To the Editor,

While reading Monday’s Pitt News I came across Hay Thuppal’s column,… To the Editor,

While reading Monday’s Pitt News I came across Hay Thuppal’s column, ‘World’s poor neglected at recent Group of 20.’ I read through his column and found that he misconstrued many aspects of the G-20 summit in London last week.

Thuppal’s column states that the recent G-20 summit has failed to produce a plan to save African nations during this global recession. However, many African countries have actually thrived in recent times. In a recent interview with Dambisa Moyo on The Colbert Report, Moyo states that, ‘The International Monetary Fund is forecasting Africa to grow 3 percent [this year],’ which cannot be said for many places. Furthermore, the G-20 summit is a meeting of the 20 richest nations in the world who only have their own economic interests in mind. Their overall goal is not a plan for the entire world but rather for themselves, as selfish as that might seem. Many see agencies such as the World Bank more suited to produce a plan for Africa.

The message is clear in Thuppal’s column, though. We do need to include Africa in our plan on overcoming this worldwide recession. Africa is a developing continent and yields many resources for the marketplace. If the new administration can successfully craft a policy to strengthen African and American relations, then we will all be beneficiaries of each other’s resources.

Jacob Feinberg

School of Arts and Sciences

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