The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Remember the old Soviet-era factory floor joke? ÒWe pretend to work. And they pretend to pay us.Ó The Group of Eight summit in Hokkaido suffered from the same corrosive cynicism Monday as Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other G8 leaders tried, without success, to persuade African leaders to get tough with Robert MugabeÕs lawless regime. The G8 leaders served notice that Òthe image of Africa was sufferingÓ due to the continentÕs failure to confront Mugabe, who reinstalled himself as president of Zimbabwe after a bogus election. They pointed out, none too gently, that Africa needs not just the $25 billion more the G8 has promised in aid but also investment and trade. All will be in short supply unless the continent delivers better government. The threat was obvious. But the head of the African Union (AU), Jakaya Kikwete, can read the newspapers. He knows the G8 leaders havenÕt come close to making good on that $25 billion pledge. Africa has seen just a few billion. And now the G8 is hobbled by economic slowdown. So Kikwete and his African counterparts did what any savvy factory worker would, under the circumstances. They pretended to care. ÒWe understand your concerns,Ó Kikwete said. But he also noted the G8 and the AU Òmay differÓ on solving the Zimbabwe crisis, with the AU inclined to ride it out. It sounds like AU leaders have bought into MugabeÕs arrogant view that Òonly God,Ó not the voters, will ever remove him. For 12 million Zimbabweans, that would be a bitter prospect. The G8 summit has other important business to transact, on climate change and the global food shortage. In some respects Zimbabwe was a sideshow. But it was a revealing one. Both the G8 and the AU badly need to repair their credibility. The G8, blessed with a combined $30 trillion economy, has promised to increase global aid to $130 billion by 2010. It is running $40 billion short. That should be an urgent talking point in Hokkaido. And the AU has some soul-searching of its own to do. The majority of its member states are led by figures whose democratic credentials are dubious. Freedom House reported last year that 37 countries in sub-Saharan Africa were unfree, or partly free; just 11 were deemed to be truly free. But Mugabe is in a class of his own, stealing elections, ruining his economy and driving millions into exile. The AU democrats, beginning with South AfricaÕs Mbeki, need to act.
