Having never been a fan of protests in general, I cannot understand the mentality of all those charities protesting the G20 summit. Granted that people are saying they want to be heard and I agree that the government is not very good at listening, the protests seem useless. Not only that, I wonder how many people took time off work to march?

The various charities in the united legion of protesters have expressed their opinions on what they want world leaders to accomplish. Though united, each charity has its own agenda. It is not unlike the situation that will be presented at the G20 summit itself. Though the meeting of the heads of the 20 largest economies in the world is intended to work towards a resolution for the global economic crisis, each country has its own agenda that it wants to push. Whether that agenda is the climate, the poor countries, or simply economic reform, each leader has his or her own priorities. So, if these leaders are facing and will be addressing all these issues, why are the protesters demonstrating?

What really is the point? They are out there wreaking havoc (even if unintentional). Security measures have to be made stricter, the police will be out in force. Isn’t that just making us spend more money than necessary? After all, the leaders will still have to answer to their people when all is said and done.

Having said all that, I wonder how much will be accomplished at the summit? With the different agendas and with 20 different world leaders, will there be unanimous agreement on anything? Is the recession so bad that we can only ride out the wave? Or will these leaders really manage a comprehensive plan to tackle all the issues? I remain with the skeptics on this. These summits serve more as a debate forum than a conflict resolution. It might be better to have a Forbes Top 20 summit to address the economic crisis.

To be fair, though, since I don’t have a better plan, I’ll await the outcome of the summit. If they actually produce a valid plan, I will acknowledge that they have made a major breakthrough. Then I will review and criticise as I see fit. I may not be imaginative enough to have concrete ideas to turn the world around, but I can think logically enough to see the upsides and downsides.