Africa - The Dark (and desperately poor) Continent.
The Live 8 show has started in Japan. For those living under a rock, or in other words, in the United States where Africa barely registers on the nation's newspapers or on its collective conscience, Live 8 is a worldwide series of concerts under the larger banner of Bob Geldorf's (he who started Live Aid in '85) Make Poverty History campaign, striving to raise awareness ahead of the G8 summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, where Tony Blair has declared African poverty reduction as one of his avowed goals of the G8 presidency. The campaign hopes to mobilise 100,000 odd to "protest" / march for Africa's plight at the G8 summit and 100,000 + to the concert in London, and has managed to persuade Roger Waters to kiss and make up with Gilmour et al, and play under a united Floyd banner. Who's to find fault with their really phenomenal mobilising power, or with their entreaty that 30,000 children should not die of hunger every day? Surely a campaign that has already helped secure aid packages, has helped keep poverty reduction topical, and at the very least gets the teeny-bopper types thinking of the underprivileged can only be a vehicle for good. Geldorf and Bono's achievements are considerable, certainly not to be sneezed at, and they seem genuinely concerned, yet doubts linger...
The rock-stars appear to be a little too cosy with Mr. Blair, who claims to share the same goals of Making Poverty History. Like George Monbiot notes, the "protest" organisers seem a little too eager to endorse Blair's plans, without offering anything really in the way of criticism of past and present G8 policy that is responsible for Africa being where it is now. As noted in today's Guardian increasingly the so-called "protests" are looking like a stage-managed affair, if you want to protest Africa's state Tony is all smiles and open arms, let's make History together, but woe betide the stray protester that brings up the War, or bashes capitalism or heaven forbid suggest that G8 policy might actually be a cause - he/ she is definitely not welcome. Protest is allowed, but only in a limited format and scope, there are disturbing shades of US-style "free speech zones".
There are many (esp. in the US) who carp about aid money being sent into the "black-hole" of Africa, according to these nay-sayers it never seems to be enough, they always want more. They bleat on about corruption, without once considering that Western governments and corporations would much rather deal with corrupt pliant regimes that would put Western interests above Africa's, than with an accountable representative government. There's not even a twinge of remorse at the centuries of exploitation of Africa by the West. First came the imperial colonisers, when they left, they were replaced by the coporational colonisers, together they have exploited and looted Africa of her jewels, her gold and her oil. As Naomi Klein argues what Africa needs is not pity but justice, justice for the many years her land and her people were exploited. It is true that Africa has received a fair bit of aid, but it has largely been marked emergency relief only, which meant the money couldn't be used to to fund development initiatives that would ensure that the 80s famines didn't repeat, the consequences for Ethiopia have been pretty stark. This time round, there are some somewhat encouraging signs not least being the deal to cancel the debts of some of the poorest nations, thereby allowing them to spend on basic things like health care etc. instead of on interest payments. However too much of the aid is coming with conditions and this baggage of neo-liberal horse-dung.
Finally, if you really wanted to make poverty history, a good place to start would be to learn from it.
The rock-stars appear to be a little too cosy with Mr. Blair, who claims to share the same goals of Making Poverty History. Like George Monbiot notes, the "protest" organisers seem a little too eager to endorse Blair's plans, without offering anything really in the way of criticism of past and present G8 policy that is responsible for Africa being where it is now. As noted in today's Guardian increasingly the so-called "protests" are looking like a stage-managed affair, if you want to protest Africa's state Tony is all smiles and open arms, let's make History together, but woe betide the stray protester that brings up the War, or bashes capitalism or heaven forbid suggest that G8 policy might actually be a cause - he/ she is definitely not welcome. Protest is allowed, but only in a limited format and scope, there are disturbing shades of US-style "free speech zones".
There are many (esp. in the US) who carp about aid money being sent into the "black-hole" of Africa, according to these nay-sayers it never seems to be enough, they always want more. They bleat on about corruption, without once considering that Western governments and corporations would much rather deal with corrupt pliant regimes that would put Western interests above Africa's, than with an accountable representative government. There's not even a twinge of remorse at the centuries of exploitation of Africa by the West. First came the imperial colonisers, when they left, they were replaced by the coporational colonisers, together they have exploited and looted Africa of her jewels, her gold and her oil. As Naomi Klein argues what Africa needs is not pity but justice, justice for the many years her land and her people were exploited. It is true that Africa has received a fair bit of aid, but it has largely been marked emergency relief only, which meant the money couldn't be used to to fund development initiatives that would ensure that the 80s famines didn't repeat, the consequences for Ethiopia have been pretty stark. This time round, there are some somewhat encouraging signs not least being the deal to cancel the debts of some of the poorest nations, thereby allowing them to spend on basic things like health care etc. instead of on interest payments. However too much of the aid is coming with conditions and this baggage of neo-liberal horse-dung.
Finally, if you really wanted to make poverty history, a good place to start would be to learn from it.