9 May 2008
Santiago — Mozambican President Armando Guebuza warned in Santiago on Thursday that the negative impact of the recent sharp rises in the world market prices of oil and of grain makes it imperative to find a solution rapidly.
Giving a lecture at the Chilean Diplomatic Academy, during his three day official visit to Chile, Guebuza said that counter-measures should be taken more quickly than the speed with which fuel and food prices were rising. The cost of not moving quickly would be that some countries could face social, political and economic collapse.
He pointed to the blows the price rises represent for people already living on extremely low incomes (such as the majority of Mozambicans). Measures must be taken speedily, he insisted, in order to avoid the worst, which would be the collapse of gains won by humanity over many years of hard work.
Diplomats of the entire world needed to come together and seek solutions that would put an immediate brake on the soaring price of oil, which this week surged past 125 US dollars a barrel on the New York exchange, and of basic foodstuffs such as rice, maize and wheat.
Instead of panicking, diplomats and other experts should, as they had done in the past when faced with other catastrophic emergencies, show their skills, work in a pro-active fashion, and draw up possible solutions. Such crises should "catalyse the human imagination", and lead it to counter-attack in the search for alternatives.
No-one should imagine, Guebuza warned, that these problems only affected some countries. Every part of the world is affected, he stressed, since the impact of huge price rises was creating "universal shocks".
"This is a collective challenge for the international community", he said. "Given the growing interdependence between states, there are no moral arguments, no physical barriers, and no force of arms that can defend islands of prosperity and well-being, surrounded by poverty in all its multiple expressions".
"Hunger, disease, shortages of essential goods, and uncertainty about tomorrow generate frustration, despair and hatred", Guebuza said. "Above all, as a result of this state of spirit, the conditions arise for factors to flourish that can destabilize states" The price rises, he added, made it urgent to take seriously the eighth of the Millennium Development Goals approved by the United Nations at its Millennium Summit in 2000. That goal is "To develop a global partnership for development". This was needed more than ever, said the Mozambican leader, because "we are faced with a global problem and dealing with it requires the adoption of global solutions".
"We have to act more rapidly than the speed at which prices are rising, and with an even greater determination than our people expect of us", he insisted. "The challenges imposed by rising fuel and food prices must be taken as an opportunity tom speed up our pace in the fight against poverty".
One factor blamed for food price rises is the trend, notably in the United States, to grow grain, not for human consumption, but as bio-fuels. Grain that could have fed hungry people is instead turned into ethanol to keep private cars on the roads.
Guebuza stressed that this conflict between bio-fuels and food would not be allowed to happen in Mozambique, since the government has insisted that only marginal land, unfit for food crops, will be used to grow biofuels.
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