It's called begging. -Bruce
http://iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3&art_id=vn20050526132347477C95 3633 Mbeki takes 'African agenda' to Washington By Peter Fabricius South African President Thabo Mbeki will meet United States President George Bush in Washington next Wednesday, mainly to lobby his support for an ambitious plan for increased aid for Africa to be discussed at the Group of Eight summit in July. The White House announced the visit late on Wednesday. Bush looked forward "to discussing their common concern for global security, conflict resolution in Africa, economic development, trade and investment, and fighting HIV/Aids in Africa", White House spokesperson Scott McClellan said. Mbeki doesn't want the summit to be 'a talk shop' Mbeki's spokesperson, Bheki Khumalo, confirmed the visit on Thursday. But he and other South African officials stressed that Mbeki's main concern would be to discuss the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, to be hosted by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Blair has promised to make Africa one of the key concerns of the summit, the other being climate change. So a major focus of the summit should be the Commission for Africa which Blair appointed and which recently published ambitious recommendations for increased aid from the G8 countries to Africa. These included a doubling and later possibly tripling of development finance, large debt relief and substantially increased access for African exports to G8 markets. These recommendations would implement much of the G8 Africa Action Plan the G8 leaders adopted at their 2002 summit in Kannanaskis, Canada, but which has only partly been implemented. Serious differences have emerged among the G8 countries over the Blair Commission's recommendations, especially its proposed international financing facility. The US has made it clear it cannot support this facility and is lukewarm about other recommendations of the commission. Japan, Germany and Italy are also opposed to much of the plan. Khumalo said that Mbeki would urge Bush to try to ensure that Gleneagles was "not just a talk shop, but emerges with a clear action plan to take the Kannanaskis Africa Action Plan forward. Mbeki himself has said he is concerned that the G8 governments should overcome their disagreements before the Gleneagles summit so it did not become a debating forum but a meeting to agree on practical steps to implement the G8 Africa Action Plan and the recommendations of the Africa commission. On trade, Mbeki and Bush are likely to discuss the stalled negotiations for a free trade area between the US and the Southern African Customs Union, of which South Africa is the major member. The talks have broken down over, among other things, US demands for labour and environmental standards to be met in producing goods for export into the US market. * This article was originally published on page 5 of The Cape Argus on May 26, 2005 The Argus Published on the Web by IOL on 2005-05-26 13:23:00 C Independent Online 2005. All rights reserved. IOL publishes this article in good faith but is not liable for any loss or damage caused by reliance on the information it contains. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> DonorsChoose. A simple way to provide underprivileged children resources often lacking in public schools. Fund a student project in NYC/NC today! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EHLuJD/.WnJAA/cUmLAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
