Manning: CHOGM to aid CopenhagenBy SEAN DOUGLAS Monday, November 23 2009
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SORREL SEASON: A vendor on Queen Street, Port-of-Spain, doing a thriving trade with sorrel, a best seller at this time of the year. ...
PRIME Minister Patrick Manning yesterday said he was optimistic this week’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) could overcome the pessimism surrounding next month’s United Nations Climate Change Talks in Copenhagen, Denmark.
He was giving the feature address at the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth People’s Forum at Queen’s Hall.
“Fortuitously our meeting in a few days is the last major gathering of world leaders before the meeting in Copenhagen, about which there is some pessimism regarding any significant result. As Chair of this CHOGM, Trinidad and Tobago is working assiduously with other nations, in and out of the Commonwealth, to attain a position that is strong enough to advance the process toward a global agreement on this critical matter affecting all of humanity.”
He said the fact that United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon and other world leaders outside the Commonwealth (reportedly French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen) are attending CHOGM is an indication of the intensity of the efforts on climate-change.
He underlined the need to tackle climate-change, saying a recent UN Summit of world food security had found escalating mass starvation and malnutrition, with the world having one billion starving people.
“Six million children die of hunger every year, seventeen thousand every day. Much of this tragedy and trauma is taking place in the Commonwealth...”.
Saying the world must grow more food and must tackle climate-change, Manning said: “Therefore it would be disastrous for everyone if we are not able to advance at Copenhagen in December the process towards a realistic, fair and legally-enforceable agreement for the reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere”
He said the Commonwealth with its diversity is a microcosm of humanity and reflects diverse positions on climate-change.
“We are therefore in a very good position to lead the way forward on this matter.”
Manning urged the People’s Forum to let their views be known on climate-change and on the global financial crisis. He blamed the latter crisis on a violation of trust between citizens and the bureaucracy which he said must be loudly condemned.
“The fact is that selfish excesses and irresponsible adventurousness remained essentially unregulated and largely undetected for far too long, and eventually led the world to the precipice of financial collapse”. He said the regulatory systems in industrialised countries failed to protect the savings and investments of ordinary people, noting that governments have a supervisory role on the economy.
The Prime Minister said a society’s best resource is the innovativeness of its people, who must all have equality of opportunity.
“There is no true democracy with it (equality of opportunity). There must be no discrimination based on race, religion, gender, physical disabilities, social status or political affiliation.”
Such equality, he said, is vital for economic growth. Hailing entrepreneurship and small businesses, he said: “The wealth and opportunity must always permeate every nook and cranny of the society.”
Inviting comments from the People’s Forum on small business and other issues, Manning told the gathering: “The voice of the people must be heard on every issue of concern.”
Manning said democracy is more than a periodic visit to a voting booth: “It is an unending process that must always deepen the involvement of the citizenry in national affairs. The voice of the people must continuously be heard, and its influence felt.” He said the direction adopted by a nation must be in accordance with the wishes of the people.
“Democracy must therefore be guarded and nurtured by all stakeholders. Civil society is fundamental to this process.”
Commonwealth Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma hailed the role of civil society, saying it was one leg of a three-legged stool comprising society and also made up of the Government and the business sector.
“All three need each other,” he said, adding that there is supposed to be creative tension between the trio which each have their own constituencies.
Sharma said the People’s Forum contains the voice of the people and it must be heard. He said the global economic downturn had hit civil society groups both by reducing donations and by increasing demands for their services. He added that civil society acts both to protest, cajole, criticise and hold accountable, but can also advise, support and partner.
Commonwealth Foundation chair, Simone de Comarmond, also gave an address in which she said people in the world who have been traditionally vulnerable have now been even worse hit by the global economic crisis.
