Paul wrote:
Subject: The G20 thing
Hey Orsm still loving the site mate, wasn't gonna write you about your paragraph on the G20 summit a couple of weeks ago but it's been nagging at me since I read it, mainly the "ignorance is bliss" comment and having no idea what G20 is all about and not caring, then mentioning you also have no idea why McD's and Nike stockists get trashed at each and every one of these demos (I don't condone any sort of violence at all and a lot of fuckwits do go to these rallies, it spoils any constructive statement that the anti-globalisation campaigners make), but here's a short summary that doesn't excuse the vandals but explains their gripe maybe, loads of global companies are represented at the G summit, its purpose being to extend multinational involvement into newly emerging economies but which is actually just a front for networking and back-slapping on a large scale. Some of these corporations stand accused of raping third world countries in order to keep their own costs down and their shareholders happy, screwing up entire societies and causing pollution and other environmental damage which won't take very long at all to affect us too, and the only reason they get caught out all the time is because people who care about these things investigate them, expose them and protest about them, many times risking their lives in the process.
I mean...you and I and anyone else with a computer connected to the web has the largest and most comprehensive collection of information on any subject that the world has ever known, right in front of us, look this stuff up, it doesn't take much, try to care - even just a bit - but try not to tell others that you don't care because they're more likely to think it's ok if they don't care either - you probably have more influence on people than you think.
The hippies who protested about Vietnam and who got their friends home early and the people who nagged to get Nelson Mandela released and who kept the attention of the world on what was happenning in South Africa, El Salvador, Cambodia, all over Eastern Europe, don't make things change by themselves (so lets not mention Bono or Bob Geldof, who got the piss taken right out of them at G8 last year, not a single thing agreed on because of them has been implemented, they were a smokescreen to keep campaigners quiet so that Bush would visit the summit), but they do keep the politicians on their toes to push for the changes which do eventually happen, on a personal level, in my country in my time we campaigned for and eventually got Trident nuclear submarines out of Scotland (They're on their way back courtesy of Mr Blair though, 16-25 year-olds over here are too busy watching The X Factor to even have noticed), we made Maggie Thatcher scrap her stupid poll tax ideas, and er....well, all these things were a while ago weren't they, notice that?
We're raising families now mate, we can't be chaining ourselves to trees any more cos we got to work to pay for prams and bloody nappies and have a bit of a life for ourselves! Our parents and grandparents marched to war for us and whether we agree with war or not they still did it, and they did it for their families future, it's the younger people's turn to do something now to help make the world that wee bit better but there are so many less who care than there used to be, one person standing in front of a tank doesn't work, open your eyes, cos while your life will be fine - the campaigners of the 60s, 70s and 80s made sure of it - what about your kids, and their kids, and mine?
If things continue to deteriorate at this rate they're gonna have to start again from square one...sorry if that whole thing sounded like a lecture, it really wasn't meant to be quite so much of a lengthy ramble but once I got started...so even if you only read this last sentence maybe it'll do enough.
All the things that happen at summits like G20, all of the corporations and the politicians who meet there to make deals to make money - guess whose money they want? Yours...young people spend the most money so you have the most influence on these people, use it... |
