CAIRO: The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Sharm El-Sheikh came to a close Thursday amid debate over the relevance of the movement. With "International Solidarity for Peace and Development as its title, the summit featured strong words from world leaders hoping to unite, as well as to resolve political or military disputes. Of the summit's theme, Sonia Dabbous, a journalism professor at the American University in Cairo (AUC), said, "It is certainly a good idea and it might actually make a difference. "Developing countries have been slow when it comes to development, says Dabbous. "Perhaps this summit will wake them up. Nabil Abdel-Fatah, deputy head of Al-Ahram Centrer for Political and Strategic Studies, said that discussing the financial crisis was central and inevitable. "I think discussing the financial crisis and the economic policies of the US is at the heart of the summit, he said. He does not believe, however, that talks would solve problems. "The developing countries are not capable of acting on any decision they make at the summit, for a number of reasons, he explained. One of the obstacles facing NAM states is the numerous disputes among them. "It will be hard for these countries to unite, when there are a lot of internal quarrels between them, such as Pakistan and India issues, Iran and many countries, problems within Africa, and also within Latin America. Collective action is virtually impossible, Abdel-Fatah told Daily News Egypt. After a seven-month pause in political dialogue between Pakistani and Indian leaders, resulting from Pakistani bombings in Mumbai, Pakistan promised to bring the attackers to justice, on the sidelines of the NAM summit, reported the Associated Press. Abdel-Fatah also believes that too many of the NAM countries are "controlled and dependent on US foreign policy. "What is quite ironic is that the Non-Aligned Movement countries are in fact aligned and biased, he added. The movement was established in the 1950s to represent a group of states which were not allied with any of the two major power blocs, the US or the Soviet Union. Since the end of the Cold War, the purpose of the NAM has become obsolete. John Evans Atta Mills, president of Ghana, used this year's summit to call for an appraisal of the Movement's role in the world political environment, and an adaptation of its purposes to new realities. Abdel-Fatah believes that "this Movement expressed a passed era, and it is no longer relevant, and that NAM is contemporarily a feature of "international political folklore. "NAM is like a club, and membership means that you exist on the political map. What I find quite funny is that the leaders of NAM states use this summit to socialize and take a vacation, says Abdel-Fatah. "It is a way for them to get external legitimization.
