Live 8 Set for July

Sir Bob Geldof, a/k/a Saint Bob, had a tolerable musical career with the Boomtown Rats, but he got his knighthood for his actions to alleviate hunger in Africa 20 years ago. In announcing his newest venture, “Live 8,” he began his remarks with “Here we are again.” Sadly, he is right. But this time, the organizers are coming back older, wiser, and angrier. Maybe, they can shake things up rather than put a bandage on Africa's problems.

Live 8 is set for July 2, to coincide with the opening of the G-8 summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, just a few miles from Edinburgh, which opens July 6. The concerts will take place simultaneously in Rome, Berlin, Paris, London, and Philadelphia. The Philly gig will include Will Smith, Bon Jovi, Stevie Wonder and Maroon 5, while London gets Madonna, Coldplay, REM, Dido, Sir Paul McCartney and Keane. Other artists are being announced as this is being posted – one prays that the Spice Girls don’t reunite for this.

But the concert is not the real issue here, and this time around, the money raised to “Feed the World” isn’t it either. This time, the organizers are out for political blood. Never has Europe been richer, never has America been more powerful. And 50,000 people die every day from extreme poverty. Ten children have died in the time it takes the average reader to get this far into this article because they didn’t have access to the basic resources required to draw another breath. The verdict on Live Aid 1985 is that it didn’t work – a noble and glorious failure, but a failure nonetheless. Pure and simple, Sir Bob raised more money for Africa having tea with the French president recently than the concerts 20 years ago pulled in.

What Sir Bob rightly recognizes is a lack of political will, and in his remarks yesterday, he spoke about the failings of the west. In America, for example, he praised President Bush rightly for his rather radical proposals for improving the lot of Africans. Good ideas that never made it out of Congress, Sir Bob said, because the legislators get no heat about African problems. The idea of Live 8 will be to provide that heat. If Tony Blair is serious about ending world poverty, then here is the golden opportunity.

Sixty years ago, there was a continent that was completely bankrupt. Its cities lay in ruins, it peoples were hungry, cold and in need. American Secretary of State George Marshall came up with a plan to utilize America’s economy to rebuild Europe. It was seen as an act of selflessness, but also it was a shrewd economic move – it’s better to have rich trading partners than poor ones. So, “here we are again.”


© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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