Rock singer and activist Bob Geldof says the Group of Eight must make touch
decisions or will lose their relevance, while farmers speak up against the G8.


(ASIA) TOYAKO, JAPAN (RECENT) POOL - 
The Group of Eight must make tough decisions or lose its relevance,
said Irish pop star and Africa advocate Bob Geldof Tuesday (July 8). 
    Visiting the G8 Summit in Toyako, Japan, to lobby leaders on behalf of
Africa development issues, Geldof said the G8 should expand and increase
commitment to the world's poorest continent.
    "The decisions can't be made by eight people in a small room
anymore because the rest of the world is developing and they need to
contribute. But they also need to decide. And so, going forward to the U.N.,
that's when I think a lot of real decisions will be made now and I think the
G8 will either expand or will lose its relevance," Geldof said. 
    Geldof said much has changed since he and other recording artists made
the "Do They Know It's Christmas" song on behalf of African aid in
1984.
    "Everybody who bought "Do They Know It's Christmas' and 'We
Are the World' pushed it onto the agenda. And in 2003 I asked Blair to do the
Commission for Africa, which would analyse exactly why poverty exists in
Africa - why doesn't it exist in such an extreme elsewhere? So, the G8 and
African leaders did this profound report, and so, Live 8 was to push this
report to the G8 in Gleneagles and that was achieved, so now the boys and
girls with the guitars were writing the policy. So, you go from this little
Christmas record to writing policies for these guys," he said. 
    Meanwhile, farmers' representatives on Wednesday (July 9) urged the G8
nations to listen to their voices - especially their call for food
self-sufficiency.
    "The peasants all over the world have made a decision called
"food sovereignty," which is the rights of the people to produce and
have good food in a local and national system, and not with liberalisation and
food imports," said Mohammed Ikhwan of Indonesia's Peasant Union.
    Iraxte Arriola, representing farmers in the Basque region of Spain,
said: "We want to say that the root causes of the food crisis are most of
the consumption, production and the trade, and what they are saying in order
to solve the food crisis is to increase the free trade, increase
liberalisation, increase the use of fertilizers." 
    Leaders of the Group of Eight rich nations have agreed on the need to
address global inflation, particularly elevated oil and food prices, Japanese
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said on Wednesday 
    High food prices and climate change have been on the top of the agenda
as G8 leaders and the heads of state of other invited countries gathered in
Hokkaido, Japan, this week.