the close inter-relationship between food security and climate change, the secretary-general will engage world leaders to advance both agendas together," a spokeswoman said last week.
To help create a sense of urgency ahead of the summit, Diouf undertook a 24-hour fast on Saturday.
Diouf spent Friday night at FAO headquarters, sleeping on a makeshift mattress of foam blocks, the UN agency said in a statement.
"I hope that through these gestures we will raise awareness, and build pressure from public opinion," Diouf said.
"Every six seconds a child dies of hunger," Diouf said last week. "This enormous tragedy is not only a moral outrage and an economic absurdity, but also it presents a serious threat to our collective peace and security."
Agricultural production must increase 70 per cent if the world is to feed the population of nine billion by 2050, according to the FAO.
Non-governmental organisations plan a parallel forum with the slogan "People's Food Sovereignty Now!" to be attended by Diouf and Rome mayor Gianni Alemanno.
More than 400 delegates from about 70 countries will attend the forum.
On Sunday evening, the international anti-poverty agency ActionAid plans a "Stop Hunger!" vigil at Rome's Colosseum, which will be lit up for the occasion.
I believe it is a genuine scandal and a crying shame that the leaders of the world's richest nations appear to be far more concerned about global climate change - a 'cause' that continues to be questionably founded from the scientific point of view and appears to be more political hype than objective fact - and the coming Copenhagen conference about this in December, than they are about global hunger which has been growing alarmingly [see above 'fact bite'].
UN Secretary-General Ban Kim-moon, who is completely sold on the idea that there is now a 'world climate crisis' that cannot wait, has not helped matters by his apparent lack of a balanced view and a failure to prioritize the world's problems properly.
Yes, every individual and nation must do what they can - and right now - to safeguard the environment and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which could be a contributing factor to climate modification [but not as much as natural atmospheric cycles and patterns that have been observed and recorded historically].
But not with Draconian and greatly unaffordable measures that will bring immediate negative fallout on the very populations that can least afford more economic drawbacks at this time.
Meanwhile, what about the pledges made by the G8 to the FAO?
Why don't the rich liberal governments more interested in radically chic political correctness than in actual relevance - pay up for the world food fund first before spending on their various climate-change causes?
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 15/11/2009 16:30]