Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Agenda next?

Well, I finally made it in time to London for the G20. As part of a group of 50 bloggers invited from across the world, I am fortunate to be a part of a unique exercise that hopes to carry the voice of civil society and people to governments. As accredited mainstream media, we would all be able to attend the summit up close tomorrow (so watch this space).
As we gather today in a beautiful imposing room in Westminster to know each other and discuss – to my mind, demystify – the issues of G20, I think of the less fortunate back home who have no access to the many virtues of new media technologies that we are using here. I share here a scene from a small government school in remote Bengal in east India, where we run an ICT program to assist rural teachers connect with education experts in bigger cities and help them deal with their daily challenges. Forget computers. The need for basic infrastructure is a higher call here and in the many hundred schools across the country’s interiors.
I hear the Indian PM does have MDGs on his agenda as flies down for his first meeting with US President Barrack Obama, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, among others tomorrow. Although conventional wisdom has shown all grand intentions of leaders remain that – mere intentions – I will allow myself the hope that perhaps, this time, there would be a genuine effort by world leaders to protect the interests of the poorest in developing countries.

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