I haven’t really had time lately to read newspapers or watch news or anything like I’d like so I am not really up to date with things…
I would like to know what the deal is with this G-8 thing. What is it? What’s the deal? Why are so many people pissed off about it?
-Thanks
G-8 is the conference for the 8 leading capitalist economies in the world USA, Canada, UK, Germany, Italy, France, Japan, and (newly) Russia. They get together to get stuff done about the global economy, trade, global concerns, pending problems, etc.
Bascially, the anti-globilization fervor began in Seattle and has spread to meetings of global economic summits including the IMF, WTO, and G8. Why are they mad? Because basically, they believe that globalization is only helping the rich become richer, the poor become poorer. Also, a lot of them are anarchistic, believing that these globalization forums are means to an end of a one-world Orwellian disutopia. These anarchists aren’t too happy about powerful confederations of the world economies, and they are mad that a few countries are “flaunting” their wealth and determining the course of the world.
Yes, but what does the “G” stand for?
Globalization ??
The “G” stands for “Group”, as in “Group of Eight” (most industrialised countries).
There’s a decent and readable history piece on the G7 and G8 at the US Department of State’s Office of International Information Programs.
The thing I find appalling is that you have to ask this question. We do have news progams n television, radio, ad the internet, and there are newspapers that are supposed to be telling you about this. They aren’t, by and large. Covrage of the issues associated with World Trade has been amazingly bad, and has pretty much avoided anything approaching a discussion of the issues. Have alook at Michael Moore’s site ( http://www.michaelmoore.com ) or Indymedia (www.indymedia.com ) to get what you have not seen elsewhere, and links to further sources of information.
And when JS Princeton says:
it doesn’t really help understanding any. What I suspect motivates most people isn’t the desire to perpetuate anarchy or a vague fear of corporations or Orwellian one-world dystopias, but fear of the erosion of democracy in their own countries.