G8 Summit and Live 8 concert

[Tattooed Angels]

SHHHH!!

okay oaky. they are doing it in Philly cause it is the CITY of BROTHERLY LOVE nd where else but a concert can you get some love..

[Rusty]

Anywhere, but my school. They frown upon the lovin' there.

[Johnny]

Philiy rocks only because Rocky is from there.



edit:


21,000 posts!!

[nikki4982]

Hey now, we rock for many other reasons, too.

And Gail, yes, EXACTLY.

[closeyoureyes]

Rocky is the strongest reason.

[nikki4982]

Pssh.

Come here then say that.

[Tattooed Angels]

Green Day's "One" Wish
Jun, 28 2005 - 11:00 AM


Green Day is one of the latest acts to join the Live 8 lineup, and the band is talking about it. The group is encouraging fans to get involved with the ONE organization. “What you might not know is that this is about a real crisis in the world that demands our attention,” says the group in a statement at their website. “Did you know that every day 6,300 people die in Africa of AIDS? Thousands of people dying every day from a preventable, treatable disease and for lack of a 45-cent pill! These statistics are staggering and yet as ONE we can let our leaders know this is unacceptable.”
The ONE campaign asks that people do at least one thing to make a difference for people living in poverty. You can sign a letter to President Bush urging his help at the G8 summit or find other ways to help by visiting www.one.org.


My friend and I were discussing this last night. She asked me if I think the concerts will accomplish anything. I told her not everyone is like us..She works in the Medical field with AIDS and I have volunteered for several AIDS charities and a few Homeless ones almost 15-20 years now. I am willing to bet that the majority of people going are going not so much cause they believe in the cause,but because of the acts playing. THere was an aritcle in the paper the other day that brought up the original live aid. It said after the show how many people continued to do something.. It got me thinking.. Once these shows are over, what happens then?.. I am willing to bet that the majority will just go about life as normal.>Sad really. In this day and age there is enough for everyone in teh world.. The biggest problem isn't gettting the money as it is getting it into the hands of those that need it most..

the upshot is maybe someone will walk away from these asking themsleves waht can I do to help..?

[Korzic]

A delightful article from Piers Akerman in the Daily Telegraph on July 5. So much truth to this too sadly. And while I'm at it I'll mention that almost every performer at any Live8 concert got a free bag of goodies to the tune of 10K.

THE Live8 concerts around the world had as much relevance to world poverty as actress Toni Collette's bleating about mulesing had for the welfare of the national flock.

Zilch. Poverty will continue to devastate the people of Africa and maggots will only be beaten by mulesing until something better comes along.

Despite Sir Bob Geldof's self-important and morally superior on-stage antics, and those of the superannuated rock musicians basking in the reflected glow of rejuvenated piety, nothing will change in Africa until the Africans decide to make the changes themselves.


Geldof, a one-trick pony if there ever was one, doesn't want to know the realities of the poverty equation because they aren't that pretty.


"I'm not interested in critics," he told the BBC. "Those critics are just being stupid." No they're not, Bob, just honest.


The truth hurts the Live8 lobby, because it reveals that corruption, not debt, is Africa's biggest problem. African corruption.


The moral relativists who fester in our universities may preach anti-colonialism but the simple fact is that Africans, en masse, were better off when their nations were being run by colonial powers. In the past half century since the United Nations has been running its anti-colonial agenda, the heart of Africa has become more rotten, not less.


The African nations aren't the only ones to go backwards in the post-colonial era either. Just look at our nearest neighbour Papua New Guinea, and the problems it faces because it did not have a sufficient buttress of educated people to carry the load when Australia prematurely launched it on its independent path 30 years ago.


Sir Bob thinks that scenes of hand-clapping fans wearing message-stained T-shirts have the capacity to change the African landscape, but they won't even make a ripple at Gleneagles where the heads of the G8 nations are meeting.


Debt cancellation is as meaningless as more aid unless the problem of corruption is solved, and Sir Bob, for one, doesn't want to know about that. The hundreds of billions of aid dollars that have flooded Africa have been diverted to Swiss bank accounts and disappeared without trace.


The Western media has been awed by the performances of geriatric rockers but has failed to listen to the authentic voices of Africa, people like Senegalese Ousmane Sembene, revered as Africa's most important filmmaker. Ousmane said African heads of state who "buy into that idea of aid are all liars. The only way for us to come out of poverty is to work hard."


That hard work would have to be rewarded but the Europeans show no inclination to reduce the huge subsidies paid to their farmers which effectually choke African products from their markets. Sir Bob wants people to sing and sway at the Live8 concerts, to feel uplifted and buy the DVDs, but unless Africans can send their bananas and beef to Europe, the gesture is as empty as an Ethiopian kid's belly.


Writing in The Scotsman yesterday after he watched anti-globalisation protesters marching, former Sport Aid worker Gethin Chamberlain asked whether the concerts would have any effect on AIDS or malaria, the two great problems facing the Dark Continent.


He also questioned the flow of educated Africans, doctors and nurses, particularly, into Western nations, and asked whether they shouldn't be encouraged to stay at home and treat their own people rather than find jobs in the West.


"Most African villages have no power source. Providing one would need a massive programme of power-station construction," he wrote. "Nuclear? Many of Saturday's protesters would blanch at the prospect.


"Coal-fired? The climate change lobby would not be happy.


"Oil? The Chinese are already working overtime to get their hands on as much of the continent's supplies as they can. What about investment in African business? Bill Gates was rewarded with a big cheer when he appeared on stage in Hyde Park but to the anti-globalisation demonstrators, Microsoft rivals McDonald's as public enemy number one. If he invests in Africa, is he helping, or exploiting, its people?"


Chamberlain's questions go to the core of the problem but they make those out to get a quick hit of moral superiority squirm in the mosh pit.


He might also have made the point that the anti-globalisation marchers are working directly against the solutions needed for Africa. Without a sound global economy, there can be no hope for help for Africa's struggling masses.


Live8's global broadcasts perniciously encouraged millions in Africa to believe that there may be Hollywood-style solutions to their problems by suggesting that those meeting in Gleneagles can perform magic. They can't.


The infrastructure problems crippling African society are African and the solutions are intrinsically African. Sir Bob may have made more people aware of Africa's problems but there is no quick fix, no panacea.


For multi-millionaire entertainers to create the impression that the G8 can put meals in the mouths of millions is cruelly delusional. The developed world is not responsible for African impoverishment any more than it is responsible for Asian and South American disadvantage.


The solutions lie in the hands of the African leadership, not band leaders in Hyde Park.

[Tattooed Angels]

Korzic

what you wrote was what alot of journalist have been talking about here. Not so much getting the things to people, but to the right hands. I think I was reading somewhere that they had in place that the money, and aid will get into the hands it need to be to help out..

There is corruption all over.. But dropping the debt is a step in the right direction.. It helps these nations help set up the neccesary means to help out each other.. It does help.. But it is a slow start.. Nothing happnes overnight..

[Korzic]

I agree. But do bear in mind that a lot of aid which does get sent to Africa never sees the people because the government officials syphon a lot off the top to fund their own personal luxuries.

[Tattooed Angels]

I agree. But do bear in mind that a lot of aid which does get sent to Africa never sees the people because the government officials syphon a lot off the top to fund their own personal luxuries.

unfortunately that is so true with any government.. I am happy to see that the aid was incresed.. It is a start.. I was also reading that there is another sumimt(meeting) in Sept at the UN to further discusss this and other problems of the world..

Millennium Development Goals Summit
Sep 13 2005

The United Nations will hold a high level plenary meeting -- also referred to as a summit -- to review the implementation of the Millennium Declaration (2000), and the integrated follow-up to the major United Nations conferences and summits in the economic, social and related fields.

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are the world's time-bound and quantified targets for addressing extreme poverty in its many dimensions-income poverty, hunger, disease, lack of adequate shelter, and exclusion-while promoting gender equality, education, and environmental sustainability. They are also basic human rights-the rights of each person on the planet to health, education, shelter, and security.

Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women
Goal 4: Reduce child mortality
Goal 5: Improve maternal health
Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability
Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development