Live 8 Debate
What's this all about, then? Live 8, the glorious follow-up to Live Aid, a series of concerts occuring simultaneously around the world to raise hundreds of millions of dollars to aid in the famine in Ethiopia. Live 8, socalled because it centres itself around the G8 nations that recently dropped the debt for 18 nations, 14 of them African. Great. "Just open your doors and get our money juices flowing" and all that aid will seep through! Nice. What makes me skeptical of this project is, do the majority of people care? I can almost guarantee that over half of the people going to this thing are going because they're going to see Pink Floyd, Coldplay, 50 Cent, and other big names in the music industry for free. Sure, there are many well-intentioned people who genuinely care about the plight of the Third-World, but where will they be two weeks later?
Bob Geldof and Bono are two very well-intentioned men who are doing something admirable and are concerned with something we all should be concerned with. The only problem is, we should be concerned about these things more often, not just when the country's biggest and brightest (somewhat debatable) stars are gathered together for a free concert. It kills me to think that so much hard work is going to waste.
And the dire situations in the Third World aren't the only things we should be aware of. How about the Western role in creating these problems? Canada has had a hand in Suharto's regime, and has dealt arms to Saudi Arabia and the Phillipines. America, well, I just finished an entire semester on how subsequent corporate-driven governments have run rampant through the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Just think of so many problems that could've been avoided nowadays had America never supported the Shah in Iran. No Islamic Revolution, Jimmy Carter (what a sweetheart) probably could've won a second term, No Iran-Contra scandal, no wholesale delivery of WMD's to Saddam, no Iran-Iraq War where both sides showed extreme brutality to the other (Saddam used chemical weapons, an Iraqi soldier attempted escape from an Iranian POW camp, only to be caught and have his kneecaps forced out from behind with a knifeblade. Read Bravo 2.0 by Andy McNabb for a grim account of the Gulf War), no nuclear crisis in Iran, no war in Iraq. It's mindboggling, really. Goddammit. Education, people. I don't know what's going to go down at Live 8, but the chances of maybe learning something are pretty good. Expand on what you learn. Good will come of it.
Bob Geldof and Bono are two very well-intentioned men who are doing something admirable and are concerned with something we all should be concerned with. The only problem is, we should be concerned about these things more often, not just when the country's biggest and brightest (somewhat debatable) stars are gathered together for a free concert. It kills me to think that so much hard work is going to waste.
And the dire situations in the Third World aren't the only things we should be aware of. How about the Western role in creating these problems? Canada has had a hand in Suharto's regime, and has dealt arms to Saudi Arabia and the Phillipines. America, well, I just finished an entire semester on how subsequent corporate-driven governments have run rampant through the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America. Just think of so many problems that could've been avoided nowadays had America never supported the Shah in Iran. No Islamic Revolution, Jimmy Carter (what a sweetheart) probably could've won a second term, No Iran-Contra scandal, no wholesale delivery of WMD's to Saddam, no Iran-Iraq War where both sides showed extreme brutality to the other (Saddam used chemical weapons, an Iraqi soldier attempted escape from an Iranian POW camp, only to be caught and have his kneecaps forced out from behind with a knifeblade. Read Bravo 2.0 by Andy McNabb for a grim account of the Gulf War), no nuclear crisis in Iran, no war in Iraq. It's mindboggling, really. Goddammit. Education, people. I don't know what's going to go down at Live 8, but the chances of maybe learning something are pretty good. Expand on what you learn. Good will come of it.
G8 Arms Exports Report: Amnesty International
EU And Africa: The Independent
Privatisation and Debt Relief: IPS
The Injuries Need More Than Band-Aids: IPS
Bards of the Powerful: The Guardian
Canada Crushes Third World, Not Third World Debt
posted by Derek at 11:57 p.m.
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