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Columns


This is not ending the world hunger

by Ian Birrell
The broadcasters fell for it, of course. Those colourful images of a "flotilla" of two longboats sailing near the venue of the G8 summit, with aid activists wearing those hackneyed huge leaders' heads and sails emblazoned with the slogan of the IF Campaign: Enough Food For Everyone. Who could quibble with that? Just as with the previous weekend's Hyde Park rally and hunger summit in Downing Street, we heard how dedicated campaigners from leading charities had forced issues of food security, poverty and tax on to the agenda, the politicians forced to bow to their brilliant campaigning and righteous message. Impressive and inspiring stuff.

Although you may have missed it, the woefully titled IF Campaign was intended as the successor to Make Poverty History that mobilised millions of people when Britain last hosted the G8 summit in 2005. Poverty, of course, was not made history, and many of the bold promises were never kept. But at least China's rise combined with global capitalism has lifted hundreds of millions more people into greater prosperity these past eight years.

Ministers and their mates in the swollen aid industry wanted another "moment". So they came up with something deeply cynical — a campaign designed to...
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