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    Live 8

    Anyone been watching the gigs today?
    Here in the uk the music has been great-The Who-Joss Stone-Annie Lennox-Madonna(still very hot lady)-Robbie Williams-Keane.

    Lets hope all the G8 leaders are taking notice and do something.

    #2
    Am looking forward to watching it tonight, it's a wonderful cause and an amazing event.

    s

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      #3
      Any gigs going on down under.

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        #4
        nope....we arent a g8 nation.
        but we had heaps of aussie acts playing around the world.....jet, keith urban.....um...tina arena was gonna make some ears bleed too.

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          #5
          Originally posted by Xaryth
          Lets hope all the G8 leaders are taking notice and do something.
          The concerts are trying to persuade the G8 leaders to do what they have already agreed to do. That is a waste of effort. And they're not even asking their huge audience to contribute a single penny to help people in Africa. That is a wasted opportunity. I'm afraid Sir Bob Geldof has lost the plot this time.

          IMHO of course

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            #6
            i thought it was a pretty decent idea.
            didnt live aid not work?? or not as well as hoped. i know that george harrisons "concert for bangladesh" was a flop.

            the g8 countries have promised alot but they havent lived up to it yet. these concerts were to make people aware of the situation and to get them to pressure their mp's into real action and not just vote winning bullshit.

            10 for effort bob.

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              #7
              I am speculating that maybe Sir Bob is trying in his own way to get us to look at things another way. Pouring relief money into developing nations works in the short run--and we should not diminish that, because lives are saved--but does little to affect economic conditions that create poverty in the first place. I am not saying we shouldn't send money, but we also need to look at underlying causes. In the long run, developing nations need to have sustainable economies that enable their people to earn a living wage. The natural resources of these nations, and the wealth they create, need to go first to the people of those nations, and then to rich nations, such as mine. Right now, the opposite is often the case. This sort of change is much harder to achieve, of course. Calling this event Live 8 conjured memories of Live Aid's huge success in fundraising; maybe he should have named it something else, because it does have a different purpose.

              I didn't know it was on a broadcast channel where I live until ten minutes after it went off the air. In the US at least, ABC carried it from 8 to 10, then went with America's Funniest Home Videos. Glad to see the folks in network television have their priorities straight--that's what will really solve this crisis--videos of babies falling off of tricycles and brides falling into the cake.

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                #8
                Originally posted by Ozboy24
                the g8 countries have promised alot but they havent lived up to it yet. these concerts were to make people aware of the situation and to get them to pressure their mp's into real action and not just vote winning bullshit.

                10 for effort bob.
                Very true the only way to put pressure on governments is to make the people aware.The number children dying in Africa every day is the same as 9/11 happening every day.See what the leaders of major world governments have done,spent in response to that.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Xaryth
                  Very true the only way to put pressure on governments is to make the people aware.
                  Oh, the idealism of youth ! Offering to spend the voters' money on any external cause, however worthwhile, will never be an election winner IMO. The people who need convincing are not the public and their politicians. The World Bank, the World Trade Organization , and the IMF are the ones who have the power to change the ruthless trade rules that are keeping poor countries poor. We should also be putting intolerable pressure on third world rulers who stay in power by cruelty and corruption, bankrupting their countries in the process (and I am looking at you, Robert Mugabe). The Live8 protesters have been strangely silent on this aspect of the problem.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Philos
                    Oh, the idealism of youth ! The people who need convincing are not the public and their politicians. The World Bank, the World Trade Organization , and the IMF are the ones who have the power to change the ruthless trade rules that are keeping poor countries poor. We should also be putting intolerable pressure on third world rulers who stay in power by cruelty and corruption, bankrupting their countries in the process (and I am looking at you, Robert Mugabe). The Live8 protesters have been strangely silent on this aspect of the problem.
                    Oh so correct in your observations. Our "world leaders shoud read this post" I am not 100 percent in favour of Bush but, at least he recognizes these truths, and doesn't follow the "younger", world masses, Regardless of their well intiouns. Due to our LOCAL, and lack of, reliable news the people in the U.S. have a VERY biased opinion of the world situation. Unfortunatley , the rest of the world is facing the same problem. In the U.S. we tend to think that Euorpean media is vastly superior, myself included. However, America and Europe are driven by similar agendas. Politics be dammned. My father told me that to solve a problem you must first boil your problem down to the base or first denominator and then solve that. If you can do this your problem can be solved. It appears to me that a number of the world problems could be erradicated if this thought process prevailed amongst our several countrys.

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                      #11
                      One major problem is that erasing poorer nations debts will achieve almost nothing long term. Almost all services, water, electricity etc, are now privatised. The people still need to pay for these services, which they cannot. Erasing their goverments debt does nothing to change this fact. What we should be focusing on, as Artlover said, is long term solutions, such as providing infrastructure and education which will allow poorer nations to develope on their own, and not be so crippling dependant on rich nations.

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                        #12
                        i think another thing bob geldof wanted was for the g8 nations to provide $28 billion in aid too.

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                          #13
                          Originally posted by Philos
                          We should also be putting intolerable pressure on third world rulers who stay in power by cruelty and corruption, bankrupting their countries in the process (and I am looking at you, Robert Mugabe).
                          This is the BIG problem. George Harrison's concert got lots of money which was all swallowed up in administration. Bob's Live Aid used the money to buy goods and get them straight to Ethiopia. Unfortunately, corrupt government benefited and the people who were starving didn't get so much. Pouring money into countries like Zimbabwe and Sudan does F-all to help the people who need it. I don't know if Uncle George and the other 7 are all that interested in putting on 'intolerable pressure'.

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                            #14
                            <img>
                            I don't know if Uncle George and the other 7 are all that interested in putting on 'intolerable pressure'.
                            Dubya might if there was oil under their ground .... but there isn't.
                            Same with the dictatorship in Burma .... what's the point of freeing an oppressed people if they cant reward you with oil contracts afterwards.

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                              #15
                              Relieving the debt of these nations only allows them to borrow more money. When they borrow more money, it will mostly be embezzled by those in power and perhaps siphoned off to their foreign bank accounts.

                              Several African nations have had their debt relieved, but not all, and Live8 is not happy about it. They want rich nations like Nigeria, OPEC member and world's 11-th highest producer of petroleum, to have their slates wiped clean.

                              Sorry, but I think Live8 is a farce, and Geldoff is a self-serving clown. If you really want to effect change in Africa, you'll have to commit to changing their governments. Some of this you may be able to do through offering trade incentives, but you may also have to commit to sending in your militaries to enforce the rule of law.

                              Comment

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