I’ve just got back from London where last week we witnessed the biggest show on earth, as some newspapers were calling it. Sections of the media claimed that the G20 summit succeeded in creating a ‘new world order’, while others stated that it has merely been a useful ‘talking shop’ and ‘photo event’, but of little use to the ordinary person who has lost his/her job or is worried about their personal finances.
Another angle is that the events of last week will have little immediate impact, but may stimulate the world economy in a couple of year’s time. We each have our perspective on this unique event and I feel it has been successful, not in pulling us out of recession today or even by the end of the year, but because it was a positive event. It was a meeting of all the leading economies on a scale that has not been seen before – rather than just being a forum for the biggest few nations. It was worthwhile because twenty human beings met one another face-to-face, spent a couple days together where they signed up to positive aspirations for the future and agreed to continue the dialogue. The personal contact between these senior statesmen and women was critical. We all know, from our personal experiences that ‘touching the flesh’ is so important in developing honest, open relationships and dealing with difficult problems – trying to do this kind of thing remotely is much more difficult and more often than not ends in failure.
But again, for me the most important aspect of this meeting was the positivity of it – this was despite the press seeming to focus on the potential disagreements and conflicts in the lead-up to the event. I guess bad news is good news for many of them, but this doesn’t necessarily do the rest of us any good! As we emerge into a bright spring after all the doom and gloom we have heard and endured during the winter, it was good to see such proactive steps from politicians who so often favour caution over risk-taking and positive action. Fiscal stimulus may end up being important, but right now we also need a ‘positivity stimulus.’ Whatever the press might say about the Prime Minister and the government’s motives for hosting the G20, I feel it is a step in the right direction because it tries to catalyse the important ingredients for a recovery; co-operation, helping the less well-off, rejecting greed, taking control, acknowledging common dangers, building consensus and, most important of all, attempting to build confidence throughout the world.
Sure, none of this constitutes a quick-win or short-term fix, but the problems we now face are not only economic – we have to deal with issues of trust, self-confidence and clawing back some sense of personal security and control. What started out as a purely economic crisis has become a psychological one – a crisis of confidence, you might call it. The G20 was the first step in dealing with that, but now the banks, industry, indeed, the world’s population need to respond positively.
