AGAINST CYNICAL HACKS - MAKE POVERTY HISTORY
A colleague at work told me that he had read a review of the Glastonbury festival that said no one really knew what Bob Geldof was on about when he tried to rally the crowd. He asked me why Geldof pops up once every twenty years to rant on about Africa. I also read a comment on the BBC site about his having an inflated ego, etc.
Stop!
Here is a man who has often campaigned on poverty-related issues. It doesn't often hit the big headlines because it doesn't involve Live 8 type events. (Incidentally, he had to be begged to do this one. Itisn't a publicity stunt.) He has, as far as I know, visited the continent on many occasions. What I know for certain is that he was a member of The Commission for Africa, a UK governmental body which was set up to look into all these issues and into what the developed (read "rich")world could do to help solve some of the continent's woes.
Commission for Africa site:
http://commissionforafrica.org/index.html
Geldof knows his stuff. As for his oratory skills, that's a matter of opinion. I like him because he talks straight. In the middle of millions of messages broadcast across the planet every day, he is saying the things that need, desperately, to be said. OK, words are just words, I know. But Geldof is doing more than any other human being on the planet to raise awareness this year. And awareness is where it's at. As far as I know, the hip Glasto crowd responded well. Some people cried. A lot of the audience will have been following the campaign from the beginning of the year.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4620635.stm
As for the timing, this year is a once in a generation chance to make a huge impact on global poverty. The reason is to do with a unique coincidence of events. The UK government, which is more progressive on these issues than most governments, is hosting the G8 summit in Gleneagles. The summit has development on its agenda, and comes quickly on the heels of the tsunami disaster, which motivated millions to give an unprecedented amount of money. So, the argument goes, with this amount of popular awareness coinciding with this political event, the opportunities for change are immense. And won't come again soon.
The Make Poverty History campaign aims to:
- double aid
- cancel all debts
- bring about fairer trade rules
If trade rules can be altered (getting rid of subsidies to rich countries, letting developing countries have a degree of protection for their markets...) or, at the very least, aid was not conditional on these countries' having to implement unsuitable economic policies (privatising their essential services, etc), then we wouldn't have to have the level of poverty that we put up with.
Of course, Bush has already watered everything right down and the politicos are doing their usual fudging. So the show will go on as usual...
Except that this time, there's a crucial difference. Because of Live 8 (which will be a culmination of the growth in awareness of these issues since the original Live Aid) THE WHOLE WORLD IS WATCHING. And if these bastards do not heed the million people on the streets, we can take one clear message away from it: democracy is a sick plant. People have been coming to realise this, but it will never have been hammered home so starkly.
1968 nothing. Welcome to 2005. Go to the Live 8 site and sign the petition.
