Live 8
Saturday, July 2nd, 2005Will this really change the world, or is it nothing more than a big pop concert? It’s been pointed out that the nation went back from Live Aid in 1985 and voted Thatcher back in again twice.
Samizdata.net quotes this completely cynical statement from Julian Morrison
You know what, I’ve finally understood what this whole “live 8″ nonsense is about. I twigged when I heard a quote on the news, something like “this is all about you, the leaders of the G8, because you make the decisions”. Recognise the instinctual pattern: singing and dancing, mass ecstatic rallies, high moral cause, loud appeals for attention and for aid from on high - they’re praying, to the only gods they know.
I realise that once rock concert is not going to change everything, and that Africa’s problems are complex, and owe as much to the kleptocrats and thugs ruling too many African nations it does to the northern worlds unfair trade rules and usurious loan policies. But that sort of cynicism will achieve nothing.
I’m still looking forward to Pink Floyd.