Another Quiet Day

Live8

Proving once again that I am a heartless bastard (and lazy since I should be Ph.Ding at the moment).

This is triggered off by Tom Abba's posting on Live8. Other than that, the rant that follows has precious little to do with his post, so don't blame him.

This Live8 thing annoys me.

Africa's greatest problems are corruption and AIDS.

More money gets wasted in a single year there by corruption than came from the last hundred years of aid from the UK.

Corruption prevents industries from being built and businesses from competing.

The current protectionist economic climate that favours Europe and America is nasty and evil to be sure, but it comes as a distant third when it comes to the list of "things that ail Africa."

Which means that the Live8 thing is just a bunch of self-righteous, pretentious morons assuaging the middle-class guilt of western consumers.

Which, after donating and throwing a signature in the direction of the G8, will go on to ignore the pharmaceutical companies that refuse to license generic AIDS drugs to third world countries.

Which means that they'll feel they've done their bit and won't pressure the Catholic church to change their anti-condom propaganda in Africa.

Which means that the music loving sheep of the world won't even have a clue that the US and EU's pesticide policy is sabotaging most African countries' fight against malaria. (Western governments being all nice and hypocritical-like, use economic pressure to prevent the use of strong pesticides to combat the flies that carry malaria when the same tactics had been responsible for wiping out malaria in the west---something that used to be a huge problem in cities such as New York.)

Which means that they won't ask their governments to stop propping up corrupt regimes in Africa (who after all, if the debts would be cancelled, would just take the money, making no difference to the African public).

Bob Geldoff is a self-righteous fuck who would do more good with his head down a bucket.

He ignored the fact that twenty years ago, a large part of the problem was a communist tyrant (a communist government instituting mass movements of people killing of thousands? It's happened so often in history that it's practically a cliche).

Mengistu was in power until 1991. How many years after live aid was that?

Ironically, continuing famine was the large part of the reason why he was overthrown.

Geldoff and his partners in crime can stage a top notch concert (probably increasing London's chances at the olympics in the process, although I'm sure that's not his point).

But when it comes to the humanitarian agenda?

He's a fucking twat.

An ignorant twat who assumes that Europe and America are so superior or that Africans are so inferior that Africa needs to be propped up by the donations and charity of the good-spirited western middle class.

It's no different from the naive posturing of the well-meaning upper-class in Victorian England, talking then, as well as now, about 'the African problem.'

I know I'm grumpy. It's my birthday and I'm spending the day working on my fucking Ph.D.

Anyhow, sorry about the rant. It's just that Live8 would have been an excellent chance to campaign against corruption, AIDS and malaria. Instead it's just a self-centred pat on the back for a bunch of ivory tower musicians.

Baldur Bjarnason – 3/7/05