Earlier today, Dorothy Ngoma, of Malawi said “It is immoral that today in 2010, a thousand women are dying every day in childbirth.”

Tonight, pregnant women and young children can draw little comfort from the G8 leaders’ meager offering to alleviate their suffering. 

“Shameful” was the first word uttered by anti-poverty activists in the Alternative Media centre as they watched Stephen Harper announce that his vaunted signature initiative as this year’s leader of the G8 has raised only $5 billion dollars from his G8 partners.  $5 billion - when every credible agency says $30 billion is needed to fill the gap.  Of that, the G8’s fair share is $24 Billion.

On the eve of the G8 and G20 Summits, 61% of Canadians believe their country should increase the amount of money spent on international aid. 

When Stephen Harper sent his anti-tax crusaders around the globe to preach against a bank tax, he not only reinforced Canada’s growing image as “tea party North”, he left massive confusion in his wake.

Many people now equate the bank tax with the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) popularly known as the Robin Hood Tax and an idea dear to the heart of the anti-poverty and climate change community.

As an old hack now ancient NGO flack, please let me set the record straight.

As I child, I loved TV’s “The Lone Ranger”, that great champion of justice whose Hi-yo silver bullets rescued the good guys every week.  I was immune to the inherent racism embodied in Tonto, “his faithful Indian companion” because Tonto was played by Jay Silverheels (aka Harold K. Smith) from Six Nations Reserve near my mother’s hometown in Brantford Ontario. My Uncle Hughie had played professional lacrosse with him and that gave me great playground creds.

Now, a new Silver Bullet’s arrived on the scene that could slay global poverty.  It’s actually been in the wings for a while, but thanks to the greed of the international financial community, it’s an idea whose time has come.

Pittsburgh -- Well, this is my second G-Summit -- and there are still more hard lessons to learn. Harder to swallow too, since life for the world’s poorest has become even more wretched since last July’s G8 in Italy. It’s an even tougher slog here, getting the needs of the neediest on the media’s agenda, let alone the attention of 20 of the world’s most powerful leaders – emerged and emerging.

Just about everyone working in development projects almost anywhere in the world has known the secret to success for some time -- put women in charge and your chances of a positive outcome are greatly enhanced.

That's not female chauvanism, it's simple fact. Educate women, get them in good health, help finance their early endeavours and the results will benefit the whole community.

Well, I thought the last day of the G8 Summit might be ending on just a slightly brighter note than the first. The buzz all week was that the leaders of the rich world would ante up $15 billion in food aid and development money. Then a few hours before the final wrap, we heard it was $20 billion...still short of the $30 billion the FAO says is needed, but the news certainly went down well amongst the civil society people here. But when the actual statement came out, it was yet another indigestible fudge. The bold italics below are textbook examples of how to look good without actually doing anything...yet.

First day on the job at the G8 summit and already it's dreadful. For a new media coordinator who thought she'd see the world get saved just a little, it's unnerving to say the least.

Any thoughts that our eight well-heeled representatives of the last hope for humanity were dashed by their communiqué issued at the end of their first working day. Well, almost the end; after issuing their deliberations, they went off to dinner together.

It was more than discouraging for Dennis Howlett, co-ordinator of Make Poverty History: "It's devastating for the poor. They're just repeating past promises and not recognizing the world has changed. It's a real setback for any progress that has been made in the last decade."