Why I oppose the G20: Priva Ha’angandu, working to alleviate poverty in Africa (VIDEO)
Who is marching outside the G20 in the streets of Pittsburgh? One person marching is Priva Ha’angandu, who has traveled from Zambia, Africa, to be a part of the activities to oppose and question the policies of the G20. He works with Jubilee Zambia as Debt Program Officer, and coordinates efforts with Jubilee USA. He also works with the Jesuit Center for Theological Reflection. He lives in Lusaka, Zambia.
Ha’angandu is from Jubilee Zambia and works to alleviate poverty through the forgiveness of external debt to institutions such as the IMF and US Department of Treasury. The past two times that the G20 has met, they have decided to give IMF an additional $1.1 trillion in funding.
In an interview with the G20 Media Support Team, Ha’angandu explained that he would like to see the G20 make decisions that help rather than hurt poor people.
“The hope is here. I would like to see a situation whereby the G20 owns up and says, ‘We have failed in the past, we have not given enough voice to the poor people in this world. We have served only the interests of the rich people,” Ha’angandu says.
Ha’angandu makes the point that the governments of only 20 countries out of 191, the negotiations of only a hundred or so people out of the some 6.8 billion on the planet, compromises the legitimacy of their decisions.
“We’d like to see that a lot of issues that represent the poor people in the developing world are brought to the table,” said Ha’angandu. “Without that there is no legitimacy for the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh.”
In Zambia, where Ha’angandu lives, 86 percent of people live below the poverty line. Zambia’s public debt burden is almost 30 percent of the value of its annual production. To service this debt, it must pay banks huge rates, which are paid at the expense of education, health care, and more.
“One of the big promises that was made… was that they were going to provide this huge, huge sum of money to the IMF and you know that a lot of that money went into loans for the developing countries,” says Ha’angandu. “In most cases, it’s a big misrepresentation that they have enough capacities to service loans.”
“I think that it’s a concern, if people can go without medication, if people can go without food, in a world that simply needs redistribution, a world that has so much to feed everybody,” he says. “In Mahatma Gandhi’s own words ‘There is not enough for one man’s selfishness in this world, but there is too much if everything were equitably distributed.’”
Ha’angandu is waiting to see what the G20’s decisions will be, and how it will impact his home country of Zambia and the other poor countries of the world.
“Whatever is decided at the G20 has a lot of impact on the economy of Zambia, on the people of Zambia, on the poor people of every other developing country in this world,” says Ha’angandu. “I think we are sending forth a message to the world leaders as they come to Pittsburgh, that the poor people of this world have a concern, and would like their voices to be heard.
G20 MEDIA SUPPORT TEAM – 09/21/2009
Contact: Lacy MacAuley, (202) 445-4692, info@g20media.org
www.g20media.org, Twitter @g20actionalert