[Anti-Caplitalist] Mbeki Slams 'Global Apartheid' at Pre-Summit Gala

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (Reuters) - South African President Thabo Mbeki called on the richest nations Sunday to end a system of "global apartheid" that entrenches poverty and inequality for a majority of the world's people.

Mbeki welcomed thousands of Earth Summit delegates and urged them to reflect on the dismal state of the world at a colorful ceremony to informally open the summit, which officially kicks off Monday.

"This is a world in which a rich minority enjoys unprecedented levels of consumption, comfort and prosperity. While a poor majority enjoys daily hardship, suffering and de-humanization," Mbeki said.

The suffering of billions of people demanded the same global response that helped to defeat the system of apartheid or white- minority rule in South Africa in 1994, Mbeki said.

"Our common and decisive victory against domestic apartheid confirms that you, the peoples of the world, have both a responsibility and a possibility to achieve a decisive victory against global apartheid," Mbeki said.

"Out of Johannesburg and out of Africa must emerge something new that takes the world forward, away from the entrenchment of global apartheid, to the realization of the goals of sustainable development," he added.

The United Nations' World Summit on Sustainable Development is by far the biggest and most prestigious event South Africa has hosted since the end of apartheid.

South Africa did not attend the first Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 as the country grappled with violence ahead of historic all-race elections in 1994.

Mbeki spoke after a 90-minute ceremony of dance and song that depicted Africa as the cradle of humanity. A short drive from Johannesburg lies the Sterkfontein Caves where 3.5 million-year-old fossils of ape men have been discovered.

"The (summit) is for all of us a homecoming. A return to the base from where all humanity evolved to cover the globe," Mbeki said.

The ceremony watched by up to 5,000 delegates at the Ubuntu village included a 150- strong African choir and scores of African drummers and jugglers.

Dancers wore vibrant costumes representing water and fire, while others were dressed as lions, zebras and giraffes.

At one point in the gala, a giant movie screen in the shape of the planet towered over the stage, showing scenes of pollution, famine and disease to haunting classical music.

"We are all children of Mother Earth. That is why we must take care of her. But sad to say, we are failing," said an actor playing an old man teaching his grandchildren about the planet.

Europe and the rest of the world are blaming the US for failing the world's poor and destroying the environment. Tensions are emerging between those who want our money (Britain and most of the world) and the US even before the latest Earth Summit (which is meant to blame the USA for everything, as well as, take as much money from us as possible) in Johannesburg. See August 26th London Times.

Hmmm, now how many colonies did the USA have around the world? How many people did we enslave in Africa, Asia, and the rest of the world? Didn't the British Empire empirically control 1/3 of the world, what about France, Holland, Germany, Spain etc… Yet the world is blaming the USA because the world is poor.

Let those wonderful nations that put these people in poverty, used their cheap labor, and stole their minerals pay for the mess they created.

THE USA IS NOT TO BLAME. Perhaps Europe should look themselves in the mirror for most of the problems of the world. The third world is also to blame for their problems. They often created their mess through their corrupted leaders. The USA has no share in the blame, and we should refuse to accept any guilt. Perhaps the rest of the world should learn to fix their problems, instead of using the USA, Christians, Jews or Israel as whipping boys to blame all their own failings on.

Two last questions. Couldn't the poor in the world have been helped by giving all the money it cost to create this conference to them? Wouldn't the environment be better off with out the waste of fossil fuels it took to get to this conference? If these people don't care enough to send their money to the poor and help the environment, why should we?

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