Hehe, I cant think of one person I know who wasnt aware of African poverty before the Live8 event.
In any event, awareness buys how much food for a starving village again?![]()
Hehe, I cant think of one person I know who wasnt aware of African poverty before the Live8 event.
In any event, awareness buys how much food for a starving village again?![]()
Hey, don't ask me, I don't know.![]()
I'm just saying it wasn't about money. Besides, it would have been critized however they did it...
"But if you should fall you fall alone,
If you should stand then who's to guide you?
If I knew the way I would take you home."
Grateful Dead, "Ripple"
Pretty freakin much!Originally Posted by PanzerJager
How many people helped Dafur Region in Sudan before Amnesty International put all the intention to the situation? How many after?
Awareness is actually what helps, since there are so many starving regions, and so little money donated - the govs, orgs, ngos etc donate to the project currently in the media, to seem noble.
So attention=money, big time!
Common Unreflected Drinking Only Smartens
Its another example of popular charities. Rather than Make Poverty History, the event should've been called Make Charity Cool.
Well mission accomplished.
Unfortunately for the people of Africa, it's only a matter of time before they lose the media spotlight again and people stop to care about them. Anyone remember a certain tsunami that happened about 8 months ago? The one where the media said it would take a decade for the affected regions to recover?
Why have the media and celebrities not been all over this constantly? After all it's going to take a decade to put right?
Simple, because it's no longer the 'cool' charity. We need a quick dose of feel good factor for each region before we move on to the next and so it goes.
In 8 months, no one will still be talking about making poverty history in Africa. We will all have moved on.
Cowardice is to run from the fear;
Bravery is not to never feel the fear.
Bravery is to be terrified as hell;
But to hold the line anyway.
Amen,Sjakihata.
Abandon all hope.
I've never understood bashing radicals for being rich. It's like they have to give away all worldly goods before they have any credibility. They don't have to live like Jesus to have something to say that's worth listening to.
So Bob Geldof owns four hotels. Shock horror. Doesn't alter the fact that he helped save thousands of lives twenty years ago. Nor does it undermine the good work he's doing in raising the profile of poverty in Africa right now. From what I can tell, he's had a sustained commitment to the place and also a rather good understanding of it - listen to what he says, it's moved on a lot from far from the simple "give them the [expletive] money NOW!" of yesterday.
Personally, I suspect Africa is going to have to sort its own problems out. It's not going to be "rescued" by the West, any more than it is being harmed by the West now. But there are things the West can do to help - cutting agricultural subsidies and increasing aid to African governments that are making a good start in fighting poverty. These things are politically hard to do, much harder than airlifting food aid to Ethiopia in a famine. Live8 and other work by NGOs are slowly building up the popular support in the West that will make them possible.
And it's having results - in the UK, the government department with the fastest growing budget since Labour came to power in 1997 has been the Department for International Development, traditionally the lowest status department in the government. Blair and Brown are pushing for a doubling of aid from the EU. I gather Bush has promised to triple aid to Africa. This stuff would not happen without lots of flawed radicals and campaigners pushing the issue up the polticians' agenda.
Trade is the next battleground and will be much harder to crack - just listening to the debates recently on the EU budget makes you realise how far there is to go. But that fight may be even more important than aid.
Live8 was a rock concert. Personally, I listened to some of it mainly for the music - there seemed to be precious little about Africa in it. I'm not sure anyone with maturity puts these egotistical performers up on a pedestal[1]. I had to laugh when the BBC interviewed an oh-so sincere Madonna - whose energetic haranguing the audience to dance to the "Music" was memorably described as resembling a "PE teacher from hell" - and she said she'd never been to Africa. But who cares if the performers are doing it to boost their egos or sales? If they have done a little to push poverty in Africa up the agenda, good on them.
My argument only falls down when it comes to Bill Gates, giving his fortune away to save kids in developing countries. Man, that takes my breath away.![]()
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