Only dead fish go with the flow, conclude leaders at the Second Africa-South America Summit convened in Isla Margarita, Venezuela, this week, writes Gamal Nkrumah Memories are short and the resolutions at the conclusion of international forums fickle. A shift in the voting patterns of the International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions is prerequisite. The balance of power in the international arena in favour of the emerging economies in underway. The current situation is untenable. Emerging economies will undoubtedly flex their muscles in the near future, exercising their right to have a greater say at international forums. China, for instance, wields 3.7 per cent of IMF votes compared with France's 4.9 per cent, although the Chinese economy is now 50 per cent larger than that of France. It is only fair that China's tremendous economic clout within the IMF be manifested in terms of voting power. All this is reassuring. The old Western powers' credibility is in tatters. Their chief adversary is the rising power of the emerging economies such as China, India and Brazil. That much was clear at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Then it began to unravel. The leaders of Africa and South America let it be known that they are striving for a fairer world. They have set their gaze on distant horizons. The theme of the Margarita summit was "Closing the gap, opening up opportunities". "We have to construct a new alliance, discover opportunities and help ourselves mutually," said Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula Silva in Margarita. Brazil invested $4 billion in agricultural development in Africa since Silva took office in 2003. Trade between Africa and South America has jumped from $6 million six years ago to $38 million today. OPEC, the oil exporting cartel, includes four African nations -- Algeria, Angola, Libya and Nigeria, as well as Venezuela and Ecuador in South America. "We must give strategic vision and feasibility to the idea of integrating South America and Africa with the strengthening and implementation of a working agenda for the years 2010-2020," the Venezuelan firebrand leader told his hosts. "Africa and South America are rich lands, yet their people are poor because they have been exploited. Let us not permit them to keep exploiting and ransacking our lands. Those riches belong to our people," Chavez said. Not to be outdone, the octogenarian Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe chipped in. "In Africa, greater industrial development has been difficult because of a reliance on the very powers that colonised us," Mugabe told participants at the Margarita summit. This gives free rein to demagoguery. Except for a pause to honour Abdel-Baset Al-Megrahi, the 40th anniversary of the Fateh Revolution dominated Libyan news and comments for weeks. The success of the celebrations was seen as the make-or-break challenge for the regime of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. What is more, his one and a half hour-long speech at the United Nations, his impromptu cancellation of a scheduled trip to Canada generated even more debate. Next was his triumphant appearance at the Caribbean island of Margarita, Venezuela, the venue of the Second Africa- South American Summit alongside other Western adversaries. Yet soon it may look unimportant in comparison with an issue that the Libyan public has barely seemed to notice: the country needs a public debate in which assessments of the Fateh Revolution is separated from assessments of Gaddafi's own personal record. That said, Libya is far from opening an honest debate about Gaddafi. He does, after all, embody and personify the Fateh Revolution and contemporary Libya. Many believe it is simply impossible to separate the two: Gaddafi is Libya. But is Libya Gaddafi? And, by the same token, is Gaddafi -- the self-appointed King of Kings of Africa -- the official spokesman of the continent? The Margarita summit offered yet another opportunity for Gaddafi to speak up on behalf of the underdog. Many Westerners, however, and Libyan dissidents exiled in the West, strongly believe that Gaddafi is a murderous dictator. To them, Gaddafi seems as determined to control his country's past as he is to stifle present-day political liberties in Libya. His supporters are unwilling to concede that he committed mistakes and terrible crimes against the Libyans who stood in his way to achieve absolute power, casting criticism of Gaddafi as criticism of Libya. Westerners by and large conclude that the Libyan leader is a more troublesome collaborator than the West has anticipated. Even his admirers agree that he adores the limelight. Gaddafi clearly has it. Call it charisma, whatever. So what beckons? Isla Margarita was the first permanently free territory in Venezuela and was where Simon Bolivar was confirmed as commander-in-chief of Venezuela in 1816. Bolivar started the nine- year campaign to free Venezuela, Bolivia, Columbia, Ecuador, Panama and Peru from the Spanish Crown. Margarita today sounds the death knell of Pax Americana.
