Italy currently holds the presidency of the G8; consequently, a series of G8 meetings have already taken place on the Italian peninsula and another meeting is slated to happen in Trieste from 25-27 June when foreign ministers from eight major industrialized countries will gather to to discuss restoration of security and stability in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Not surprisingly, the meetings have engendered a lot of political and social activism regarding pressing issues in Italy and beyond. In April, Rome’s Piazza del Popolo was filled with panda bears in honor of the G8 environmental meeting that was scheduled to take place in Syracuse (where the bears were moved after their Rome debut), but was relocated to the region of the Abruzzo in order to heighten awareness of the earthquake damage there.
Now, the world’s largest anti-poverty alliance, the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP), has devised a powerful new multi-media campaign aimed at exerting pressure on G8 nations to both accelerate efforts to address poverty and avoid using the recession as an excuse to renege on aid commitments. With nearly a billion people hungry and global warming climbing to dangerous heights, GCAP’s ‘Press the 8’ public campaign was launched in Rome in early June by City Mayor Gianni Alemanno.
Dennis Howlett, Coordinator of the Canadian Make Poverty History campaign and member of the GCAP Global Council explains the goals of the campaign:
This year, GCAP is asking the G8 to not abandon commitments made to poor countries on account of the global economic recession. We the public are putting pressure on the G8 countries to give this crisis the same kind of priority as they have to bailing-out banks and car companies. The economic crisis, climate change and the food price crisis threaten to reverse the progress made on reducing poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals, We can’t let that happen, especially when we know that the poor are not responsible for the recession.
The campaign has a witty website (see photo above) that allows you to literally apply pressure to the leaders of the G8 countries as well as to sign a petition attesting to your support for the mission of the Global Call to Action against Poverty.
We love the website (it reminds us a bit of Jib Jab) and we’re also grooving with the “Contra la Poverta” print material that’s appearing in postcard form around Rome (see top photo and below).
