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25-07-2022, 04:38 PM
Kishore Mahbubani
PUBLISHED JUL 23, 2022, 5:00 AM SGT
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The G-7 countries are very proud of their liberal democratic societies. And they should be. However, while they are democratic domestically, they are dictatorial globally. By contrast, the G-20 group, which has many autocratic regimes, is more representative of the world's population.
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The G-7 represent just 10 per cent of the world's population. Yet, they make decisions and take actions that disrupt the lives of billions of people, including the world's poor, without factoring in their interests and concerns. That is what dictators do.
The G-7 is right in imposing sanctions on Russia after its illegal invasion of Ukraine
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But in designing the sanctions, the G-7 countries protected the interests of their own population
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could have hastened the war's end by boldly cutting off all the gas supplies from Russia immediately. They didn't do so because they didn't want their own people to make any sacrifices. However, both the illegal Russian invasion and the subsequent sanctions led to massive increases in fuel and food prices, disrupting the lives of hundreds of millions, if not billions, who had to make serious sacrifices.
Since the G-7 countries didn't want to impose sacrifices on their own people, it was strange that they complained when China, India and other developing countries stepped up their purchases of Russian oil at a discount. This led to two sharp responses from the Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar.
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he said: "India's total purchases of oil from Russia in a month is probably less than what Europe does in an afternoon." He also said, equally bitingly: "Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe's problems are the world's problems but the world's problems are not Europe's problems."
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G7 ...... takes care of the interests of the most priviledged 10 per cent of the world's population. It ignores the interests of the remaining 90 per cent. That is why the G-20 represents a more democratic forum governance.
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Martin Wolff ...... said "The G-20 contains 63 per cent of th world's people and 87 per cent of its output ...... It contains the world's most powerful countries and ones from every continent. It is our best chance for global economic governance."
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Even though the G-20 is a more democratic representation of the world's population, some Western leaders are now suggesting that they should boycott the next G-20 leaders' meeting
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show the West acting in an "undemocratic" way by ignoring the wishes of the majority of the G-20 countries which want the meeting to continue
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Finally, in ethical terms, the constituency we should care about the most is that of the very poor.
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71 million people have fallen into poverty ...... and that 750,000 people are at immediate risk of starvation. Given these dire challenges for the poor, it would be criminal to sabotage ...... the meeting of the G-20 leaders.
The West should also remember one important historical fact before taking action to undermine the Bali meeting. At the height of the Global Financial Crisis (Levin's note: It's the US Subprime Crisis for those who don't which global financial crisis this refers to), when the Western countries were feeling threatened by an economic implosion, they convened the G-20 ...... to launch a global stimulus package to rescue the world economy. All the G-20 countries ...... participated in this ...... rescue package, which was instrumental in turning things around for the embattled Western countries. The Rest didn't hesitate to help the West in its hour of need. Perhaps the West should now consider repaying this debt by stepping up at the forthcoming Bali meeting to help the Rest.
Full article at: https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/the...20-paradox
PUBLISHED JUL 23, 2022, 5:00 AM SGT
......
The G-7 countries are very proud of their liberal democratic societies. And they should be. However, while they are democratic domestically, they are dictatorial globally. By contrast, the G-20 group, which has many autocratic regimes, is more representative of the world's population.
......
The G-7 represent just 10 per cent of the world's population. Yet, they make decisions and take actions that disrupt the lives of billions of people, including the world's poor, without factoring in their interests and concerns. That is what dictators do.
The G-7 is right in imposing sanctions on Russia after its illegal invasion of Ukraine
......
But in designing the sanctions, the G-7 countries protected the interests of their own population
......
could have hastened the war's end by boldly cutting off all the gas supplies from Russia immediately. They didn't do so because they didn't want their own people to make any sacrifices. However, both the illegal Russian invasion and the subsequent sanctions led to massive increases in fuel and food prices, disrupting the lives of hundreds of millions, if not billions, who had to make serious sacrifices.
Since the G-7 countries didn't want to impose sacrifices on their own people, it was strange that they complained when China, India and other developing countries stepped up their purchases of Russian oil at a discount. This led to two sharp responses from the Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar.
......
he said: "India's total purchases of oil from Russia in a month is probably less than what Europe does in an afternoon." He also said, equally bitingly: "Europe has to grow out of the mindset that Europe's problems are the world's problems but the world's problems are not Europe's problems."
......
G7 ...... takes care of the interests of the most priviledged 10 per cent of the world's population. It ignores the interests of the remaining 90 per cent. That is why the G-20 represents a more democratic forum governance.
......
Martin Wolff ...... said "The G-20 contains 63 per cent of th world's people and 87 per cent of its output ...... It contains the world's most powerful countries and ones from every continent. It is our best chance for global economic governance."
......
Even though the G-20 is a more democratic representation of the world's population, some Western leaders are now suggesting that they should boycott the next G-20 leaders' meeting
......
show the West acting in an "undemocratic" way by ignoring the wishes of the majority of the G-20 countries which want the meeting to continue
......
Finally, in ethical terms, the constituency we should care about the most is that of the very poor.
......
71 million people have fallen into poverty ...... and that 750,000 people are at immediate risk of starvation. Given these dire challenges for the poor, it would be criminal to sabotage ...... the meeting of the G-20 leaders.
The West should also remember one important historical fact before taking action to undermine the Bali meeting. At the height of the Global Financial Crisis (Levin's note: It's the US Subprime Crisis for those who don't which global financial crisis this refers to), when the Western countries were feeling threatened by an economic implosion, they convened the G-20 ...... to launch a global stimulus package to rescue the world economy. All the G-20 countries ...... participated in this ...... rescue package, which was instrumental in turning things around for the embattled Western countries. The Rest didn't hesitate to help the West in its hour of need. Perhaps the West should now consider repaying this debt by stepping up at the forthcoming Bali meeting to help the Rest.
Full article at: https://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/the...20-paradox
