Never learn, do you?
28 years after the first charity appeals, you, knighted musician and global poverty campaigner, Bob Geldof, have returned to Ethiopia to highlight the issue of famine and climate change, declaring that the up-coming G8 meeting at the US fortress of Camp David "is capable of contributing to end" poverty, even though having already failed to adhere to aid targets set at its Gleneagles summit in 2005.
You acknowledge that people may have grown tired of your campaigning, but say even basic projects such as the irrigation sceme you were inspecting, saved lives. "I know people are like...'Oh, Geldof, give it a break' but the facts is these people are not dead."
Perhaps those particular more fortunate people are not dead, Sir Bob, but you ignore the vastly more numerous victims who are because sincere, well-intentioned people were misled and deluded by the likes of what you and your accomplice, Bono, try to argue.
Who are the G8? It is a clique of the eight leading industrial nations who have appointed themselves rulers of the world. The G8 leaders are actually the executive of the capitalist class of their respective countries and are the staunchest defenders of neoliberal corporate globalisation, the custodians of privilege and corporate power and the guardians of world capitalism. They help rule the world and maintain the playing field for profit-hungry western corporations. Together they have the power to dictate who eats and who starves, who lives and who dies, to declare war regardless of the wishes of the people who elected them. Their policies have resulted in global poverty and environmental destruction. In a nutshell, they are the enemy yet you go down on one knee, once more, pleading and begging for favours and alms.
In all the years since the first Live Aid concert in 1985 the aim was to make a difference. But what real difference has been made? You direct our attention to a few irrigation ditches as its bountiful fruits. Sure, it cannot be denied that in a minor way the money raised following concerts and your media appearances has done a little bit of good for some. But this should be seen against the scale of the problem and whether the actions led by yourself in any way addressed the cause. Over the years, all the international aid agencies have posted the statistics of the numbers suffering from poverty and want. You can probably recite these statistics as easily as you can the words to your songs. These figures indicate that since the first Live Aid concert the numbers dying from poverty have been increasing horrendously, which leaves little doubt that yourself and the charities have made no significant impact on the problem. The grim fact is that the methods you espouse stand no chance of ending deaths from deprivation. If we are to be serious about stopping this perpetual holocaust, all the people who support you should have a serious re-think.
There is little evidence that any cancellation of debt resulted in improved conditions for the peoples of Africa. A more realistic view of the loans and aid given is that they enabled Western governments, their banks and global corporations to maintain an economic stranglehold on the economies of countries that are rich in resources such as oil, natural gas, gold, diamonds, iron ore, titanium ore, bauxite, timber, rubber, copper and other vital materials. It may very well be that the governments of the G8 will make a gesture to placate yourself and others but it will only be as a means of continuing their grip on African countries whilst dressing up their actions with the phoney rhetoric of care and concern.
Contrary to your own example and practice, workers in the developed countries should not become involved in the machinations of interest groups whose basic concern is profit and the economic strategies of ruling elites, because they become victims of a seductive but deadly process. The capitalist system constantly throws up issues that demand action and often as a result, protest tends to become a demand for an “improved” kind of capitalism, with immediate "remedies" which leaves the long-term reasons for the protest intact. This has been the history of anti-poverty campaigns. In this sense, you yourself tend to set the stage for further appeals and more campaigns, as you yourself should now have realised from your own experience and your constant re-visiting of the past, with the repetitive same old mantras.
Bob, asking governments to act on our behalf does little more than confirm the continuity of the system. The point is to change society, not to appeal to the doubtful better nature of its power structures.
28 years after the first charity appeals, you, knighted musician and global poverty campaigner, Bob Geldof, have returned to Ethiopia to highlight the issue of famine and climate change, declaring that the up-coming G8 meeting at the US fortress of Camp David "is capable of contributing to end" poverty, even though having already failed to adhere to aid targets set at its Gleneagles summit in 2005.
You acknowledge that people may have grown tired of your campaigning, but say even basic projects such as the irrigation sceme you were inspecting, saved lives. "I know people are like...'Oh, Geldof, give it a break' but the facts is these people are not dead."
Perhaps those particular more fortunate people are not dead, Sir Bob, but you ignore the vastly more numerous victims who are because sincere, well-intentioned people were misled and deluded by the likes of what you and your accomplice, Bono, try to argue.
Who are the G8? It is a clique of the eight leading industrial nations who have appointed themselves rulers of the world. The G8 leaders are actually the executive of the capitalist class of their respective countries and are the staunchest defenders of neoliberal corporate globalisation, the custodians of privilege and corporate power and the guardians of world capitalism. They help rule the world and maintain the playing field for profit-hungry western corporations. Together they have the power to dictate who eats and who starves, who lives and who dies, to declare war regardless of the wishes of the people who elected them. Their policies have resulted in global poverty and environmental destruction. In a nutshell, they are the enemy yet you go down on one knee, once more, pleading and begging for favours and alms.
In all the years since the first Live Aid concert in 1985 the aim was to make a difference. But what real difference has been made? You direct our attention to a few irrigation ditches as its bountiful fruits. Sure, it cannot be denied that in a minor way the money raised following concerts and your media appearances has done a little bit of good for some. But this should be seen against the scale of the problem and whether the actions led by yourself in any way addressed the cause. Over the years, all the international aid agencies have posted the statistics of the numbers suffering from poverty and want. You can probably recite these statistics as easily as you can the words to your songs. These figures indicate that since the first Live Aid concert the numbers dying from poverty have been increasing horrendously, which leaves little doubt that yourself and the charities have made no significant impact on the problem. The grim fact is that the methods you espouse stand no chance of ending deaths from deprivation. If we are to be serious about stopping this perpetual holocaust, all the people who support you should have a serious re-think.
There is little evidence that any cancellation of debt resulted in improved conditions for the peoples of Africa. A more realistic view of the loans and aid given is that they enabled Western governments, their banks and global corporations to maintain an economic stranglehold on the economies of countries that are rich in resources such as oil, natural gas, gold, diamonds, iron ore, titanium ore, bauxite, timber, rubber, copper and other vital materials. It may very well be that the governments of the G8 will make a gesture to placate yourself and others but it will only be as a means of continuing their grip on African countries whilst dressing up their actions with the phoney rhetoric of care and concern.
Contrary to your own example and practice, workers in the developed countries should not become involved in the machinations of interest groups whose basic concern is profit and the economic strategies of ruling elites, because they become victims of a seductive but deadly process. The capitalist system constantly throws up issues that demand action and often as a result, protest tends to become a demand for an “improved” kind of capitalism, with immediate "remedies" which leaves the long-term reasons for the protest intact. This has been the history of anti-poverty campaigns. In this sense, you yourself tend to set the stage for further appeals and more campaigns, as you yourself should now have realised from your own experience and your constant re-visiting of the past, with the repetitive same old mantras.
Bob, asking governments to act on our behalf does little more than confirm the continuity of the system. The point is to change society, not to appeal to the doubtful better nature of its power structures.
"The G8 is always making plans but they don't implement them," said Rafael Uaiene, assistant professor of international development with Michigan State University, who is based in Maputo, and is a former director of Mozambique's National Agricultural Research Institute. "The trouble is, millions of dollars are committed but they never reach the ground in most cases."
ReplyDeletehttp://socialistbanner.blogspot.com/2012/05/wooden-chips-for-dinner.html
Nicholas Hellen of the Sunday Times writes: “Bob Geldof has secured non-domiciled tax status, a loophole enabling him to avoid large sums of tax on overseas earnings.”
ReplyDeleteThe report reveals that the former singer is worth £32 million and “has arranged his tax affairs so his London apartment and mansion in Kent are exempt from stamp duty and inheritance tax."
http://www.thedrum.co.uk/news/2012/05/20/making-millions-bob-geldof-fraser-ewing-semion-mogilevich-and-rbs-fatcats
“Both properties are owned by offshore companies, based in the British Virgin Isles.”