07/05/2008
Surging food and oil prices, inflation and a credit crunch that has depressed global economic growth have left leaders from the Group of Eight economic powers facing a grave combination of economic woes ahead of an annual summit next week.
More than one thousand people gathered in a park in central Sapporo on Saturday afternoon to protest against the meeting and later, as protesters rallied through the city streets, Japanese police arrested four people. The crowd sported placards and banners with anti G-8 messages a few days before world leaders arrive to attend the conference.
While leaders assemble to discuss world matters, various protests are expected to be held all over Hokkaido. Oxfam activists put out a performance showing the protesters putting on the world leaders masks and singing Karaoke.
The G-8 meeting is scheduled to start on Monday in the resort town of Toyako, three hours from Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido, which is the northern-most island of Japan. Oxfam's spokesman, Takumo Yamada, criticized the leaders for their extravagance. "The G-8, instead of having this good time in the beautiful resort area of Toyako, they should be taking responsibility for the promises that they made to Africa. They should be taking responsibility for the food crisis and climate change".
Later on Saturday, thousands of protesters joined the demonstration and rallied through the city center, carrying banners and flags with anti-G8 slogans. At one point, Japanese police smashed the window of a vehicle to arrest its driver, who was leading the rally. Japanese police had been urging the protesters car to move on but their orders were ignored.
Japanese media have reported that about 3-thousand protesters from all over the world plan to set ups big camps near the summit venue in Toyako. Leaders from African nations as well as emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil, will be the part of the meeting, which is expected to be the biggest in its scale with 22 leaders assembling.
This year's host, Japan, had put global warming at the top of the summit's agenda, but the dilemma of how to respond to accelerating inflation and slowing global economic growth is likely to become the major topic of discussion. The outlook has darkened dramatically since last year's summit in Germany, when the G-8 leaders declared the global economy was in "good condition" and oil cost 70 US dollars a barrel - which seemed high at the time. However environmental solutions and new technologies continue to be a pressing issue.
Analysts are skeptical that the G-8 leaders -representing the US, Japan, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, Italy and Canada- will come up with much beyond urging major petroleum producers to boost output, reiterating the message of their finance ministers, who met last month in Osaka.
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