So this image basically captures the essence of what the G8 is all about:

But seriously, the G8 deserves some comment, because few people understand the complex nature of this imperialist congratulatory beast. Largely, the G8 acts by not acting at all. We all saw the hullabaloo around Africa at the last summit in Gleneagles Scotland, with Bono on his knees before the world’s benevolent imperialists. But Africa since Gleneagles has only seen an increase in political violence (Kenya and Zimbabwe) and a growing gap between rich and poor. The war in Iraq and Afghanistan continues, Palestinians are shot and bulldozed, and the world faces a global food shortage. So what exactly were they doing at Gleneagles?

This years summit threw Africa back on the agenda in a document titled ‘Development and Africa’ the G8 countries (Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, Japan, Canada and the United States) “firmly committed themselves to working to fulfil their pledges on official development assistance (ODA) made at Gleneagles (three years ago), including increasing, compared to 2004, with other donors, ODA to Africa by 25 billion dollars a year by 2010.”

Another surprise is the Accountability Report: Implementation Review of G8 Anti-Corruption Commitments, which comes after over a year of pressure from Transparency International for the G8 to report back on anti-corruption commitments made since the 2002 Kananaskis Summit.

But the major rift that has emerged in this week’s summit is over climate change solutions. The Toronto Star calls it a “duel between rich nations and fast-developing economies like India and China over a global strategy for dealing with climate change.” Basically, all G8 nations signed onto an accord that said they’d ‘try’ cut greenhouse emissions by 50 per cent by 2050. Environmentalists derided the accord for not being strict enough and having no real mechanism to enforce these cuts, but leaders hailed it as a significant step. Mostly because Bush felt the heat.

The major dispute happened when G8 leaders accused India and China of doing nothing. And leaving it in the hands of developed countries to do all the work. Essentially telling these countries to continue globalized labour for us, but, again, do it on our terms.

Not surprisingly, the G8 leaders expressed their full support for Canada and the US in Afghanistan, but were quiet on the question of Iraq.

On thing they could agree on, besides planting trees and patting each other on the back, is the state of Zimbabwe. The leaders said they will impose harsher sanctions on Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his closest aides. The leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States effectively rejected the Mugabe regime as illegitimate. They accused the ruling Zanu-PF party of “systematic violence, obstruction and intimidation” ahead of the second round of voting on 27 June.

So what does the G8 do again? Oxfam has called this summit the most important ever because of the soaring cost of food and the effect this will have on developing countries, but beside more aid packages, I fail to see any proposed solutions. African, and many Latin American, economies are tied to export agriculture, forcing farmers to grow things like cotton instead of feeding their own families and communities. Some blame for this rests on governments of the South, but the overwhelming pressure comes from the likes of the IMF and World Bank.

So, yep I guess they plant trees and shake hands. Well, at least Bono isn’t there this time.

Chris Webb is an activist and journalist living in Winnipeg. He is currently publishing assistant at Canadian Dimension. Read other posts by Chris Webb.