WATER ABLAZE - Patagonia Sin Represas

interests the managing directors of a big company less than children
dying of thirst in Africa. This is an aspect which should be examined very
closely. At the annual conference of the AGE – an association of German
businesses active in the developing world – on November 3, 2003 in
Berlin, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul was distorting reality when she
concluded that “development partnerships” with the economic sector
can only result in a “win-win situation” from which all sides profit.
For years now, promoters of the MDGs have been creating one
almighty hullabaloo. Under the chairmanship of Eveline Herfkens,
the former Dutch Minister for Development, a millennium campaign
was initiated. Since 2006, national campaigns have been organised and
carried out in 60 countries.
The UN representative for the Millennium Goals, Jeffrey Sachs,
called for a “2008–2015” plan of action so that the goals “might still be
achieved” and many NGOs have since been integrated into the various
activities.
A newly-installed website, looking very much like an NGO website,
demands in a tone that reveals a fighting spirit: “End Poverty 2015,
No Excuse, Make It Happen…” This sounds good, of course, and I
genuinely believe that the people concerned are taking the matter
seriously. And yet I am convinced that the MDGs, well-intentioned
though they may be, will at best come to nothing because the medicine
being prescribed to cure the illness is the same one that caused it in the
first place.
Countless documents issued by the World Bank, IMF, UN and the
German development and cooperation sector – as well as a report by
UN representative Jeffrey Sachs – all promote neoliberal elements
such as economic growth, the involvement of the private sector,
the liberalisation of services and the dismantling of trade barriers.
Meanwhile, the disastrous consequences of the neoliberal approach
have become clear for all to see!
Alas, in addition to all the suffering and damage already caused, a lack
of respect for individual nations and their right to self-determination
continues to prevail: the rich nations are now pushing through their
own economic interests in an increasingly hard-hearted and destructive
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