Raised Voices

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I’m the chief of the Boa Esperança village. I will keep talking now about G8 and indigenous people. And I also want to say to our people that fight for its rights, for its dignity, that is seeking its right as a human being. We understand that the G8 wants to destroy the dignity, the richness… it wants to destroy the people, who are human beings just like them. They want to destroy that. They want the indigenous people, suffering people, to be in their hands but we don’t want that. We never thought of being in the hands of those powerful people. But only God is powerful. We don’t want to be no longer massacred by this economic power for we are capable of running, of making a different world. It’s not in those powerful hands to do that. They can only do it through money, not because they have built the life of a person. That economic group has only power to destroy. Not to get life to human beings. That’s why we think the G8 will only destroy the human being even more and also will confuse more the people that seek their right to be a human being. We do not agree with that economic group they are organizing, that G8 project. We don’t agree with that.

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I am Tayo Adesina. I am from Nigeria. I'd like to speak on the issue of corruption. People in the West have talked about corruption in Africa, especially as it pertains to African leaders. But it is quite important to note the corruption in Africa has a direct bearing with the relationship between the Westand Africa. Western companies operating in Africa have been vectors of corruption. So have banks in the West. So there is no way you can talk about corruption in Africa without dragging the West into it. The day the West stops being corrupt that is when corruption in Africa will stop. Without the West cutting the wings of their companies. Without the West cutting the wings of their banks, the proceeds of some of our vital resources in Africa will continue to be diverted to the West. And so African peoples will continue to suffer. And so I believe that Western leaders should try as much as possible to educate their people about the evils of corruption in Africa and then it will have an effect on African leadership. Once corruption stops then people in Africa will have a new beginning. Thank you.

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We want to live, we want to live. We want to live in our land, in our environment. We didn't want countries to come, rich countries came and conquered us. They have to listen to what the tribal people need, tribal people are thinking. And they have to respect and they have to listen to what they want and what they really want.

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The G8 world mockery and Lula’s ecological mockery… the landless Indians, being expelled of their lands. An useless Ministry of the Environment… And the people at loose in this wind storm of things that don’t happen. Just for one side, right? I think that Lula, in this environmental issue, is only favouring the companies. Because the environmental issue is being left… first is development, currencies, exportations, the big companies.

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I live in Espírito Santo state, Brazil. I work with the people that suffer impacts from the large scale monocultures whose raw material supplies the first world. To talk about G8… first of all, I have very few informations about it. I know very little about what G8 means. What I know is when it hits us. The information that gets here is that it is G8 that determines world economic policies. Consequently, it determines all social, environmental, and cultural life of the other countries. So here in Espírito Santo we suffer the consequences of G8, of the political decisions taken at the G8. I think that the Brazilian government would have a key role in giving G8 a new direction. Why? Because Lula presents himself at world conferences as a representative of the third world countries. However, what I understand is that leaders of third world countries that we live in easily let themselves being carried by external policies than internal policies. So I think that Lula, with his social and politics background – he was a person from the bottom, of this country’s union leadership, that knew all the problems – should be sensitive in order to clarify the true reality of third world countries. And more than that, to influence, be a protagonist of third world countries, of the leaders of third world countries. And in this way to influence the policies of this big group to build a healthy policy and not a destroying one, of the Latin-American people, of the third world people, that are who suffers the most the consequences of these decisions taken by the first world.

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And I’m indignant when eight of the most rich countries of the world discuss hidden in a cupola the great decisions, most part of the population doesn’t participate at all. And the whole world is taken by these great decisions that the World Bank, IMF, G8 discuss and define by themselves. And the world’s population – I can speak for the Brazilians – suffer great impacts coming from those decisions.

And don’t have the chance to participate, and we have a lot to say. There are many impacts directly affecting the world’s population. We don’t want them to decide, that small groups, small cupolas decide on our behalf. We can say what we want.

We have a lot to say. And we don’t want to have to accept those definitions. Experts say what we have to do in relation to the world’s climate, to the environment, to society… And what we have seen is that it has got worse, and worse, and worse.

So we have to create opportunities and to accept that many more people have a saying all over the world. Eight countries defining what we have to do. And there’s no use in calling our president Lula, he can’t do it. He can’t handle it. He can’t handle this reality here. He hasn’t solved our problems that are huge, huge… Social impacts, social problems, inequalities… Enough of social inequalities! We want justice!

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I am of course so surprised by all these meetings. These small meetings for just eight countries who will decide for all of us. We can not accept this. Even if they invited out President Lula – he's not able to make the decisions. All these social inequalities in the whole world will not be resolved just by these small meetings. Just these few peoples. These specialists decide for us? Well there are so many people, so many different realities that you can not resolve for us.

You can not see what is really happening here. Like here in our country, Brazil, And even Lula is not able to decide and make a difference in our reality. So we want social justice, environmental justice because we see things are just getting worse and worse with these meetings and specialists. The world is not made by specialists. There are people in the country. There are people in the lands who know what they want and you do not hear them. And that's the important thing, to hear those people's ideas. Because the world is not made up of just eight countries, like the G8.