Frida Eklund's blog

“I lost land; I’m landless. Land was my life.” This is one quote from Fred Bahemuka¹ from Uganda who claims that that he lost his land due to a land grab. It’s featured in a new Oxfam report, ‘Land and Power’ that highlights how the modern day land rush is forcing thousands into greater poverty. The focus on land grabs is part of our newly launched GROW campaign.

Drum roll please. The people of Europe have voted in this year’s Worst Lobby Awards, and the absolute worst climate lobby offender is… none other than…wait for it…RWE, also known as nPower in the UK!

As we move towards the next big climate meeting in Cancun at the end of this month, activities are ramping up to influence the global talks. And it’s not only civil society organizations and active citizens wanting action on climate change that are lobbying hard to get a success story out of the meeting.

Last week, across Europe, in Italy, France, Ireland, Belgium and the UK, something was growing.  And it wasn’t the consensus to act decisively on climate change in the ongoing climate negotiations. No, it was a bunch of so-called ‘flashcrops’, organic installations highlighting the need to support food producers fighting climate change.

After the G8 disgracefully dropped the ball on aid at what has been dubbed the ‘Summit of shame’, the G20 today missed their chance to score against poverty by failing to move towards a Robin Hood Tax on banks.

Celebrity Bill Nighy travelled to Huntsville, Ontario to ask the G8 leaders hard hitting questions about what they plan on delivering a this year’s Summit. The interviews took place at the Secluded Bed and Breakfast just on the outskirts of town, which provided an intimate setting and a unique chance to get up close and personal with the world leaders.

As Oxfam team gets ready to leave our new friendly home in Huntsville, and with the G8 leaders are rolling into town, we just got the word that an announcement on funding for maternal mortality has been made (strange since they haven’t even started meetings yet…). What seems like a positive message on the surface in fact could spell disaster for millions of poor people.

The Oxfam team had an early start today as we left the Highwayman Inn in Orillia, Ontario and travelled to Huntsville in the wee hours of the morning to set up our second Big Head stunt for the G8 Summits. Although we were right on track, it seemed as though The Big heads had lost their way. 

They had reached a crossroad and were facing a tough decision: Will they exhibit leadership and mark this G8 Summit as a turning point in the fight against poverty, or will they just be lost tourists, stumbling around in Canada’s cottage country?

Families in the Liben District of Ethiopia face shortages of everything – rain, pastureland, food. Since the drought combined with soaring food prices last year, entire communities are facing the hard pangs of hunger. In all Ethiopia, hunger regularly stalks almost eight million people.

Today, activist groups worldwide organized events as part of a G20 day of action in countries such as the US, the UK, India, Mexico, Malawi, South Africa and Belgium. They did so with the goal of sending a powerful message to their leaders before they head to Canada for the G8/G20 Summits: Invest in the future. Now.