Live 8

John_Timmins · 02-07-2005, 16:06

No need to say anything more but just get your name on the list

www.live8live.com

jpest1 · 02-07-2005, 20:20

Keep this on the page so others can see it

WillowTheWhisp · 02-07-2005, 20:36

I'm watching the concert now.

I wish I could be optimistic enough to believe that everything will change but there's so much corruption and so much doesn't get to those who really need it.

I've been reading about the last 100 years or so in Africa and how the problems whch exist today have been created. So much needs to change.

At least this has brought the problems more to our attention and one of the things I hope for is that this country doesn't deport people back to a certain death in Zimbabwe. I know that's only one African country but there is so much corruption that we probably don't even know about too.

20 years ago with Band Aid and Live Aid I was so full of optimism that the world was going to be changed and for a few it did. Did you see the young woman who was one of those starving babies who would otherwise not have survived? At least it changed for her, and hopefully many others yet there is still so much suffering and a great deal of it manmade from within Africa itself. Can that be changed? I really do want to hope so.

jpest1 · 02-07-2005, 21:14

Help keep this on the active page.Others should be able to see this and I dont know how to do it, apart from keep posting

chav1 · 02-07-2005, 21:20

ime all for cancelling the debt but where exactly is the money coming from to DOUBLE aid given to them , isnt what charities give and what the govenment give already enough if they are cancelling the debt

yeah ime a tight sod but we have problems in the uk that the govenment should be putting money into and not sending it abroad

mind you if it stops the buggers coming here and bleeding the NHS dry ime all for it

John_Timmins · 02-07-2005, 22:00

Keeping this active! could somebody sticky it to the top for a while????

Acrylic-bob · 03-07-2005, 07:31

Before rushing, lemming-like, to sign up for the pious tripe peddled yesterday, perhaps members would like to read the following article.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...678543,00.html

Gayle · 03-07-2005, 09:38

I know you've got a point and yesterday was a bit pious but I think it was right for it to happen. Before hearing about Live8 I knew very little about the G8 summit and wasn't really aware of the extent of the problems in Africa. Because of this event I do know more about it as do a lot of other people.

Bob Geldof and his cronies did manage to persuade the issue to be raised at the G8 summit and that can only be a good thing.

I don't think the problems of Africa can be solved by a rock concert but I do think that it's impossible to solve a problem unless you know about it.

The report that you linked to says that public opinion doesn't count but I was always under the impression that our politicians are supposed to represent us - therefore our opinion has to count. And public opinion is saying to our politicians that we must really work towards a solution. Whether that will happen or not, I don't know.

John_Timmins · 03-07-2005, 09:44

I dont think the main way they were trying to stop overty was by a rock concert but by showing the mass size of surport that people will give to the cause! and to tell the politicians that it is a concern of the Public and therefore needs dealing with on their agenda

garinda · 03-07-2005, 09:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

Before rushing, lemming-like, to sign up for the pious tripe peddled yesterday, perhaps members would like to read the following article.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...678543,00.html

Cynics are welcome to sit on their arses in their ivory towers.

What's the point of anything?

Geldof is able to raise awareness of an issue through celebrity and music, you have Accy Web A-b.

Vive la difference.

P.S. thanks for this thread yesterday John, I hope people did sign if they wanted to.

Sara · 03-07-2005, 10:58

Can still sign today.

John_Timmins · 03-07-2005, 13:47

yeah (just keeping at the top) can somebody please sticky this for a week or so?

chav1 · 03-07-2005, 14:08

lets be serious, people didnt turn up because they were distresed at the affairs of africa and want our govenment to act

they turned up to see a bargain concert full of world famous acts all on one stage in one day for the price of 1 ticket

public opinion rarely matters to politions because by the time the next election comes up people are more interested in how much tax they are going to pay and not how much trouble africa is in

if polotitions listened to public opinion accrington would not be in such a sorry state

Acrylic-bob · 03-07-2005, 18:38

Please do not misunderstand, as I have said before in different threads, the problems of Africa and the poor of the world are the responsibility of the whole world. However I do not believe that debt relief and increased aid are the answer.

Why are we not united in our criticism of current government mis-spending? Why are we not writing to Cormack Murphy O'Connor demanding that instead of his mimsy support of a ridiculous march he actually does something to try and fill the shoes of his predecessor and tackle the Pope on the issue of Condoms and AIDS? Why are we allowing people like Mugabe of Zimbabwe to get away with impoverishing, starving and oppressing his own people?

And while we are at it, do you really think a couple of choruses of "all you need is love" is going to do anything to influence the muslim government of the Sudan and persuade them that genocide is actually a bad idea?

But no, what we have here is the usual socialist response to any problem - throw money at it. We won't concern ourselves with where the money goes or what it is spent on, just so long as it is an amount so obscenley large that it assuages our guilt for a while until the next crisis, or until Saint Geldoff and his chums need their next five minutes in the global limelight.

The real problems are Bad Governance, Corruption, UN-fair trade and a vast population which, in many sections, is only a couple of generations removed from the stone age.

Yesterday was just another excuse to demonstrate the national propensity for wallowing in mawkish sentimentality. We saw it when Diana died, when the Soham girls were murdered, when Ken Bigley was murdered, during the Tsunami Appeal, etc. etc. ad infinitum, ad bl**dy nauseam. The G8 Conference comunique, which was written last week, will have some very soothing words to say about the condition of the poor and that will be it. The sense of national guilt will be stroked into quiescence and put back in its box till next time.

However, it was nice to see Pink Floyd playing together again, so perhaps the day was not a complete non-event.

Acrylic-bob · 03-07-2005, 19:14

It might interest you to know where the host of this years G8 Conference was today. Tony Blair was in Singapore to try and persuade members of the International Olympic Committee to allow us to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on two weeks of "Sport".

This is the man who only a couple of weeks ago told us that he was listening to the public.