"Uppity" developing countries - a headline from Spiegel on the G-8 summit
any country that has the nerve to print this headline has no room to talk about anyone else being "uppity"...
my sympathies lie totally with the developing countries... the g8 countries most certainly DID get rich by polluting and, now that the developing countries want a piece of the pie, we try and curb their development in the name of halting pollution...
what gets obscured here is that a great deal of the "riches" of the g8 came directly from the resources of the developing countries and still do... the g8 countries consume a vastly disproportionate share of global resources, a situation that suits them just fine... calling developing countries "uppity" for daring to point that out really rubs me the wrong way, especially when spiegel attempts to justify it with this...
yes, brazil is a VERY rich country and tossing in the aside about the rich-poor gap completely understates the reality... i can't cite a specific percentage, but based on my familiarity with other latin american economies, you can be sure that well over 85% of brazil's total wealth is under the control of less than 5% of the population, and that may be underestimating the situation... talking about brazil having the 10th largest gdp in the world reminds me of the joke i read yesterday... when bill gates walks into a bar, the average income for everyone there rises 10,000%...
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Developing Countries Get Uppity Ahead of the G-8 Summit
[Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva] suggests that rich countries should pay poor countries to preserve their forests if they are so concerned about deforestation. Meanwhile China and India ask why they should have to cut their emissions when developed countries got rich by polluting.
Many experts on climate change have proposed market-oriented approaches to fighting global warming, such as emissions trading or carbon taxes. Now Brazil's president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has suggested a blindingly simple market-driven solution to deforestation -- if rich countries want poor countries to preserve their forests, they should pay them to do so.
my sympathies lie totally with the developing countries... the g8 countries most certainly DID get rich by polluting and, now that the developing countries want a piece of the pie, we try and curb their development in the name of halting pollution...
what gets obscured here is that a great deal of the "riches" of the g8 came directly from the resources of the developing countries and still do... the g8 countries consume a vastly disproportionate share of global resources, a situation that suits them just fine... calling developing countries "uppity" for daring to point that out really rubs me the wrong way, especially when spiegel attempts to justify it with this...
Lula's comments gloss over the fact that Brazil is itself a rich country -- albeit one with a high level of inequality between rich and poor citizens. According to figures from the International Monetary Fund, Brazil in 2006 had the 10th largest gross domestic product in the world, ahead of G-8 member Russia and other supposedly rich countries such as Australia, the Netherlands and Sweden.
yes, brazil is a VERY rich country and tossing in the aside about the rich-poor gap completely understates the reality... i can't cite a specific percentage, but based on my familiarity with other latin american economies, you can be sure that well over 85% of brazil's total wealth is under the control of less than 5% of the population, and that may be underestimating the situation... talking about brazil having the 10th largest gdp in the world reminds me of the joke i read yesterday... when bill gates walks into a bar, the average income for everyone there rises 10,000%...
Labels: Brazil, carbon taxes, deforestation, G8, GDP, Germany, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, pollution, Spiegel
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posted by profmarcus at
6/05/2007
