Alternative Reality at the Summit

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/opinion/19wed1.html?pagewanted=print

July 19, 2006
Editorial
Alternative Reality at the Summit

Pressing problems surrounded the leaders of eight of the world’s leading nations as they met in St. Petersburg, Russia, earlier this week. Oil prices soared over $70 a barrel. War was spreading in the Middle East. Iran was dodging straight answers about its nuclear programs. And trade talks neared breakdown over subsidies to rich farmers.

There could hardly have been a better moment for the annual meeting of the Group of 8 to prove its worth. Instead, it showed how pointless and embarrassing these gatherings have become.

It did not take an awkwardly open microphone to display the huge gap between the summit meeting’s communiqués and political reality. The entire weekend was an ill-disguised exercise in evasion on the major issues. The jet fuel wasted transporting everyone to St. Petersburg probably outweighed any positive contributions to global energy security.

In fact, there was not much forward movement on that very issue, which was supposed to be the central theme. The leaders of eight of the biggest energy consumers might have come up with fresh ideas for a world in which oil is increasingly in demand and increasingly costly. They could have done more to address urgent needs like making supply lines more secure, reducing consumption through efficiency and finding alternatives to fossil fuels..........

[knowbody0]

1. the peter principal

all present had been promoted to their level of incompetence.