G20 Summit: Advocating for the world’s hungry
September 25th, 2009 | by Andrea PereraThis week, campaigners dressed as the G20 world leaders took to the streets of Pittsburgh, dressed as — who else in that football-loving town — the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Oxfam asked that the G20 leaders protect poor countries, which have been struggling to respond to the global recession, high food prices, and the impacts of climate change.
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Andrea Perera
Andrea Perera is a writer for Oxfam America. A former newspaper reporter, she collects stories on Oxfam’s work with local partner organizations in East Asia, as well as Oxfam's campaigning efforts around climate change and oil, gas, and mining.
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Pittsburgh’s G-20 story: Take an expressway from town and disappear into desolate ‘hoods and encounter the civilization of menace. Pittsburgh, a dual city! The glass wonder of PPG Place and/or the G-20 Summit is a faded memory. Here in the ‘hood lives lie abandoned as far as the eye can see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEukcWW5dM0
That is: For the most part, African-American Pittsburgh seems to be invisible, not only to the public relations hucksters who tout Pittsburgh’s successes, but we are equally invisible to the protesters.
Certainly, black Pittsburgh is as proud as anybody in that the black President we worked so hard to elect has selected Pittsburgh as the host of the G-20 Summit. We even enjoy the re-invention of Pittsburgh from a dirty, smoky steel-churning history to the bright, clean, green financial success that the business leaders and politicians boast about so loudly. Nobody is more proud of the Super Bowl winning African-American coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Mike Tomlin. But none of that feel-good stuff erases the pain of the stubbornly high unemployment among African American young adults and the staggering dropout rate for young black males from the public school system.
Pittsburgh is a great city, I’m not from PA, but I did go to school in Western PA, and I think the G-20 Summit being hosted there is great for the city. Pittsburgh has truly undergone a transformation over the years. A lot of people think it’s just all steel mills, factorys and dirty, but Pittsburgh has a beautiful green side to it, that this summit I’m sure will display to many that have not been familiar with new Pittsburgh.