TRNN Video: G-20 or G-192: Which is More 'Global'?

Washington, DC, July 07, 2009 --(PR.com)-- "[The] G-20 is not a legitimate organization in the sense that it does not represent the countries. It's a self-appointed group," Martin Khor, Executive Director of The South Centre, says of the G-20 meeting this past April which billed itself as the global response to the economic crisis. "And many countries that I spoke to say that 'I do not feel included in the G-20, and our views are not represented there and the decisions have nothing to do with us. So, there is a feeling of being left out, of being excluded."

As a result, the UN General Assembly organized its own Economic Crisis summit to counter the one held by the G-20 in London in April. Here, representatives from all 192 UN members were invited to come and participate, often giving terrifying testimony about how the crisis was affecting them. The President of the UN General Assembly Miguel D'Escoto-Brockmann said during his opening speech: "We have built a globalized economy. Now is our chance to create a globalized policy and ethics based on the many cultural experiences and traditions of our peoples."

Byron Blake, Special Adviser to D'Escoto-Brockmann and Ambassador to the UN from Jamaica, tells The Real News that "[t]he fundamental difference is that the G-20 sees the crisis as a crisis affecting the financial sector, and therefore their response was 'how do you fix the financial sector?'”

"This conference is making it clear that the impact is much more on the developing countries, which had nothing to do with the origin of the crisis. But they are the one picking up the real hard impacts of it," he says.

Blake also adds that it would be wrong for those in the developing world to be angry at people in the developed world. "[B]ecause the people in developed countries are also suffering. It's that all people, they should have to be angry about the system which allows that kind of thing to take place, and therefore justify the need for really changing the system fundamentally going forward."

To the idea of globalizing the diaolgue of the economic crisi, the US delegation stated during the final session of the summit that their "strong view is that the UN does not have the expertise, nor the mandate, to serve as a forum for meaningful dialogue."

In the second part of the video series, TRNN producer Jesse Freeston analyzes how the discussion of the economic crisis, and the ideas put forward in response, change when the number of invitees expand from 20 to 192.

For Press Inquiries, please contact:
Sharmini Peries
Senior Editorial Board Member
Email: sharmini@therealnews.com

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