“John Pilger isn’t celebrating victory”

On June 12, The Observer announced in a headline: “Relieved 55 billions from Africa’s debt”, “a victory for millions of people”. This last quotation is of Bob Geldof. This time, the Irish singer reaffirmed: “Tomorrow 280 million Africans will wake up without owing us any penny for the first time in their lives.” The nonsense of this would have been breathtaking if it had not been continuously repeated by Geldof, Bono, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, The Observer and company.
The African tragedy has been turned into a circus for the G-8 leaders and the ones in charge of distracting us in such show is the media of the establishment and the “celebrities”. The rebellion organized by the popstars serves to dilute anger. No significant promise by the G-8 has been kept and the “victory for millions of people” is no different. The programs imposed by the World Bank and the IMF will ensure that the “chosen” countries slip deeper; the rest is just siren chants. Geldof describes George W. Bush as “passionate and sincere” and Bono has called Blair and Brown the John and Paul of the global development stage.
Behind this mediatic front, the rich countries could plunder the resources from the poor nations with more profits for the totalitarian enterprises. It is not a conspiracy, not a secret. Debt is relieved to those countries that commit themselves to opening their economies. The rich countries exploit Africa’s wealth while the governments of the G-8 countries induce the governments of poor countries to undertake further privatization in their countries. Neocolonialism is hidden behind neoliberalism.
The current mediatic coverage of Tony Blair makes to forget his crime in Iraq without leaving aside his imperialist policy. The movement that began the Latin American groups and the French and Dutch “no” should inspire the demonstrators during the G-8 summit.