Here is my concern.. The G8 and G20 summits are supposed to enable Canada to pursue a foreign and economic policy agenda to help shape global developments on a wide range of issues. This includes responses to global crisis. These summits, hosted by Canada in 2010, issued over 2 billion dollars of our taxpayers hard earned coin to fund such an event. The first issue being, with so much money being spent to fund such informal discussion, most of which are never resolved, why would citizens want their money being wasted when such topics aren't publicly disclosed in the first place? As taxpayers we should have the right to know what is on the agenda for these meetings and what they intend to do about the issues. What will be taking place? And how they intend to make the change. The second issue, is that some other powerful countries such as China, Brazil, Turkey and a handful of others not included, are being told that they are not likeminded with the western countries, thus being systematically excluded. Though at the same time, they are being told to help bail these countries out of their self inflicted economic crisis. We cannot possibly expect the summitry to be successful if other countries are overtly kept out of discussions that are directly related to their regions of the world.
I agree with you Erika. The G20 and G8 summits are supposed to be a way for the countries to figure the big issues out, but we, the public, never even learn what exactly is being discussed.
The idea behind these summits is great! For countries to be able to discuss global issues and come up with a solution together is something we need. The problem arises when countries are excluded because, as Erika mentioned, they aren’t likeminded with the western countries. Some of the main issues involve these countries and therefore their exclusion makes the whole event rather pointless. Full disclosure is also needed for the system to work properly. The public needs to understand what’s being discussed and they need to be able to voice their own opinions, rather than just providing the funding. When hearing about the G8 and G20 summits people seem to focus on the protests and riots. No one seems to realize that these are all reactions to the bigger problem. Without full disclosure we can never fully understand what exactly is being talked about and how exactly any of this is benefitting our world.
Here is my weekly post:
ReplyDeleteHere is my concern..
The G8 and G20 summits are supposed to enable Canada to pursue a foreign and economic policy agenda to help shape global developments on a wide range of issues. This includes responses to global crisis.
These summits, hosted by Canada in 2010, issued over 2 billion dollars of our taxpayers hard earned coin to fund such an event. The first issue being, with so much money being spent to fund such informal discussion, most of which are never resolved, why would citizens want their money being wasted when such topics aren't publicly disclosed in the first place? As taxpayers we should have the right to know what is on the agenda for these meetings and what they intend to do about the issues. What will be taking place? And how they intend to make the change.
The second issue, is that some other powerful countries such as China, Brazil, Turkey and a handful of others not included, are being told that they are not likeminded with the western countries, thus being systematically excluded. Though at the same time, they are being told to help bail these countries out of their self inflicted economic crisis.
We cannot possibly expect the summitry to be successful if other countries are overtly kept out of discussions that are directly related to their regions of the world.
http://www.globalissues.org/article/720/g8-summits-empty-promises-each-year
I agree with you Erika. The G20 and G8 summits are supposed to be a way for the countries to figure the big issues out, but we, the public, never even learn what exactly is being discussed.
ReplyDeleteThis is my weekly post:
ReplyDeleteThe idea behind these summits is great! For countries to be able to discuss global issues and come up with a solution together is something we need. The problem arises when countries are excluded because, as Erika mentioned, they aren’t likeminded with the western countries. Some of the main issues involve these countries and therefore their exclusion makes the whole event rather pointless. Full disclosure is also needed for the system to work properly. The public needs to understand what’s being discussed and they need to be able to voice their own opinions, rather than just providing the funding. When hearing about the G8 and G20 summits people seem to focus on the protests and riots. No one seems to realize that these are all reactions to the bigger problem. Without full disclosure we can never fully understand what exactly is being talked about and how exactly any of this is benefitting our world.
http://www.g20breakdown.com/g20-background/3reasonsprotestg20/
Delete