Calling hunger the biggest threat to world peace, African and Latin American leaders at a World Bank conference yesterday said rich countries can do more to ensure security by fighting poverty than by launching wars.
In what appeared to be a swipe at the US, though it was not named, they called on rich countries to fight terrorism and instability by sharing their wealth, rather than through military intervention.
The most basic right of all humanity, said Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is to eat three decent meals a day.
"Hunger is actually the worst weapon of mass destruction [WMD]. It claims millions of victims each year," Silva said. "There will be no peace without development and no development without social justice."
Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa argued that expanding global trade will not aid peace "when people are impoverished, hungry and angry."
"Anger will not yield to military interventions," Mkapa said.
The three-day World Bank gathering in Shanghai is focused on finding ways to make better use of the scarce resources spent on poverty relief in a world where some 2.8 billion people live on less than US$2 a day.
"We have to search for what works and what produces results," Mkapa said.
Developing nations need more debt relief, better access to world markets for their commodity exports and a larger share of resources if economic growth is to benefit all, he said.
In Tanzania, 35 percent of the population is considered poor in terms of basic needs and 19 percent food-poor. Recent plunges in coffee prices mean that "many families that had never known abject poverty now do," Mkapa said.
"Democracy and open markets are only judged by what they deliver, not what they promise," he added.
Silva reiterated calls from Brazil and other developing nations for industrialized countries to end agricultural subsidies and barriers to exports from developing nations that he said put farmers in poor countries at a disadvantage.
"We cannot allow cows to get US$2 subsidies a day while half the world survives on even less than that," he said.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶), as host of the conference, pledged more aid for other developing nations and noted China's own goal of eliminating within the next decade the poverty that still afflicts 29 million of its own people.
While urban incomes in China now average about US$1,000 a year, in the countryside incomes still average just over US$300.
Wen reiterated a recent pledge by Beijing of US$30 billion to the Asian Development Bank to help some of its poorest neighbors -- China's first donation to a multilateral institution after many years as a major borrower.
China has long provided aid to its allies and has also forgiven hundreds of millions of dollars in debt -- a strategy that has enhanced Beijing's stature as a leader among developing nations.
"Developing nations must cooperate in pushing ahead development," Wen said. "Ending poverty is an ideal shared by all humanity. All nations have a deep responsibility for this."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of