20 million woes

The warm bonhomie between the US President, his counterparts and their British hosts have done nothing to calm the protesting masses voicing their opposition of the G20 in London! It is apparent that world leaders ought to do a lot more than just 'gifting each other personalized I-pods and signed portraits' during such visits! And, beyond the champagne, wine and canapes of chicken with zucchini on skewers, mini Cornish pasties, smoked quail eggs, foie gras and tiny rolls of duck filled with melon, there is the plaguing worry of a stinging recession which has already pulled the lives of several thousands onto the brink, not to mention those who have already been consumed by it, literally!

While the Americans may chiefly be 'responsible' for putting together progressive policies to restore a horribly failing economy, the US Secret Service will certainly not be pardoned for parking their Commander-in-Chief's limousine at the garden entrance driveway of the Buckingham Palace, will it? Especially when it has been causing 'some' inconvenience to the Jaguars carrying HRM The King in Waiting who hates to be kept waiting!

Prime Minister Brown should know better than to make statements about sharing the American burden of a recessive fallout. Was he trying to play a Blair who, not long ago, steadfastly supported and endorsed his master, er, friend, Bill? ! I'm wondering if this is going to cost him the cozy spring holds of 10 Downing, while momentarily having won the hearts, minds, oohs and aahs of the US Congress!

But its not all that bad as it seems, supposedly! Japan has provided the IMF with an additional $100 billion to bolster the Fund's lendable resources during the current global economic and financial crisis, while Europe’s leaders have agreed to provide an 'extra' €75bn to the IMF.

Our own dear Dr. Prime Minister, under pressure from various political factions, 'may' consider sending a shopping list to the Swiss about Indian money parked in their safe confines. I thought I heard the G20 communique stating that some of these were key achievements ahead of the summit, with the exception of the Indian Prime Minister's considerations of course!

I must tell you about my good friend David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, who on 'April 1st' found time to write a post on Free Society in his blog! I'm quite curious and at loss to understand if this was anything real, considering the timing of the post and of course the ongoing G2o summit. Was is a Fools Day prank? Or merely, the as usual, ill-advised instance of the Whitehall which the Foreign Office decided to showcase via their Atta Boy's cyber whiteboard? Whatever may be the case, it caught me by surprise, for I 'was told' that the Foreign Secretary was visiting the country sides near Suffolk watching farmers milk their cows, while enquiring if their children did their homework on time! Apparently it pays to endorse a 'third-party' view that "the idea that the state is an unwarranted assault on individual freedom is not a progressive one." No wry English humor there!

Now, the business of G20, best left to be decided by 'dignitaries', I'd rather focus on something that has landed in my mailbox which will be of 'interest' to the British High Commission and the Central Bureau of Investigations in India. I'm wondering if the MI6 is listening? Worry not cousins, it is the 419 of the Brit kind! ;-)

Footnotes:

Images Courtesy - The Times of India and The Telegraph