For Edmontonian Deborah Robb, the upcoming G-8 Summit in Kananaskis Country offers an outstanding opportunity to express her anger.
She says she's tired of dirt-poor people in other countries being oppressed and exploited so the wealthy elite in developed nations may prosper. She seethes in frustration when forests are cleared, then areas flooded, to make way for projects sponsored by the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund.
Like other activists preparing to descend Wednesday and Thursday on the gathering of leaders from eight economically powerful countries, Robb is ready to express her disgust. And she relishes the opportunity to present the alternatives.
Edmonton activists have their placards and protest song sheets ready. And their ever-present sense of injustice is at a fevered pitch.
But they're making one point clear: They do not plan to be violent. They would rather spread the message that there are better ways of doing things -- that millions of people don't have to suffer, scratching out an existence from day to miserable day.
Robb's hazel eyes light up with feeling as she talks about problems affecting people she has never met.
Her concern for strangers and foreign landscapes fits in with her attitude towards life. As manager of the Earth's General Store on Whyte Avenue, Robb doesn't just sell energy-efficient light bulbs and recycled paper. The store exists to support global and environmental justice, she says.
So it seemed natural to her to become one of many community activists involved in informal G-8 organizing.
Robb's anger isn't vague. She is an encyclopedia of wrongs foisted on the world's most vulnerable peoples.
"It's about the haves not having a basic respect and responsibility to the have-nots of the planet."
She offers up Cochabamba, Bolivia, as an example.
In 1999, following World Bank pressure, the country granted a 40-year privatization lease to a multinational company, giving it control over the water on which more than half a million people depend. The company immediately doubled and tripled water rates for families who could not afford to pay the increase.
There was an uprising, and in April 2000 the Bechtel Corp. left. It is now suing the country for $25 million, claiming lost profit.
Robb says the World Bank, IMF and World Trade Organization are essentially run by the leaders of the G-8 countries. The heads of state for the world's wealthiest countries have the power, she says, to change policies in these powerful institutions to support basic social rights to clean water, housing, health care and education.
But it won't happen during G-8 summits, Robb says. Decisions made there behind closed doors are undemocratic, she says.
Democracy needs time so decisions can be debated, but the G-8 doesn't make room for anyone but national leaders, who assign themselves more responsibility than she would like.
"I elect them to represent what I think or want -- not to make every decision on my behalf."
Members of the Raging Grannies say the solution lies in giving organizations such as the United Nations more input into policies that could make society better for all, not just the few.
These retired women, who dress up in long skirts and bonnets and compose protest songs to well-known tunes, wish more people would get involved and voice their displeasure.
"People are concerned about things that are close to them," says Betty Mardiros, 79.
"But a lot feel what's going on at the G-8 has nothing to do with them. And they're encouraged to think that."
"And a lot of people are interested, but feel they can't make a difference," adds Louise Swift, a 71-year-old fellow Granny.
Robb says she often wants to give people a shake and shout, "Wake up!"
"People who have come around to being involved at some point, often through education, say, 'If people knew such-and-such, they'd be up in arms.' "
Awareness is definitely the first step to introducing alternatives, Marcel Howrish says.
The second is getting people to do something in their day-to-day lives to make a difference, says Howrish, a social worker with the agency Operation Friendship, which provides homes for hard-to-house seniors.
Howrish is helping to organize the upcoming G6B in Calgary. This conference is for everyone left out of the G-8, organizers say, which is why it is called the G6B -- short for the Group of Six Billion.
From June 21 to 25, speakers from around the world will propose and debate ideas about economic activities that benefit everyone while at the same time emphasizing human rights and the environment.
People can start by making their own little changes, Howrish says. They will make a difference by doing things as simple as riding their bikes to work or buying locally, rather than from a multinational corporation.
Robb says it's possible for everyone to get involved.
"I think we're stuck in that trap of the myth that it can't be any different."
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