Do summits make any difference?
| 10:44 UK time, Tuesday, 20 July 2010
Many of you who follow us on have been wanting to talk about the African for a number of days now. But it's not the only big meeting in town. Idowu asked to talk about the and there's a great deal of hype surrounding the .ÌýÌý
Dun in Uganda posted,Â
'With a predetermined communique, we are certainly fooling everyone! The AU summit is another photo opportunity!'Â
Alexander in Moscow tweeted,
'That useless international conference in Kabul probably costs a fortune. What a waste of time and money!'
Saidu added
'Even after pledges are made they are hardly fulfilled. After all those G summits there was still a global recession.'
. Speaking at the AIDS Conference in Vienna yesterday, he said,
"In too many countries too much money goes to pay for too many people to go to too many meetings, get on too many airplanes,. Too much money is spent on reports that sit on shelves." Clinton said. "Keep in mind that every dollar we waste today puts a life at risk."
And that after nine years and nine conferences, we can expect more of the same from today's Kabul conference. What do you think?
This Canadian blogger calls last month's G20 Summit in Toronto,
'All this outrageous cost and bother might be defensible if there was evidence summits on this scale are absolutely necessary. If the fate of the world depended on bringing the leaders of 20 of the most important countries together for a weekend, then we'd be prepared to do our part. Unfortunately, there's precious little evidence that this is the case.'
What's happened to the iconic meetings that resulted in agreements like the Treaty of Versailles and The Geneva Convention? Have you lost faith in conferences and summits?
