MDG Summit: Prodi, “I’ve never heard of it”
By Joshua Massarenti – Afronline
Brussels – Since 2008, the former Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, has been collaborating with United Nations as President of African Union-UN panel aimed at enhancing peacekeeping operations in Africa. Just few days ahead of the Millennium Development Goals Summit, Prodi said to Afronline: “I’ve never heard of it”.
The cloths don’t make the man. This saying couldn’t be more true of Romano Prodi who was in Brussels two days ago to participate in an international conference on security and development in Africa, organised by the European Security and defence Assembly/Assembly of WEU, an institution composed of representatives from national parliaments in the Western European Union.
Acting as President of the joint AU-UN panel aimed at enhancing peacekeeping operations in Africa, the former Italian Prime Minister was the guest of honour at an event that brought together prominent figures (at least for those who are interested in the African continent), the most important being Jean Ping. The Chairperson of the African Union Commission – who could be defined as the African alter ego of José Manuel Barroso – has spoken at length about the challenges facing Africa in terms of peace, security and development.
In his speeches, Ping has called attention to the importance of the High Level Summit that in just a few days will reunite in New York all world leaders to assess progress made on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) agreed upon in 2000 by 189 heads of state and governments to halve world poverty by 2015.
For the United Nations (UN), the organisation with which Prodi has been collaborating since 2008, this will be the most important event of 2010 if not of the last several years. The same goes for civil society in both the Northern and Southern hemisphere that over the past several months have been launching diverse awareness campaigns to pressure world leaders to respect commitments made 10 years back. Even the media has “taken up the cause” and published several summaries of results towards the MDGs by the international community, including the call recently launched by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, to save the MDGs. To concluded, anyone familiar with the milieu knows that the New York Summit plays a key role in raising 1.4 billion human beings out of poverty. Everyone but Romano Prodi.
At the end of the conference on peace and security in BrusselsAfronline approached the “professore” to ask him his opinion on the Summit being hosted by his employer. For the ex Italian Prime Minister the question should have been easy. But it wasn’t. Instead of answers the professor asked questions, the next more sensational than the last. “A Summit on the MDGs?…In New York? …When?…In a few days?…I never heard of it”
Never heard of it. The words of the President of the AU-UN group working on peace in Africa, a continent afflicted with poverty, these words have a certain effect. Maybe it’s best just to turn a blind eye and continue to “pretend” that Italy is one of the most respected and listened to countries in the International community.