The summits of the richest countries on the planet (G-7, G-8, G-8+1, etc.) have been taking place -- as a result of the actions and protests of the anti-globalization movement -- in isolated or inaccessible places. This European spring, for instance, the chosen city was Heiligendamm, a German seaside resort on the Baltic Sea.

After the first day of meetings in Heiligendamm, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told journalists -- without even blushing -- that a conversation with George Bush had been “positive”, a conversation in which the North American president affirmed he would NEVER sign the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions. The counterproposal (also “positive”) that Bush provided was to wait until 2012 -- the date when the protocol expires -- to address the problem once again. If this is what happened with greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, a matter that has been shaking Europe and the developed world, it is not hard to imagine what actually happened during the Heiligendamm summit with the problem of poverty and infant mortality in Africa. The prime ministers and presidents from the African continent returned home -- newspapers announced -- with an important increase in the aid promises they received: nothing less than 60 billion dollars (that is to say, more than a 50% increase in the international aid that had been promised at the previous summits). Needless to say, there is a long way to go from the promise to its effective fulfillment. And so also from the fulfillment of the promises to finding a solution to the urgent problems of Africa. Because there is no point in fighting against pandemics such as AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, and other poverty diseases when, for example, the European subsidy to the international prices of certain agricultural products, which compete directly with African products, is maintained. In other words: we can help those who are ill, but if we do not stop the ill factory generated by hunger, infant malnutrition, and unemployment, we will actually be perpetuating this unequal order and allowing the genocide. Four million children die in Africa each year before they are a month old, Save the Children recently reported. There are another four million stillbirths each year “because their mothers do not have access to public healthcare.” A child dies every three seconds -- the report shoots -- of preventable diseases like pneumonia, malaria, diarrhea, and measles. Another dreadful figure that makes us clench our fists with impotence is that each vaccine against measles -- a vaccine that could save a child’s life -- only costs 30 cents of a euro, that is to say, a negligible sum for the economy of the G-8 countries. To save the life of a malaria-stricken child in Sierra Leone costs the equivalent of six euros. And to provide free healthcare for all of sub-Saharan Africa -- according to Save the Children -- would cost 1.5 billion euros a year. With that aid, every year 285,000 children would be saved. Finally, the report compiled by Save the Children makes a comparison that hits us like a reality slap and accuses -- in an unquestionable manner -- those who are most responsible for the genocide: “One thousand five hundred million euros -- the economic aid that would allow free healthcare for the entire sub-Saharan African region for a year -- is what the United States spends every 11 days on its war in Iraq.” There isn’t much left to say. The developed North could alleviate, with very little, the suffering of the most downtrodden people on the planet. It could help them get on their feet. But it does not do it. At the Heiligendamm summit, when celebrities like Bono and Bob Geldof wanted to include Africa on the agenda and obtain declarations with concrete amounts and terms, they were faced with the cold indifference of most of the presidents and prime ministers. “The thing is, some of the G-8 countries,” a diplomat declared off the record to AFP and DPA, “are tired of promises to aid Africa, and that’s why they no longer want to include it in the summit’s documents…” No comment. Every three seconds a child dies in Africa, of hunger or poverty diseases. Between bread and their mouths, water and their thirst, the gentlemen from the summits have decided to build an abyss. (www.pelotadetrapo.org.ar