British actor and comedian Bill Nighy spoke with RTTNews on the sidelines of the G8 and G20 meetings in Toronto, where he decried the world's richest nations for failing to deliver on commitments to relieve poverty in the developing world.
The star of the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Love Actually and the latest Harry Potter movie had just returned from Africa on behalf of Oxfam, an anti-poverty group well represented as an NGO here at the G20.
With the G8 avoiding big promises on aid to Africa and other poor regions amid significant budget strains, Nighy said the good work being done will be threatened by a lack of funding.
In meetings this week, the G8 agreed to provide a new five billion dollars for health care for vulnerable mothers in the developing world.
Nighy blasted the group for coming nearly $20 billion short of a $50 billion pledge made five years ago at Gleneagles to double aid to poor countries by 2010.
"We just bailed out the banks to the tune of $17 trillion....$5 billion has been announced for the poor," said Nighy. "The disparity is violent."
Nighy and Oxfam are also advocates of a global financial transactions tax, which would levy against the type of speculation that sparked the near-collapse of the global financial system in 2008.
"It would be a tiny tax on speculative gambling to raise 250 billion pounds ($400 billion)," noting the so-called Robin Hood tax could be used for climate change issues and maternal health care.
"The Robin Hood tax would institutionalize charity, and you'd never have to bothered by people like me anymore," joked Nighy.
Reports out of Toronto have suggested, however, that the financial transactions tax will not be agreed to here at the G20.
Oxfam was already throwing in the towel hours before the final G20 document becomes public.
The G20 missed a golden opportunity to tackle global poverty when it could only agree to disagree over how to make banks repay the cost of the economic crisis, said Oxfam in a statement.
"The G20 ought to have placed a tax on the financial sector to offer a significant hand up for the 64 million people forced into poverty," said Oxfam spokesman Mark Fried.
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