Mandela challenges rich to feed the poor<\/p>\n
Jeremy Lovell, Reuters\/London<\/p>\n
South African democracy icon Nelson Mandela challenged rich
\nnations on Thursday to help end the misery of the world's poorest
\nmillions.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the eve of a meeting of G-7 finance ministers, the
\npolitical prisoner cum world diplomat told a crowd of about 2,000
\nin Trafalgar Square that now was the time for decisive action.<\/p>\n
\"Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible
\nscourges of our times ... that they have to rank alongside
\nslavery and apartheid as social evils,\" he said.<\/p>\n
\"In this new century, millions of people in the world's
\npoorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved and in chains. They
\nare trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them
\nfree.\"<\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has vowed to make Africa one
\nof the priorities of his presidency of the Group of Seven (G-7)
\nindustrialized nations this year.<\/p>\n
Nobel peace laureate Mandela, who spent nearly 27 years in
\nSouth Africa's apartheid-era jails, was freed in 1990 and elected
\nthe country's first black president four years later.<\/p>\n
Over the next five years he became a beacon of hope and
\nreconciliation for the country's 40 million blacks and coloreds
\nand four million whites as the government tore down the apartheid
\napparatus.<\/p>\n
Stepping down in 1999, the increasingly frail Mandela has used
\nhis iconic status to act as both the moral conscience of his
\ncountry and conciliator in the continent's trouble spots.<\/p>\n
Although he formally declared his own retirement from politics
\nand diplomacy last June just before his 86th birthday, he
\ncouldn't resist the call to help Africa's poor.<\/p>\n
\"I recently formally announced my retirement from public life
\nand should not really be here,\" he said on Thursday. \"However, as
\nlong as poverty, injustice and gross inequality persist in our
\nworld, none of us can truly rest.\"<\/p>\n
He was speaking as part of the charity-driven \"Make Poverty
\nHistory\" campaign.<\/p>\n
He will take his message on Friday directly to the finance
\nministers when British Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown
\nopens the meeting.<\/p>\n
\"In 2005, there is a unique opportunity for making an impact,\"
\nMandela said. \"Tomorrow, here in London, the G-7 finance
\nministers can make a significant beginning.\"<\/p>\n
Mandela called for trade reforms, an end to the debt crisis
\nthat is costing poor countries $39 billion a year and a boost in
\naid.<\/p>\n
Brown shares the same aims. He wants the slate to be wiped
\nclean for debt-ridden nations -- the bulk of which are in Africa
\n-- trade rules to be made more even-handed and new sources of
\nlong-term aid for the poorest countries to be put in place.<\/p>",
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