Raised Voices

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I'm Miles Tendi. I'm Zimbabwean, I'm a student here in Oxford University. Now George Bush's proposed budget for 2005/6 amounts to $2,570 billion. 22 billion is going to foreign aid. Of that 22 billion, 35% is going to Israel alone. Israel has a population of 6 million and its land size is about the same as Swaziland. Swaziland happens to one of the smallest African countries. Now on top of that 48 African countries, with the combined population of 600 million will receive only 1 billion dollars. Amazing! Even more amazing is the fact that most Americans think that the US government spends 24% of its federal budget on foreign aid when in reality it's only 0.1% of the federal budget that goes towards aid. And I think that's the crux of the matter. There is no electoral price to pay for Western leaders when they do not enhance policies that'll push development forward in the under-developed world.

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Neoliberalism is giving us as South Africans problems because it promotes privatisation. Which basically leads to labour flexibilisation, which reduces employment and the working hours, which automatically results in poverty. And also the reduction of the State funds, especially in the social development field, is a problem. Because then we just can not afford to put more money in health and education which are the basics for mostly the previously disadvantaged communities.

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So I think the biggest problem in terms of the neoliberal agenda in South Africa today is the trend towards casualisation and the impacts that's had on unions and their membership. Because unions are finding it increasingly difficult to organise casual workers. And increasingly what we're finding is that new strategies have to be created for organising these workers and ensuring that their demands are met and that they are protected.

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Well I'm a Nigerian and I actually demand I demand that we should be left alone to develop our own democracy. Because its obvious we have not benefitted from Western type of democracy. I also demand and say no to SAP. We are tired and fed up of SAP. By SAP I mean the Structural Adjustment Programmes. Because what we have now is Structural Adjusted lives. We have all adjusted to whatever policies of the IMF, through the Structural Adjustment Programmes. People have adjusted by running away. By being immigrants. They have adjusted by being prostitutes. Children have adjusted by being street children. So really I say no to Structural Adjustment programmes because it has impacted negatively on our lives in Nigeria.

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I've been living in the UK for the past ten years and I still don't feel like I belong here. Because I'm not happy. I belong in Ethiopia. But because of the G8 I'm here where I'm not happy and I can;t go back because for me to go back I need to have clean water, school and hospitals. And freedom of choice. It's very important. So people can choose what's best for them. Because at the moment G8 foreign policies are putting barriers on Ethiopia to stand up, to develop. So it all comes down to G8 interference, at the end of the day. Personally I want to go back home because I'm not happy. And I'm sure there are a lot of people in the same situation. Like me they want to go back but because of G8 impacts on their countries they can not. They stay here unhappy. So the G8 has to let us be free.

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In Africa we demand immediate unconditional cancellation of all the illegitimate odious debts which African countries are being forced to pay back to the World Bank and the IMF. The debt's been paid many times over. And there's a direct link between the issues of AIDS and the need for debt cancellation. Because in many African countries that are heavily affected by HIV/AIDS more is being spent on repayment of this odious debt than is spent on AIDS drugs that people need to live. And also prevention programmes that people need to remain uninfected, those that are uninfected.

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Nigeria is an oil-exporting country and a number of important Western companies are involved in the oil industry in Nigeria. While it is good that they are investing in that economy, it's a bit of a problem the way they go about their business in an environmentally destructive manner. Which uses methods they wouldn't dare to use in their own home countries, to say the least. And which also imposes lots of burdens on ordinary communities in these communities where they work in, particularly in the Niger Delta.

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The G8 is saying that genetically modified food is a solution, for the food problem in Ethiopia. But I think that's complete nonsense. Because nobody wants to really eat GM food. Because even scientifically it's not proven yet that GM is alright, is as good as organic food. So if G8, I mean people in G8 countries are refusing to eat GM food, why do G8 countries think that countries like Ethiopia will eat that food? Because they don't want to eat it. They want a choice. They want their own food. Their own choice. And besides they can produce. They haven't tried enough, hard enough to exhaust what resources Ethiopia has. Because Ethiopia is not really poor. She has water resource, enough land. So this GM is not going to work. And it will be a destruction to the environment. And to people's health. To the economy. To the culture. So it's a complete destruction. GM is not the answer.