What you have had in Asia is economic shock therapy followed by terrible poverty and some of the worst types of human rights abuses. This is not a new phenomenon, as the people of Africa could tell you in regard to the imposition of IMF policies over the past 20 years, and the same is certainly true in Latin America. So we have created a situation for which we in the North are not totally, but in large part, responsible. The speakers before me have said that the answer, the future, needs to be driven by civil society, an empowered civil society. The Initiative is geared, not only to learn about what has happened under adjustment over the past 20 years, but to legitimize a voice for civil society in the future planning of economic policy.
Local knowledge is real and critically important.
It is not the only knowledge, but it is the basic knowledge. If we ignore the peoples knowledge of their own reality, we are going to make mistakes over and over again. Let me conclude by saying that things have changed very rapidly in the last year. Today, we not only have a global financial crisis, but a financial crisis that has created an opportunity for change. This opportunity is one for people around the world to try to take control of their own destinies.