SUMMIT ARCHIVE
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[United States]
September 12, 2002
"Colin Powell will be booed at an international conference for criticizing Mugabe, who’s starving his people," writes James Lilek on 11 September 2002 in a message to himself on 11 September 2001.
"Trust me: 9/11 will drive the collectivists, the fascists, the Luddites, the whole cotillion of idiotarians into a big soggy box, and from this box a great and ineffectual wail shall sound every day. It will dissuade the US not a whit. Great clarity will come from 9/11, and those who persist in seeing the US as the globe’s greatest malefactor will rant themselves into corners."
It was strangely restful sitting at the very back of the summit's final plenary.
First, we heard from a long list of countries who wished to express reservations of one kind or another about the proposed agreements. There were three types of list. From some developing countries, passionate cries that the summit could and should have done more. From, the United States a long list of items it didn't really agree with, delivered at breakneck speed, and greeted by more boos. And from a middle group, small, but detailed and technical concerns.
Then a long, long, long adjournment, while horse trading continued to arrive at a political declaration anodyne enough that everyone could agree to it. At last, the meeting was called back to order, and then the plan of implementation was adopted without argument and at great speed.
But still the summit refused to die. For another cruel hour – speakers thanked the South Africans, civil society and each other, while speculating about how happy we will all feel if the summit's fine commitments are somehow achieved.
No-one, of course, thanked the media (why would they?) – and as the delegates celebrate and the NGOs commiserate, we wait for one last press conference with Thabo Mbeki…
The day so far. "Thanks President Bush for making the US so unpopular," reads the scrawl on an American flag erected by US NGOs outside the press conference room here in Sandton.
Indeed, this has been a horrible day for the world's only superpower. Last night, the US suffered a serious setback on corporate responsibility (see here, confirmed by Daily Summit here) and one that seems to raise questions about the competence of its negotiators.
This morning, meanwhile, its Secretary of State was heckled throughout his speech to the summit, mostly by his fellow countrymen (see here).
Daily Summit made the trip beyond the Sandton perimeter to where the US delegation has its press office, expecting some reaction from them on recent events. Courteously received as always, your correspondent came away empty handed. Not for the first time, this nation of great communicators had nothing to say...
Daily Summit has finally found out that protestors, who were mostly from American NGOs, were chanting "Down with Bush" during Secretary of State Powell's speech earlier today.
Secretary of State Colin Powell was treated in a shameful manner, as he was heckled and booed at numerous points in plenary during his ten minute speech at the World Summit today. Secretary Powell's speech was remarkably uncompromimsing however as he delivered a series of messages the US knows the world doesn't want to hear.
Mr Powell strongly supported the US position on genetically modified crops, Zimbabwe, renewable energy, climate change, trade as a means to development, and private sector involvement in the provision of public services.
Protestors were bundled from the chamber as Mr Powell spoke and Minister Zuma demanded an end to "unacceptable" behaviour.
His voice husky, and looking shaken, Mr Powell said his African ancestors would have understood what he was doing in Johannesburg.
Much of his audience certainly did not however, and it is now abundantly clear why it would have been impossible for President Bush to have attended this summit.
Daily Summit will bring you reaction to this extraordinary speech as the day continues.
Tech Central Station have an interesting poll live right now. "Do you feel the U.S. is playing a big enough role in helping out developing nations?" it asks.
You can vote here. Thanks to Matt for pointing this out.
Prize for worst press conference of the week goes to the WTO and the World Bank, for this evening's farcical affair...
More on that later, but the media room is now buzzing as the US attempts to reverse the decision on corporate responsibility! It really ain't over till it's over!
George Bush has been busy fund-raising, while the rest of the world's leaders are here in Joburg. The President has raised $110 million this year, according to the Washington Post.
"Americans are as moved by people living in desperate poverty as anyone else. It's got nothing to do with them being against poor people.
"They just don't want to waste taxpayer's money on corrupt regimes, countries with no capacity, or those UN agencies that are notorious for spending money with no controls."
Is this the best you can do? Daily Summit promised to stop going on about the US's abject failure to tell its story at the summit (here, here, here, and here).
Unrepentant, however, we return to the subject, provoked beyond endurance by the American media's craven coverage of today's press conference.
"America fights back," the papers announce in unison (here, here and here).
We're supposed to be impressed that the government of the world's richest country can hold a press conference?
Read my lips, guys: YOU'RE NOT GETTING YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS.
With old media this pusillanimous (and worse, boring), I can see why you had to invent the new stuff...
Daily Summit has been giving the Americans a hard time over the inability of the richest, most powerful country in the world to run even an adequate press operation (see here, here and here).
We think we've made our point and we're going to stop now (after all they did have two events for the press today). But we're going to make two last points.
First, around 35 journalists were at the briefing (though many, many more were at the press conference, covered below). This represents less than 1% of the journalists accredited to the summit and Daily Summit was amazed when the delegation expressed satisfaction with the attendance.
Second - we've found a rather surprising ally in this campaign: Andrew Natsios, head of USAID, the US development agency.
"The United States has provided enormous leadership in the past few years and also in the Clinton years," he said today. "The President's Millennium Challenge Account is a revolution in the way aid is dispersed. It's disgusting we haven't received more credit."
So what's gone wrong? Daily Summit asked Mr Natsios.
"We’re not telling our story," he admitted. "Our programmes are among the best in the world. Now, the President has injected 50% more money, but no-one is talking about it. We've spent $275 million since January rebuilding Afghanistan, but no-one knows about it."
Economist Jeff Sachs boosted his summit profile when he became the first individual to hold a press conference in the main press room here in Sandton.
Daily Summit had to pass up on that one - but fortunately your correspondent caught up with Professor Sachs when he turned up later in the day to pour scorn on the United States's first major press conference of the summit.
Security was tight, as Under Secretary of State, Paula Dobriansky attempted to stand up President Bush's promise that the US delegation would arrive in Joburg with "concrete and practical proposals."
The US motto for the summit is "words are good; actions better," Ms Dobriansky told us.
"What action?" was Professor Sach's reaction afterwards. "If everyone in the rich world gave $10 a year - that would be $10 billion. With that, we could tackle the AIDS epidemic. We can afford that. We don't need to plead poverty - we have a $10 trillion a year economy. We have chosen not to recognise that $10 could make a difference and the lack of that causes death on this administration's watch."
Daily Summit sent the ex-Harvard economist into hyperdrive when it asked whether that quantity of money could be effectively spent.
"Polio eradication, river blindness, leprosy - every time there's an injection of money we get tremendous results," he said. "This isn't pie in the sky. This isn't some crazy adventure. This is systematic."
In Malawi, he told us, the government created a scientifically-based plan for scaling up AIDS interventions - so that, in 5 years, 100,000 people could be put on anti-retroviral therapy.
"What did the donors tell them? No way, we're giving you that much. They received a letter back from the Global Fund that said 'this is a technically sound proposal, but it is too big.'"
"Malawi was talked down to treating just 25,000 people after 5 years. I have stood in a hospital in Malawi, where people are dying on one side of the corridor, being treated as outpatients on the other - all because they can afford to pay a dollar a day for treatment."
"I want accountability from the rich world. I want it to match action with its promises, its spin and its rhetoric. There's one thing I understand as an economist - real change will need money."
Daily Summit is feeling rather mean after receiving a charming little email from the US press office (catch-up here, here and here).
Tomorrow, there will be two briefings. Off the record, we'll hear about US leadership on health. While on the record - and, drum roll, in the main media centre - they'll be talking about US commitment to partnerships.
And there's a time for both. One o'clock for the former. Two o'clock for the latter.
"Invisible" US press conferences - the plot thins, and thickens (previous episodes here and here).
A few moments ago the American press office was on the phone to say information about press briefings was now on the web and tomorrow's press conference had been confirmed.
Daily Summit rushed excitedly to the site. Only one problem, though. We have a subject for tomorrow. We have a venue. But the "notification" doesn't give a time.
Still its progress. One could always wait around all day...
The US is taking a bashing here in Joburg for its position on water and sanitation - as Daily Summit explained in (possibly tedious) detail earlier…
But, wait! It has a response - called the Water for Poor Initiative, a "signature action" which will, inter alia, "propose grant funding of up to $450 million over the next three years for water supply, sanitation and health projects."
There's only one problem. Daily Summit has received reports from a pretty good (i.e. non-NGO) source that none of this $450 million is new money - but represents existing commitments, neatly repackaged.
Your correspondent has asked the US press office for clarification and is sitting here holding its breath…
The Daily Summit continues its brave battle to represent US opinion on key issues - which is a good thing, because the US delegation is make a total hash of this job.
Yesterday, we recounted our bizarre journey to their press office, where we discovered that they were holding press briefings, just not telling many journalists about them (see "One gets the impression the US doesn't like playing with the other children.")
Today, we contacted them again. Guess what! Another "invisible" briefing - this time on energy - was held today at 1 pm.
There are plans to set up a website, the press officer told me, so that we journalists can find out what's going on.
OK. Deep breath. Four questions: (1) Will the website be ready before the summit ends? (2) Why, at 7pm, do you not yet have details of tomorrow's briefing? (3) Will you keep Daily Summit informed now you've been given our email twice? (4) And when do you plan to start advertising press conferences in the media centre where a thousand or so journalists are milling around at any one time?
Yesterday, Daily Summit reported controversy on the US position on two issues (here and here) - here, at long last, is our current understanding of the US position (see here, for how we found this out).
On agricultural subsidies, the US claims that its Farm Bill was intended to reduce subsidies, not increase subsidies (as has been reported across the world).
The bill, it says, replaces an older provision, which had been supplemented by a host of emergency provisions. As a result, the total amount of money on the table has fallen slowly.
This explanation provoked hoots of derision among many Daily Summit contacts, but - lo and behold - it's true.
An expert we talked to, however, pointed out that there were still major problems with this US legislation (and with the EU subsidy regime, too).
Most important are so-called "anti-cyclical subsidies" - which only kick in as market prices fall. American farmers therefore have no incentive to respond to demand. The result: over-production which leads to further suppression of prices - and possibly "dumping" of cheap food on developing country markets.
The second issue concerns support for a proposal to "achieve" access to the markets of rich and richer developing country markets for products from the poorest countries.
The US says it is a leader in helping poor countries get richer through trade - especially through its Alcoa 2 initiative, which targets African countries.
The point remains, however, that this is another area where the US delegation is - for the moment, at least - resisting firm targets for implementation, as is shown by its suggestion that a promise to "achieve" the goal be replaced by efforts to "take steps towards" it.
The Washington Post reports US efforts to persuade other delegates that targets are not the way to go.
"I don't know of a goal that has protected a child from a waterborne disease or provided energy to a village," the delegation told reporters in a (poorly-publicised) background briefing. "Goals do not by themselves bring about change or results."
Daily Summit's trip to the US press office (described here) did yield some interesting information, but the issues are complicated and will have to wait till tomorrow. Also coming soon: the lowdown on corporate responsibility, corruption and the World Bank, marching with the free marketeers, and the launch of the WaterDome… oh, and the nasty things campaigners say about each other!
One often gets the impression that the US doesn't like playing with the other children.
Following Daily Summit's earlier post, your correspondent doggedly set out to track down the US point of view on agriculture subsidies. Earlier today, we had noticed a small unobtrusive sign in the window of Sandton Library. "US press centre, first floor," it said.
Now the library isn't far from the summit's media centre - but it seems like a world away.
I'm writing this from the Bullpen - a vast hangar-like space at the back of the convention centre. Even now, at 7.00, there are still hundreds of journalists around and a buzz of activity.
The library, by contrast, is very, very quiet. I climbed the stairs to find a little office, staffed by some helpful press officers, who handed me a press pack that gives "War and Peace" a run for it money.
The US, it turns out, has a position on everything Daily Summit has been covering. It also has press conferences, it doesn't hold them in the media centre or tell anyone (apart from, presumably, the US domestic press) when and where they're happening.
Why?
The truth is that, 4 days into the negotiation, it doesn’t know how. A few minutes ago, I was standing by the media centre's information desk when a young American press officer strode up.
"Is there any system," he asked, "for distributing our press releases to journalists?"
"Of course," replied the assistant, "you take them to the press documents centre and we put them out with all the other delegations' information."
"And while you're here," she continued, "perhaps you could give us a telephone number. It would be helpful if we were able to tell journalists where they can find you."
The worst outcome from the summit, according to Tech Central Station, would a World Environment Organisations (discussed here a few days ago).
"Modelled after the World Trade Organization," it writes, "a WEO would be a multilateral body designed to settle disputes among nations over environmental concerns arising from economic growth and commercial activities."
Daily Summit can confirm that Tech Central should not worry too much. There is no chance of the WEO being discussed, let along agreed, here at the summit.
It is possible that a leader (best bet: Jacques Chirac) may mention it in his speech, but WEO-supporters must content themselves for lobbying for change within existing global institutions.
For example, UNEP, a delegate tells me, may be put on a more secure footing and strengthened. Exactly what that means, time will tell…
Voice of Americasays officials made little progress in Saturday's negotiations - poverty and agricultural subsidies are said to be at the heart of disagreements...
"President Bush has been fully engaged and committed now for months to the summit," John Turner, the U.S. assistant secretary for international environmental affairs, has told Reuters today.
"But there is a need now for his leadership in the U.S. on security, international and domestic, and on the economy. He's really focused on those two issues,"
Over at Tech Central Station, Nick Schulz files a piece before boarding a plane for Joburg.
He's sceptical about the chances of Kyoto ratification without the US's involvement. However, the Europeans here seem pretty confident that ratification will eventually happen (though only six months ago they were hoping it would happen before the summit started).
Nick is also fretting about a World Environment Organisation (for him, the worst thing that could happen at the summit). Daily Summit had heard that this proposal wasn't seriously on the agenda, but we've scribbled a note to check it out...
Colin Powell is being punished by being sent to the summit – according to Jim Lobe, writing in AlterNet about divisions within the US administration on the war against Iraq.
On the same day as the White House announced that the dove-ish Powell was being sent to the summit (“the administration equivalent of Siberia”), Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice were all summoned to the Bush ranch in Crawford, Texas.
Some republican commentators are reported to believe that Powell is at the centre of an “axis of appeasement.”
"Colin Powell is an impressive man. He is loyally assisted by the able (Deputy Secretary of State) Richard Armitage. They are entitled to their foreign policy views,” wrote Bill Kristol in the Weekly Standard. “But they will soon have to decide whom they wish to serve -- the president, or his opponents."
The United States says defensiveness is its main strategy, according to this Reuters story.
David Steven |
03:13 PM | |
August 21, 2002
"Where freedom meets markets," is the motto of Tech Central Station - and their Enviro-Sci pages are giving the summit heavy coverage.
Key TCS tenets: be wary of the science ("when we get near these worldwide gatherings, there isn't a piece of U.N. science that isn't political"); poverty causes environmental destruction not wealth ("economic growth is the foundation stone on which a clean, healthy environment must be built"); and a state-led version of sustainable development risks choking the entrepreneurial energy needed to achieve growth ("dynamism - the result of policies that encourage economic growth - will literally and figuratively enrich the planet").
The US and the rest, part 2. "The respect Americans once accorded to Europeans' culture, wisdom and manners has not just disappeared, it has turned into an aggressive contempt," writes John Lloyd in the FT (subscription required). "The US, at least at the elite level, and perhaps more widely, has become seized by the idea that we Europeans are weak, whingeing and hopeless; ungrateful, mean and ignorant; guilty, cynical and exhausted. And anti-semitic. Especially anti-semitic."
Another (see yesterday's post) interesting primer on what may be Joburg's key faultline - the relationships between the United States and the rest. Next up, Daily Summit will try and bring you something on how things look from the other side of the Atlantic.
David Steven |
03:56 PM | |
August 16, 2002
Bush Watch Latest - Apparently President Bush has decided he will not go to the summit because he is planning a major trip to Africa next year. So, the word is he'll be on the ranch in Texas, poring over an atlas. Which is nice.x
David Steven |
11:26 PM | |
A row between the US and the rest, is one possible summit outcome.
A recent New York Times review of Joseph Nye's latest book is a good primer on the anti-US position.
"The US is quite literally its own worst enemy," writes Tony Judt. "It is when pandering to domestic constituencies that American presidents most often alienate foreign opinion. Bombastic rhetoric and unilateralist posturing go down well at home and may even intimidate foreign foes (though this seems uncertain). But they surely terrify and estrange a third constituency, America's many friends and admirers abroad."
"The livestock operations that surround my Midwest town, Hudson, Michigan, still call themselves farms," she writes. "Most are dairies, and they're all huge, all built within the last few years. In the language of law, they're Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) with a thousand plus Animal Units - that is, seven hundred or more confined cows-and open-air waste pits that hold millions of gallons of liquefied feces and urine. Like the hog CAFOs in North Carolina, Missouri, and Washington and chicken operations all over the place, they're the largest constructions on the new rural landscape: animal factories that from the air resemble airplane hangars."
These farms are major pollutors and hooked on subsidies. But they're also shielded from criticism, Kauffman believes.
"Americans have rarely questioned the moral and essential claim of agriculture, to do whatever it wants because it must or face ruin. The myth of the farm, envisioned in the clip art farm, holds powerful sway, as if the goodness of a creative God and all his righteousness had been shifted to human farmer hands. Who are we to question Agriculture, which plants and grows our daily bread, feeds creatures to be our meat?"
David Steven |
07:11 PM | |
Getting better? Getting worse? Part 6.Colin Powell thinks things are getting better.
"A decade ago, at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio, some 172 countries adopted a blueprint to achieve sustainable development worldwide," he said last month. "While there have been ups and downs and progress has been uneven, we have seen real improvements since Rio. For example, over the past decade, the proportion of people in developing countries struggling to make ends meet on less than one dollar a day has dropped from 29 percent to 24 percent. Not nearly enough, but it's a beginning. It's a start. Infant mortality has declined by more than 10 percent, and mortality among children under five is nearly 20 percent lower...
"We have also seen the conclusion and implementation since Rio of important environmental agreements, such as those to reduce substances harmful to the air we breathe and to control the spread of deserts. But while we have progressed along the road to hope, we have far to go in a world where one person in five still suffers in extreme poverty, and where a baby's chances of surviving to adulthood still depend on the accident of where he or she is born."
According to Powell, economic liberalization is an essential element to sustainable development. "Countries that have opened their economies have done better than those who have remained closed," he says. "It's as simple as that."
David Steven |
10:13 AM | |
August 13, 2002
Leonard di Caprio wants Bush to go the summit,urging the President to "look towards the future," especially as the US is the world's greatest polluter.
Steve Sawyer, climate policy advisor, feels some sympathy for the president.
"He'll be pilloried if he does come and pilloried if he doesn't," he says.
Daily Summit sticks to its prediction that Bush will be at the summit - even if only for a couple of hours.
David Steven |
11:00 AM | |
A fax to President Bush reaches the Daily Summit, applauding his decision not to attend the summit and urging him not to give into pressure from “so-called environmental groups” to change his mind.
The summit “will provide a global media stage for many of the most irresponsible and destructive elements involved in critical international economic and environmental issues. Your presence would only help to publicize and make more credible their various anti-freedom, anti-people, anti-globalization, and anti-Western agendas.”
The problems of developing countries are largely caused by “oppressive and incompetent government,” much development aid is wasted, and often serves merely to “prop up brutal, rapacious regimes”.
The best outcomes from Joburg? Progress on providing poor people with clean water and sanitation. And steps to ensure economic growth, which will in turn lead to environmental improvement.
The worst outcomes? New international treaties or international organizations, such as a World Environmental Organization.
Bush is also asked to make sure global warming is kept off the negotiating table and “out of the spotlight.”
US delegation will number 150 according to this report.
David Steven |
10:02 PM | |
August 8, 2002
Bush speculation, from UNEP head honcho, Klaus Toepfer, who thinks US commitment to the Global Environment Fund, reported earlier, is a good sign.
Apparently, Toepfer noted Bush senior only decided to go to the Rio Conference at very short notice.
I wonder whether the bookies are taking money on this?
David Steven |
09:05 PM | |
August 6, 2002
The Guardian also carries a summit scene setter by its environment correspondent, Paul Brown.
Brown takes a pop at the United States ("now seen as an international environment pariah, at least in the eyes of the green movement") and business ("many see the greater emphasis in Johannesburg on big business helping to solve the world's problems as a further erosion of the power of governments").
However, he thinks the British Prime Minister offers a sympathetic ear to environment and development lobbyists. Tony Blair "wants to switch the lights on in Africa using technologies like wind and solar power," which Brown reckons will allow an educational leap forward, while preventing the destruction of forests for fuel.
David Steven |
10:09 AM | |
August 5, 2002
Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, has explicitly tied sustainable development to the war against terrorism, saying he is dreaming of a world free from the ravages of tyranny and poverty.
Sustainable development, he argues, is a compelling moral and humanitarian issue, but it is also a security imperative.
"Poverty, environmental degradation and despair are destroyers - of people, of societies, of nations," he says. "This unholy trinity can destabilize countries, even entire regions".
The Daily Summit wonders whether the Bush presidency is behind this message. Is Colin out on a limb? Or is his position consistent with President Bush's recent commitment to increase aid spending?
Has anyone got the gen?
Update: Booknotes is asking pretty much the same question.
David Steven |
08:59 PM | |
August 4, 2002
Sachs says: "Johannesburg has come not at a time of triumph for the world community," Jeff Sachs tells Earth Times, "but at a time of continuing failure to come to grips with fundamental issues that we face."
Like many others, Sachs is quick to blame American myopia. "We were shocked when we were hit from the outside," he says, "because there is so little appreciation in the United States, among those who could make a difference, of what the real situation in the rest of the world is."
He claims that the United States has no systematic blueprint for dealing with any major global issue apart from terrorism. But he also socks it to the international organisations.
UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan does speak for the world, but he has few resources and no mandate to tackle problems on his own. The World Health Organization, meanwhile, has no clear plan of action for tackling the global health crisis. And there is a similar vacuum in the summit's other priority areas: energy, agriculture, health and biodiversity.
Sachs believes he now occupies a pivotal position in global politics. Chinese, Indian and African governments continue to call him regularly and are transferring programmes from Harvard to Columbia. He also believes there is an expectation that he can help the global system emerge from crisis.
"People are actually turning to Jeffrey Sachs at Johannesburg to be that one clear voice to untangle this mess. So how are you going to be at Johannesburg and basically say to them, 'Boys and girls, your hearts may be in the right places but your hands are not or your wallets are not. Given what has been already achieved, are we talking about starting from ground zero here or do you want them to develop a new course of action and this is what it is going to have to be?'"
David Steven |
07:53 PM | |
August 2, 2002
US Slouch?John Dernbach, Widener University law professor accuses the US of slouching towards Johannesburg in this Foreign Policy in Focus article...
David Steven |
10:33 PM | |
July 31, 2002
Will he? Won't he? The Daily Summit hears that efforts continue to persuade George Bush to show his face at the summit. However, the money is still on Colin Powell to act as Bush's substitute.
However, the Environment News Service (cheesy slogan: "we cover the earth for you") reports speculation from a National Security Council spokesperson that the insultingly junior Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, Paula Dobriansky, may be sent instead of either Bush or Powell.
David Steven |
06:39 PM | |
July 30, 2002
Bush challenged Kofi Annan's special envoy to the summit, Jan Pronk, yesterday claimed that President Bush cannot afford to miss the summit, adding that "nobody will understand if he doesn't show up" to a summit he predicts will lead to a clear plan of action and concrete commitments.
Pronk draws attention to the famine in Southern Africa currently threatening 16 million people, saying credibility will be lost of if the summit fails to commit $600 million to relief efforts. The Daily Summit hears Clare Short is banging this drum too - more details as they emerge.
David Steven |
10:32 AM | |
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