11 am 31st of March at St Paul’s Cathedral, a historical building located right between Westminster and London’s financial district, “the City”, British prime minister Gordon Brown and Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd make key note addresses to over two thousand members of the public on the eve of G20 summit.
The public debate is entitled “My Word is My Bond”, which is the motto of the London Stock Exchange, implying the trust involved in financial exchanges. St. Paul’s Cathedral is a symbolic place to bring together political and spiritual leaders to respond to the current economic crisis. To kick start the event, Gordon Brown stated that St. Paul is the place to which over centuries people have come “in hope and in faith.” The whole world is observing how Gordon Brown is going to solve the current crisis.
Gordon Brown emphasized that the market needs morals, the new financial regulatory framework must reflect the shared global ethics of fairness and helping each other. He called for global society to truly respect each other’s values and identifyshared values and to act together in a cooperative and coordinated manner. At that moment, I seem to hear Gordon singing the Internationale at the alter.
“The invisible hand of the market needs the helping hand of the society”, he quoted from the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith, one of his heroes from his homeland. Morals come before the foundation of the market. Both markets and governments should be responsible for the public good including health, education and equality. He highlighted the role of the government and the importance that G20 is to agree on international rules on remuneration. The financial system has to be transparent and based on moral values.
Talking of this strategy reminded me of Ding XiaoPing’s “two hands” policy, one hand is for the economy, the other is for reform. Is Gordon saying that capitalism is reversing or following Deng’s model? The other issue is how to regulate markets with moral values. If moral values are core elements in any business or trade, would this mean all the business has to be sealed with a moral stamp? In this case, how shall we regulate morals? I wondered if Gordon is calling on all businesses to become Social Enterprises or all the businesses be badged with CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility). Is Gordon calling the global direction towards Owen’s New Lanark model, another Scotsman? However, history showed Owen’s communism to be a failure. Morality is not part of our DNA and it takes long time to grow . In the short term, it is not convincing that Gordon’s spiritual medical will cure the current illness. How to ensure the survival of moral values in the heart of market, as to this, Gordon might need help from bishops.
He said the world is facing four great challenges: financial instability, environmental deterioration, violent extremism, and extreme poverty. “None of these can be addressed by one country alone.” The world has become increasingly interdependent. “What happens anywhere could have an impact on everywhere.” At the question session he urged people to stop “blame games” as there won’t be any benefit to shifting the blame on to globalisation. He stated that the role of world leaders was to identify the need for changes in the interests of all people not for some.
He said the leaders of G20 summit must work together to help the world to “conquer fear of the future with the hope for the future.” Both Gordon Brown and Kevin Rudd thanked the youth choir in the church, and they hold great hope and faith in children. Gordon Brown also praised thousands of British schools children for raising funds for charities, in particular he was impressed by the sum raised in this year of financial downturn for Comic Relief, which wasn’t less than previous years. Gordon shared his experience with an African boy. Even as the boy suffered from aids, he dreamed of being a doctor. Gordon believes that talking to people in another continent is a big step towards change in the world, and he encouraged schools to establish further global education links. Instead of looking forward, he deliberately avoided saying sorry to children as their future has been mortgaged by him and his extravagant borrowing over the last 12 years and his incompetent handlingof the current crisis. Moral education has a long way to go. Apart from financial stimulus and tax cut, it is unclear how Gordon is going to use the spiritual medicine to cure capitalism’s tumour of greediness, selfishness and individualism. Facing global panic, is Gordon fearful of global power shifting to the emerging economies?
In his speech, Gordon Brown highlighted that G20 leaders needed to join together to fight global recession, climate changes, unemployment, insecurity, poverty and hopelessness. He also said the world should work together to fight against protectionism “which in the end protects no one.” He tried to reassure the audience that the developed countries are committed to low carbon emission, helping the poor, and the UN millennium development goals to help the poorest countries. In addition to the agreement on carbon emission including emerging markets, a financial mechanism has to be in place to help poor countries. In his words, his first duty is to “ensure no one is left behind”.. Let us watch G20 closely for his promise.
Posted on April 1st, 2009 by wendywu
Filed under: Community
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