Talking in Rome during a food security conference, Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva complained that the leaders of the First World give little attention to world hunger and accused those countries of sabotaging the agriculture of poor nations.
While there were about 60 countries represented in what was supposed to be a summit, leaders of the United States, Great Britain and France were absent. The conference had the ambitious goal of creating a new global way to fight hunger. A target hard to hit when the main sponsors of the effort do not show up.
In his speech, at FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization), a branch of the UN, Lula lamented that the world leaders "seem to have lost their ability to get indignant at a suffering that's so far from their reality and life experience." He reminded people, however, that these same rich countries "did not hesitate to spend hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars to save bankrupt banks."
"With less than half of these expenditures it would have been possible to eradicate hunger in the world. It is as if hunger were invisible."
Lula pointed out that the US$ 20 billion that leaders of the G-8 (seven wealthier countries plus Russia) and the G-5 (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and India) pledged for fighting hunger during the July summit in L'Aquila, is far from enough.
In another front, that of the environment, the Brazilian president said he still believes that a global pact to curb CO2 is possible despite news that the United States and China have discarded the possibility of reaching an agreement when the world leaders meet in Copenhagen in December.
Lula told reporters that he not only will be there but that he believes that a concrete accord can be reached at that time.
"I'm going to Copenhagen, in the 16 and 17 of December. I have arranged with president Sarkozy, I have arranged with prime-minister Gordon Brown. I hope that they will manage to advance, at least, to adopt some basic principles so that we are able to reduce greenhouse gases," stated Lula.
Lula also revealed that he would be calling this Tuesday, American president Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao to discuss proposals against global warming:
"All of them will have to present numbers, even president Obama and president Hu Jintao. And all the others," said Lula, adding:
"If they don't present them today, they will present them tomorrow. If they don't present it tomorrow they are going to present them next month. If they don't present them next month, they are going to present them next year. But the concrete fact is that they don't have a way to escape!"
Show Comments (7)
João da Silva
[quote]Lula Calls Obama and Hu Jintao on Global Warming. He Won’t Take No for Answer [/quote]
Lula is right. He had enough of Hugo Chavez and he isn’t going to take any shit from another Hugo, regardless of the last name being JintÀƒ£o. All the Hugos are “Farinha do mesmo saco”
Ric
Needs a Translation
1. The Brazilian government sends money each month to all the municipalities in Brazil. Once elected, the mayor typically seeks to pay himself back for his campaign costs, then the normal procedure is to spend as little as possible on teachers, police, employees and infrastructure and pocket as much money as possible. Moving up thru state governments and then federal, the next logical step would be to get money, not from the Brazilian treasury but from one’s richest neighbor in the hemisphere. No big surprise here. Call it money for hunger, call it a tax on pollution, call it whatever seems most likely to work.
2. The roving TV reporter interviews a woman on the street about some local problem, like crime or high pricers. She says, Nao tem condicoes, ne? Nao da. Nao pode. And yet nothing is changed and she’s still alive next month. So hyperbole like I won’t take no for an answer, or There’s no way we can survive this way, is Brazilian overstatement. Because you will take no for an answer and you will survive and life will go on in spite of what you just said.
Deste jeito nao da, sabe?
……
[quote]The hunger is here. [/quote]
May be in your “fortified compound”, but not in “PalÀƒ¡cio do Planalto”.
João da Silva
asp
[quote]mother f**k the revolution[/quote]
Not the Glorious one of 1964. 😉 😀
Zico
Tuesday Lula Comedy
It’s truly hilarious. Lula should spend some time in Brazil. I have people ringing the buzzer at my home ( a heavily fortified compound) every night asking for food. This jackass aying that ” the big countries…” don’t care is a joke. Someone publish the stats on the amount of money the US hands out to poor countries every year; money which winds up in Swiss bank accounts.
Lula’s dumb ass needs to spend some time at home. The hunger is here.
asp
mother fuck the revolution
karl marx really meant every one will suffer equaly
any one who buys into that shit has been bullshitted
Andrade
What other solution is there?
“If they don’t present them today, they will present them tomorrow. If they don’t present it tomorrow they are going to present them next month. If they don’t present them next month, they are going to present them next year. If they don’t present them next year, they are going to present them in two years. If they don’t present them in two years, they are going to present them in three years. If they don’t present them in three years, they are going to present them when they want because I will no longer be in office and …
Like our great brothers Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Kim Jung Il, Castro, Chavez, et al, we need to seize control and kick out the opposition. Property confiscation, wealth redistribution, denied freedom and subjugation are the fabric of a new order that will provide all people their fair share of a dignified life.
Like the great Karl Marx said:
“To each according to their needs by those according to their abilities”.
Long live the Revolution!