In preparation for the upcoming G8 summit taking place on the island of Hokkaido in northern Japan, the government is dishing out some serious dough. I mean money wise and not the actual floury dough. The amount of money being dished out by Japan is very well into the five figures.
In an article in The Times, the estimate is at 285 British Pounds. Keep in mind that The Times is based in London. However, you can run the figures through the currency converter. To make things simple, I took the liberty to convert that amount into US dollars. In US dollars, Japan has dished out $565,184,626.98. Since Digital Journal is based in Canada, I also took the liberty to convert the amount in British Pounds to Canada Dollars. The amount into Canada Dollars is $576,488,319.52.
Serious money has been put forth into this summit.
One could ask: Will this money be well spent?
At first, the G8 Summit this year would focus on combating climate change. But, it has been eclipsed by the rising prices in oil.
According to Max Lawson, a senior policy adviser that works for Oxfam, the amount of money dished out by Japan to finance this year’s G8 summit could be used to save and help many people. Lawson said that the amount could buy over 100 million bed nets to protect against malaria carrying mosquitoes. Or, the money could be used to cover treatment costs up to one year of 4 million that are infected with HIV.
Yet, the money is being used for the G8 summit.
Lawson says: “When you realise that … rich countries have bailed out their banks to the tune of a trillion dollars, it highlights how comparatively little we are asking leaders to deliver to the developing world in order to meet the promises they have made.”
In a nutshell, in British Pounds, Japan has dished out cash in the triple digits. When converted to either US or Canada Dollars, the costs are slightly over half a billion.