Posted on 03/26/2002 5:05:24 AM PST by TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!
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Remarks by Mr. George W. Bush at the Monterrey, Mexico
Good morning. We meet at a moment of new hope and age-old struggle, the battle against world poverty. I'm honored to be with so many distinguished leaders who are committed to this cause. I'm here today to reaffirm the commitment of the United States to bring hope and opportunity to the world's poorest people, and to call for a new compact for development defined by greater accountability for rich and poor nations, alike. I want to thank Vicente Fox, el Presidente de Mexico, and the people of Monterrey for such grand hospitality. I want to thank Kofi Annan for his steadfast leadership. And I want to thank the distinguished leaders who are here for your hospitality, as well. Many here today have devoted their lives to the fight against global poverty, and you know the stakes. We fight against poverty because hope is an answer to terror. We fight against poverty because opportunity is a fundamental right to human dignity. We fight against poverty because faith requires it and conscience demands it. And we fight against poverty with a growing conviction that major progress is within our reach. Yet, this progress will require change. For decades, the success of development aid was measured only in the resources spent, not the results achieved. Yet, pouring money into a failed status quo does little to help the poor, and can actually delay the progress of reform. We must accept a higher, more difficult, more promising call. Developed nations have a duty not only to share our wealth, but also to encourage sources that produce wealth: economic freedom, political liberty, the rule of law and human rights. The lesson of our time is clear: When nations close their markets and opportunity is horded by a privileged few, no amount -- no amount -- of development aid is ever enough. When nations respect their people, open markets, invest in better health and education, every dollar of aid, every dollar of trade revenue and domestic capital is used more effectively. We must tie greater aid to political and legal and economic reforms. And by insisting on reform, we do the work of compassion. The United States will lead by example. I have proposed a 50-percent increase in our core development assistance over the next three budget years. Eventually, this will mean a $5-billion annual increase over current levels. These new funds will go into a new Millennium Challenge Account, devoted to projects in nations that govern justly, invest in their people and encourage economic freedom. We will promote development from the bottom up, helping citizens find the tools and training and technologies to seize the opportunities of the global economy. I've asked Secretary of State Powell, Secretary of Treasury O'Neill to reach out to the world community to develop clear and concrete objective criterion for the Millennium Challenge Account. We'll apply these criterion fairly and rigorously. And to jump-start this initiative, I'll work with the United States Congress to make resources available over the 12 months for qualifying countries. Many developing nations are already working hard on the road -- and they're on the road of reform and bringing benefits to their people. The new Compact for Development will reward these nations and encourage others to follow their example. The goal of our development aid will be for nations to grow and prosper beyond the need for any aid. When nations adopt reforms, each dollar of aid attracts two dollars of private investments. When aid is linked to good policy, four times as many people are lifted out of poverty compared to old aid practices. All of us here must focus on real benefits to the poor, instead of debating arbitrary levels of inputs from the rich. We should invest in better health and build on our efforts to fight AIDS, which threatens to undermine whole societies. We should give more of our aid in the form of grants, rather than loans that can never be repaid. The work of development is much broader than development aid. The vast majority of financing for development comes not from aid, but from trade and domestic capital and foreign investment. Developing countries receive approximately $50 billion every year in aid. That is compared to foreign investment of almost $200 billion in annual earnings from exports of $2.4 trillion. So, to be serious about fighting poverty, we must be serious about expanding trade. Trade helped nations as diverse as South Korea and Chile and China to replace despair with opportunity for millions of their citizens. Trade brings new technology, new ideas and new habits, and trade brings expectations of freedom. And greater access to the markets of wealthy countries has a direct and immediate impact on the economies of developing nations. As one example, in a single year, the African Growth and Opportunity Act has increased African exports to the United States by more than 1,000 percent, generated nearly $1 billion in investment, and created thousands of jobs. Yet we have much more to do. Developing nations need greater access to markets of wealthy nations. And we must bring down the high trade barriers between developing nations, themselves. The global trade negotiations launched in Doha confront these challenges. The success of these negotiations will bring greater prosperity to rich and middle-income and poor nations alike. By one estimate, a new global trade pact could lift 300 million lives out of poverty. When trade advances, there's no question but the fact that poverty retreats. The task of development is urgent and difficult, yet the way is clear. As we plan and act, we must remember the true source of economic progress is the creativity of human beings. Nations` most vital natural resources are found in the minds and skills and enterprise of their citizens. The greatness of a society is achieved by unleashing the greatness of its people. The poor of the world need resources to meet their needs, and like all people, they deserve institutions that encourage their dreams. All people deserve governments instituted by their own consent; legal systems that spread opportunity, instead of protecting the narrow interests of a few; and the economic systems that respect their ambition and reward efforts o£ the people. Liberty and law and opportunity are the conditions for development, and they are the common hopes of mankind. The spirit of enterprise is not limited by geography or religion or history. Men and women were made for freedom, and prosperity comes as freedom triumphs. And that is why the United States of America is leading the fight for freedom from terror. We thank our friends and neighbors throughout the world for helping in this great cause. History has called us to a titanic struggle, whose stakes could not be higher because we're fighting for freedom, itself. We're pursuing great and worthy goals to make the world safer, and as we do, to make it better. We will challenge the poverty and hopelessness and lack of education and failed governments that too often allow conditions that terrorists can seize and try to turn to their advantage. Our new approach for development places responsibility on developing nations and on all nations. We must build the institutions of freedom, not subsidize the failures of the past. We must do more than just feel good about what we are doing, we must do good. By taking the side of liberty and good government, we will liberate millions from poverty's prison. We'll help defeat despair and resentment. We'll draw whole nations into an expanding circle of opportunity and enterprise. We'll gain true partners in development and add a hopeful new chapter to the history of our times. May God bless you all. Statements at the Conference Conference News |
How is America wealthy when it is trillions of dollars in debt?
Why does Bush want to INCREASE OUR national debt by giving more third world countries OUR MONEY?!
The U.N. has been calling for a "global tax" for some time as I have posted. This "sounds" like we are contributing to it.
My guess is it's simply the United States Treasury, and that we'll issue any country that wants one an ATM card to draw from it whenever they feel the need.
But then, I'm pretty cynical too.
We are sitting ducks as a country but gosh darn if we don't give our trillion bucs to the fat cats that want globalization.Don't fear China/Fidel/U.N. will 'save $$$ us' in the end...
< / cynicalisim > < / sarcasm >
If they are (did) someone please post.
Cliff Kincaid, CNSNews.comMONTERRAY, Mexico -- On the eve of President Bush's arrival at the United Nations Conference on Financing for Development, a global forum of several hundred non-governmental organizations (NGOs) has demanded a global tax on currency transactions as a means of financing increased foreign aid and "stabilizing the international financial system."
Thursday, March 21, 2002
President Bush's call for the U.S. to spend an additional $5 billion on foreign aid over the next three budget years, described by the White House as "the largest three-year increase in history," was labeled a "modest first step" by U.S.-based NGOs at the forum.
Flanked by a banner proclaiming "For the Fair Distribution of Wealth," organizers announced that the NGO "Declaration of Monterrey" also demanded the cancellation of all Third World debt, a universal minimum wage, and "progressive taxation systems" within countries. The document is designed to influence the thinking of world leaders and future U.N. conferences.
Participants in the global forum, which was financially underwritten by the Ford Foundation, could buy posters of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Latin American revolutionary who helped Cuba's Fidel Castro rise to power; copies of the Communist Manifesto; the works of Lenin and marijuana smoking devices. A 6-foot high "Peace Pole" dedicated to world peace was installed at the start of the event and participants meditated around the pole.
At one global forum panel discussion, Professor Yash Tandon of Zimbabwe drew heavy applause by declaring, "Cuba has done very well" and should be followed as a development model by other countries.
Cuba was represented at the NGO forum by several speakers on such topics as Third World debt relief. However, Marlen Sanchez of the National Association of Economists of Cuba told CNSNews.com that the issue of Cuba's financial debt to the ex-Soviet Union was too "sensitive" a topic to discuss.
Sanchez, as well as Jesus Guerra of the United Nations Association of Cuba, strongly endorsed the global currency tax known as the Tobin tax to generate funds for Third World development.
Lene Schumager of Denmark, representing the World Federation of U.N. Associations, proposed that Tobin taxes or an Earth stamp or carbon tax be used to fund the NGOs themselves.
'Racist' Welfare Reform
The leading American NGO participating in the forum was InterAction, the foreign aid lobby that represents groups such as Catholic Relief Services, CARE, and Save the Children. Other U.S. groups at the forum included the Women's Environment and Development Organization, founded by Bella Abzug, and the Women's International Coalition for Economic Justice, headed by Carol Barton, who gave a passionate speech denouncing welfare reform in the U.S. as "racist" and a plot by right-wingers.
The forum, which attracted about one thousand people from scores of countries, began with an inaugural address by Paul Nehru Tennassee of the World Confederation of Labor, who denounced Christopher Columbus as someone who "invaded, destroyed and pillaged" the Inca civilization in Mexico. Tennassee said the current global system was a form of slavery and that, "We, all here today, are in the tradition of resistance."
The demand for global taxes was followed at the closing ceremony by the personal appearance of Nitin Desai, the U.N. Under Secretary General for Economic and Social Affairs, who said NGOs promote ideas that are later adopted by the U.N. As examples, he cited proposals to increase overseas development assistance as a percentage of gross national product and to cancel or reduce Third World debt.
A statement from Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, was read to the crowd urging adoption of U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's plan for a "global deal" for more foreign aid in exchange for developing countries reforming their political and economic systems.
Harris Gleckman, a member of the U.N.'s conference secretariat, told CNSNews.com that NGO representatives were being inserted into discussion roundtables at the conference itself so they could promote their ideas to official country delegations.
American NGO representatives at the conference were scheduled to include former President Jimmy Carter, Sylvia Mathews of the Bill Gates Foundation and Mary McClymont of InterAction. Foreign NGO representatives came from Iraq, Cuba and Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.
Meeting in the "Coca-Cola Auditorium" on the site of a closed steel foundry, NGO representatives in Monterrey voted to change the name to the "Steel Auditorium" to show their disdain for multinational corporations. A priest sprinkled bottled water, as the auditorium was being "re-baptized." Local residents said the foundry was closed because it was uncompetitive and a big polluter.
Mexican Lara Frade, a key organizer of the forum who heads a group called Women's Eyes on the Multilaterals, described participants as "brothers and sisters in struggle" and declared "we are the rational consciousness of the world." However, panel discussions at the three-day event frequently failed to start on time and were characterized by power failures preventing lights and microphones from working.
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