German Diary II: The battle for Gleneagles

Kel Currah, GCAP G8 Coordinator and World Vision Head of Poverty Reduction Unit, has been involved with the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) since 2005. Read another one of his blogs from a small town Kuhlungsborn next to Heiligendamm, where the G8 leaders are meeting

Tuesday, 5th June

Today is the day that I move to the G8 Press Centre in the small town of Kuhlungsborn, next to Heiligendamm, where the G8 leaders will be staying. The town is a small holiday resort filled with beautiful hotels lining the beach and cafes and shops for holiday makers. Normally it would be an idylic place to spend the summer, but the G8 meet has turned it into a circus of media vans, journalists and police. The Press are beginning to arrive today, ready to file stories on the G8, and we are, of course, hoping to get some of our issues covered.

The Press Centre is also filled with NGOs - in fact there were more NGOs at one point than the Press. The Press Centre is an enormous building with space to provide for nearly 4,000 journalists - and is said to have cost around $14 million alone. I believe that the Press Centre has been funded in part by sponsorship - with Nike and other companies taking up a tent in the grounds.

Pampering journos
It seems that the Germans have laid out a party for the Press. The Press Centre is like a hotel with a bar, a pitch and a golf course, free massages and running machines. There is a nice beach with deck chairs and a beach volley ball court. The German's women beach volleyball team came in the afternoon to play a game as well.

This evening, the Centre was launched with a party with live bands, people on stilts dressed up as puppets and, of course, a free bar...

Amidst all the colour and festivities, it is easy to forget that the world has pressing global issues at stake. 

It is all a little distrubing and surreal - although one of the more bizarre sties for me today in the midst of puppets, bands, drinking eating journalists was a small table at which NGOs from Germany, Canada, and Russia were playing an intense game of poker, oblivious to the party around them.

Action continues
It has not been all quiet. Helicopters hover overhead and riot police circle the centre as the protesters have been targetting the Press Centre as well. Indeed, while queing for dinner, the riot police ran in to stop protesters breaching fences at the beach. So you had the weird sight of the 50 or so riot police marching through the food area with media persons shuffling to one side to let them through. True to their profession though, the Press did not bat an eye or leave the queue - obviously prioritising dinner over a good picture. But the bands played on - perhaps a little louder to cover the noise.

Watering down Gleneagles
Seriously though, the information coming out of the negotiations is not looking good. The G8 Sherpas - as the the individual G8 leader's top negotiators are called - met today in an emergency session to resolve many of the outstanding issues. Under discussion was the HIV/AIDS text in the communiqe which, according to rumours, has been watered down substantially.

The information suggests that the G8 language changes from universal access to prevention, treatment and care of people affected by HIV/AIDS to language that gives a target figure of 5 million - which means the G8 would be rejecting the 2005 commitment for a lesser target. This is a major concern and the Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) members are busy lobbying with the delegations to remove this proposed language.

The next few days may be a battle to save the Gleneagles Commitments themselves with receeding hopes that the G8 will actually agree to deliver the commitments at Heiligendamm.

So, tomorrow it seems, there may be clashes at the Summit as well as outside.