Feasting on 19 course dinners while discussing the world wide food crisis might seem a little hypocritical to some. But what else are these useless shindigs like the G-8 Summit for except to party down and get funky? If you can't let your hair down a bit with other world leaders then the whole exercise is a bigger waste of time than it would be normally.

Today, the leaders of the world's richest countries proposed a set of completely ineffectual sanctions against Robert Mugabe's dictatorship in Zimbabwe while the dictator's neighbors and friends in Africa pleaded with the summit goers to leave well enough alone in Zimbabwe or there would be a "civil war:"

The strongly worded communiqué states that the G8 does not accept the legitimacy of any Zimbabwean government that does not reflect the will of the people. It says that the G8 leaders are deeply concerned at the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe, and urges Mr Mugabe's government to work with the opposition to resolve the crisis peacefully.

The statement also calls on the UN to send an envoy to broker a deal. Gordon Brown said that he was pleased that all eight G8 countries had signed up to such a powerful message. "This is the strongest statement. It shows the unanimity of the international community reflecting the outrage people feel," he said.

The G8 deal, with the crucial inclusion of Russia, will enable Britain, France, Germany and the United States to move at the UN Security Council later this week, pressing it to adopt the draft resolution imposing tough trade measures on Zimbabwe.

It will leave China comparatively isolated in its opposition to sanctions in the UN Security Council.

Africa leaders have told the G8 group of nations meeting in Japan that they oppose sanctions being imposed on Zimbabwe following controversial polls.

"I said that sanctions... wouldn't change the regime," Senegal's leader Abdoulaye Wade told AFP news agency.

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki reportedly told G8 leaders that UN sanctions could lead to civil war.

Excuse me, but what exactly does Mbeki believe to have happened over the last few months - and years? Mugabe's goons have murdered scores of opposition leaders, displaced thousands, and plotted to drive two million people out of their homes. Does that qualify as a civil war - or perhaps a genocide, at least a political one? Mugabe has declared war on his own people; Mbeki refuses to recognize it.

Tanzanian president and head of the African Union, Jakaya Kikwete, insisted that a power-sharing arrangement between Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai was the preferred solution.  How exactly would that work?  The militias and the military leadership of Zimbabwe would suddenly shift their allegiances to Tsvangirai after murdering his supporters?  A power-sharing arrangement would be an invitation to assassinate Tsvangirai, because Mugabe wouldn't share power at all.  If Mugabe wanted to honestly share power, he wouldn't have ordered the murder of his political opponents and the massive terror campaign against their supporters