Geldof, Bono and the Live 8 wankathon. : Melbourne Indymedia

Geldof, Bono and the Live 8 wankathon.

George Papanastasiou
2/7/05

How self-indulgent it must feel, I thought, to put on a huge concert highlighting the plight of Africa’s poor, then slip away via private jet to a mansion somewhere in the French Riviera to un-cork a $2000 bottle of Moet in front of your own private beach.

Really, how deluded must one be to think that massive rock-concerts can trigger a paradigm shift in the entrenched system of global greed?

They won’t, and not because they can’t, but because these ‘Live’ concerts were never designed to do that.

Live 8, like Live Aid before it, will only help Bono, Geldof, Elton John, REM, Madonna, Sting, Mariah Carey, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Robbie Williams among others, feel good about themselves and their fantasy lifestyles.

I mean, who the hell elected Geldof, Bono or any of these other rock-buffoons to voice our concerns to the worlds ultra-powerful anyway?

I nearly choked this morning as I surveyed an interesting photo of Bono and Condoleezza Rice shaking hands, as if both were world leaders deciding the fate of the planet.

Let’s face it, Geldof & Bono may be well intentioned, but they're misguided to the point of hallucination. They don’t understand (or maybe they do) that their efforts only serve to justify their own excesses, the iniquitous practices of the worlds powerful and, for only a moment, the charity of a western middle class guilt-tripped into sympathising.

It translates into a terrible joke played out on the worlds poor.

What would really be brave is if both G & B confronted the world’s rulers and the international economic casino head-on, to highlight the issues that CAUSE global debt and poverty.

Until then, they should hold their drug-induced couture wankathons in their private homes, well away from the easily seduced citizens of the world and the many activists of the non-billionaire variety who struggle daily to overthrow the inherently unjust capitalist system. The same system keeping Africans destitute so rock-stars can have golden guitars.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=1&ItemID=8181

Hi Santo,

You say, "Let’s face it, Geldof & Bono may be well intentioned, but they're misguided to the point of hallucination."

I disagree!

Well intended you mean besides not doing anything at all? Some people don't do anything at all for human rights causes even when they have made it.

You see it has been very well known that musicians and performers of all types have been given a venue of charity performing for 'free' for a good cause that would not only promote the charity's issues but to promote themselves. Some of them even being able to get their first major public break and or experience which may take allot of guts too.

Like 'communication' Santo, although I read what you have written about the lifestyle of the rich and famous 'it's a two way street' and we must never lose sight of that either.

Sure some people have more than others but one does not have to commit oneself to a common cause to help others. If you think musicians are just promoting themselves all the time then you are wrong. Some of the junior performers may well be doing that but I doubt that these superstars in the music industry would need to exploit human rights just for their own cause.

Performers of the league of Bono, Geldof, Elton John, REM, Madonna, Sting, Mariah Carey, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Robbie Williams don't need to promote themselves.

Not self indulgent to work for others? Even if they slipped back to toilet after performing for billions of people around the world they could have stayed at home.

You don't have to hate the rich you can also love them too just like all our brothers and sisters.

If you want to change peoples minds you could lead by example.

What have you got to offer? Who knows?

You said, "I nearly choked this morning as I surveyed an interesting photo of Bono and Condoleezza Rice shaking hands, as if both were world leaders deciding the fate of the planet."

People shake hands with other people whether they believe in one's philosophy or otherwise because it's diplomatic and how can you change the minds of people who have power if you cannot compromise and lead by example?

Well I wouldn't, choke unless I actually see them in bed together!

You could try by asking Bono what he thinks about the Iraq war?

My suggestion would be to also see where your 'golden guitar' is in relation to those starving in Africa and I'd bet those starving african people also see it as your 'golden guitar' to be eating well in Australia too.

Think about the relative difference between you and them and you and Bono or Geldof?

Desiterata

(The philosophy for a serene and happy life)

Max Ehrmann 1872 - 1945

Go placidly amidst the noise and haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.

Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant for they too have their story. Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.

If you compare yourself to others, you may become vain and bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans. Keep interested in your own career, however humble; it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery. But let this not blind you to what virtue there is; many person strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be good to yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment, it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God whatever you conceive him to be. And whatever your labors and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all it's sham drudgery and broken dreams,it is still a beautiful world. Be Cheerful. Strive to be happy.

I think Santo has a point. One of the biggest faults of the Live 8 concept is that it is directed entirely towards the leaders fo the Western world.

All the debt cancellation and foreign aid in the world will not mean a thing in twenty years unless the corrupt rulers of African countries change the way they manage their internal affairs, particularly economic ones.

These puffed up gibbons like Mugabe spend millions on defence and steal more millions from their own, starving people.

Not a word from Sir Bob or Bono about these monkies dressed in suits.

They must reform or be damned.

Greeg Staynes echoes the racist justification for Third World poverty peddled by Blair, Bust and the rest: ``corruption''.

Of course, for decades the West funnelled billions to anti-communist dictators like Mobutu, Suharto and the apartheid regime, and funded wars throughout Africa to stop the victory of liberation movements.

Since then, the West and IMF have continued to prop up rotten pro-big business, pro-neoliberal regimes, including Mugabe's. Big corporations plunder Africa and bribe their way throughout the continent. But Blair, Bush and Howard look the other way.

But all that is not what the West means by ``corruption'' and ``good governance''. They mean any attempt by African and other Third World people's who force their governments to buck IMF dictates, or attempts to stop the flow of resources away from Africa to the pockets of the Western rich.

For a proper look at why Africa is poor, read:

‘Africa needs justice not charity’

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/631/631p28.htm

More astute MIM readers (all three of you) will realise, of course, that doing very well out of the international lending system are the big-end-of-towners in poverty-stricken African countries.

In fact, corruption often costs far more to these countries than debt repayments, as onerous as they might be.

Foreign companies coming in, say to extract minerals, generally pay various access fees and royalties. In the worst cases, these payments go straight into the pockets of shifty officials, not uncommonly with the full knowledge, or the convenient ignorance, of those paying them, the private companies.

A spokesman from the Make Poverty History campaign in Britain recently estimated that in Nigeria, for instance, the revenue saved by any debt cancellation would be minuscule in comparison with funds paid, and creamed off, in royalties.

As such, it's likely that reducing global trade corruption will be the biggest poverty slammer rather than cancelling even all of poor country debt.

Readers wishing to obtain a balanced appreciation of this complex issue, rather than rely soley on a simplistic and anti-anything western bias, may wish to avail themselves of the following link:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/greedy-multinationals-have-lots-to-answer-for/2005/06/28/1119724631779.html

Or, more likely, they may not.

why do I keep thinking of the simpsons.... sending our voices down the well

Tony Blair's good friend, Mr Matthew Freud, is heading Bob Geldof's
middle-aged attempt to regain pop-stardom. Matthew
http://www.red-star-research.org.uk/subframe5.html is Sigmund Freud´s
grandson and runs "Freud Communications PR
Consultants" (http://www.freudcommunications.com/), which works with
with popstars and celebrities like Britney Spears and has
corporate customers like AOL, Nestlé, KFC, Pepsi, Sony and the British
Central Office of Intelligence (COI) http://www.coi.gov.uk/aboutcoi.php
The COI is the successor of the WWII wartime Ministry of Information.

Freud also ran Labour´s Millenium Dome project
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Dome, and in 2001 he married
Elisabeth Murdoch, Rupert Murdoch´s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch daughter. Another close
friend, The Right Honourable Peter Benjamin Mandelson
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ attended their wedding. Mandelson -one of
the first people in Britain to whom the term "spin doctor" was
applied- became Britain's European Commissioner for Trade in 2004.,

Adam Jones and Kay Summer, both involved with the Dissent! Network, fear
that genuine protest against the G8 might be hijacked by the Live8 and
White Band campaigns and with the revelation that Rupert Murdoch's
son-in-law is in charge of Geldof's pop-distraction, their article seems
to might be right on the money. Read their article, which was printed in
The Guardian:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0618-22.htm. The article is about
the G8 Bikeride / Cycle Caravan
https://publish.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/315001.html

Wear a white band - make poverty history

For weeks Tony Blair and even George Bush have been spouting hot air
about their debt relief campaign for Africa. Critics say that their debt
relief packages ("help for Africa") are too small to really make a
difference and that they are bound to economical and structural
adjustments of the IMF/World Bank kind that have caused the emergence of
a global resistance movement. This might be the reason for massive
corporate support towards the Live8 / Make Poverty History
http://www.whiteband.org/
campaign. Large sums will flow back into the G8´s (private industry's)
economies. This is well illustrated in an embarrissing example The New
Scottsman exposed: The white anti-poverty wristbands for the campaign
were actually produced in Chinese sweatshops
http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/agp/resistg8/media/0530wristbands.htm
Tony Blair and other celebreties had themselves photographed with these
sweatbands.

Germany and Japan are reluctant about their "Help for Africa". It is
said they want more influence on how the money is spent. This is
directly reflected in the attitude the German government takes
towards the local frontend for the Live8 Campaign. Marek Lieberberg,
who manages the German Live8 event in Berlin says that German companies
"have not lifted a finger" to help sponsor the concert and that the
Bundestag lower house of parliament had failed to make the Republic
Square in front of its Reichstag building available for the event. He
further accused Mayor Klaus Wowereit, German authorities and industry of
"stinginess, ignorance and Wilhelminian absurd bureaucracy" (source:
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1627961,00.html)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Since the explosion of the anti-corporate globalisation movement first in the South and then in the North in Seatle the governments of the First World have been on the ideological back foot. The rising second world super power of public opinion is increasingly being heard calling for justice for the poor and peace (as in the mass rallies of 2003). The Live 8 Concerts and demonstrations are anothe manifestation of this movement. Admittedly this manifestation might not be perfect - it includes some unsettling images of evil prats like Blair and Gordon Brown trying to cast of their post-Iraq odium by appropritating the campaigns goals - but it is still overwhelming positive. Politicians are trying to co-op and neuter this campaign but they will not succeed in the long run (although the campaign can be justiably critisized for allowing Gordon Brown to speak at the protest in Edinborough -as I said it isnt perfect). However just having the issues of trade justice, debt relief and increased aid being discussed in such a high profile way is extremely positive. Five or ten years ago these issues in the North at least were only discussed within small left wing ghettoes. They are now out their well and truly in the public arena. In the long run this can only be positive.
The Live 8 Concerts are only the beginning of a week of action. Organisers have called on people to protest at the G8 Summit in Edinborough and already a march of 120,000- 200,000 has occured. More militant actions will occur as part of this week of action. Once again when the worlds rich are gathering they will be surrounded by a sea of protestors. Ten years ago - this did not happen regularily. Now if a gathering of the rich and powerful occurs without being met by protest it is the exception. The people of the North have not been sucked into the vortex of the "War on Terror" trapped in fear of terrorists rather than communists and they are still demanding on mass their leaders address the issues of justice. So whilst this campaign can be critisized for cosying up to New Labour it is still I believe another manifestion of a growing revolution in global public opinion
The knockers of Geldof etc are recreating the dynamic that bagged out Michael Moore after Farenheit 911. Whenever someone gets left wing ideas out into the Mainstream people on the right and left attack them as egomaniacs and seek to drag them down. I find these knockers very tiresome and prefer to be energised by the hope that people working together are increasingly trying to hold the powerful to account.

Here are my reasons why I disagree with the main article posted.

Ok, Live8 is using celebrities, a product of mass capitalist consumerism. (Seeing Madonna did make me cringe) I agree that the capitalist ambitions of western civilisation do lead towards the poverty of Africa and other developing parts of the globe. I believe that we eventually we need to shift away from this economic system to something far more sustainable for people and the environment.

However, how else do you get to communicate such a powerful message about third world poverty to an entire generation of MTV kids, billions of them all over the world? There is little point speaking to someone in language they can't understand, regardless of the well-intended message. I believe in this situation it is a case of “the medium is the message”, and the medium happens to be a massive music concert of popular tunes, thousands of screaming people, celebrities and other public personalities: something that clicks with a generation of indoctrinated celebrity worshiping MTV kids.

Celebrities aside, music I believe, is truly the only international language and a language that can move people. Think of the musical revolutionaries such a Lennon or Marley, they moved millions to act. Unfortunately music today, and many of the celebrities on the Live8 stage are not revolutionary. However, if these celebrities individually want to ride the wave of popularity for the purpose of a delivering a powerful message to the masses, then this inevitably has more positive outcomes than negative.

Once people understand the general message about poverty, then anyone remotely interested in doing anything about it, will be in a better position (and perhaps more interested) to seek an understanding to the causes of poverty. It is then, people are more likely to speak to the individuals in Burke Street Mall selling material of various socialist perspectives.

This article and the following comments are some of the better reading available on this event/issue at MIM.

http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2005/06/92790.php

Having said that, I think the critics of Live 8 are just about as lame as Live 8 itself with one single and rather important distinction.

Where Live 8 has managed to get these important issues into the mainsteam media, the whingers about and critics of Live 8 have managed to achieve absolutely nothing in the same time except to highlight their own impotence and the futility of their existence. Know what I mean?

It's a start and definitely better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick I'd have to say.

Dear dead fred. Thanks for reminding me of that brilliant piece of propaganda for passivity from the 1970s (the Desiterata). I am sure that the 'rich and powerful' read it every morning rather than the stock-exchange figures. Go placidly indeed.

Goverments always lag behind popular sentiment and try to capture it. It must be frustrating for them that they can never completely co-opt dissent and render it void. They will not do so in this case either. Let the 'masses' act for themselves and let the rich face the music - g8 Spectacles or otherwise

------
1: ORGINAL POST SAYS::
>How self-indulgent it must feel, I thought, to put on a huge concert highlighting the plight of Africa’s poor, then slip away via private jet to a mansion somewhere in the French Riviera to un-cork a $2000 bottle of Moet in front of your own private beach.

MY REPLY:
WHY IS IT 'SELF INDULGENT' FOR THE RICH TO TAKE ACTION FOR THE WORLDS POOR?
if you are suggesting one needs to be poor to help the poor i think you are wrong
or maybe you are suggesting one needs to be non-self indugent if one is going to help the poor, i'm not sure

but i suggest, ANYONE, including say a 'selfish' person, a poor person, any fucking one who helps the poor is GREAT and needs to be praised and incouraged

-------
2: ORGINAL POSTING:
>Really, how deluded must one be to think that massive rock-concerts can trigger a paradigm shift in the entrenched system of global greed?
-----
MY REPLY:
how would you go about tring to alter 'global greed'?
i think targetting the G8 leaders with a clear list of demands, DEBT CANCELLATION, MORE N BETTER AID, FAIR TRADE is a great way to start seeing the world become a less greedy place?

ORGINAL POST SAYS:
Live 8, like Live Aid before it, will only help Bono, Geldof, Elton John, REM, Madonna, Sting, Mariah Carey, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger and Robbie Williams among others, feel good about themselves and their fantasy lifestyles.

MY REPLY: whats wrong if rich singers benifit from helping others, i think its great, its like a win win situation

ORGINAL: I mean, who the hell elected Geldof, Bono or any of these other rock-buffoons to voice our concerns to the worlds ultra-powerful anyway?

MY REPLY: as an australian i didnt even vote for MISS RICE but im glad BOB is talking with her and not some pro -war idiot, its great bob talks with the enemy, its good to try and convince the rightwing arseholes what areseholes they are, im sure thats bobn would have been taking about with miss rice

ORGINAL:
What would really be brave is if both G & B confronted the world’s rulers and the international economic casino head-on, to highlight the issues that CAUSE global debt and poverty.

MY REPLY: what are the issues that are causing global poverty, i think i can list three powerful ones. THIRD WOLD DEBT, UNFAIR TRADE RULES and RICH NATIONS NOT HELPING THE POOR ENOUGH.
well these three things are the 3 main points of live8

The Oz and US economies to name just two are all run on debt ie we owe big time. Restructuring the debt here or in the United States of Amnesia via currency speculation (thanks for nowt Costello!) lower value thus increasing exports, driving down minimum wage (8 years of same in Americaca and already said to be 18 months before review here in Ozfailure)...oild prices go up and so does the petrol pump but with us punters paying 35 in the dollar "GST" or whatever you call the petrol tax scam the State is able to move the debts around.
For the g8 parasites to then force other regions of the planet to pay back loans is unenforceable really. Now if like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico etc all refuse to pay any more back then it is "too radical" but if the poorest of African corrupt regimes get to not pay then that is the deserving poor being patted on the head via the Gnomes of Zurich.
What a lot of patronising twaddle. Sure the appearance of benevolent powerbrokers is applauded - great we get more overtime ! - but given that even the wrist bands were made in sweat shops anyone with any curiousity or critical faculty can see this spectacle as what it is.... charity from the guilty rich.
YES WE DO OWE THE POORER A LIVING
certainly rock stars and pollies can do their bit
alms for the poor
good samaritans
very nice bosses
but still bosses
and bankers
yes really Joyce
what a joke.
Feel good on the weekend
but then
get back to work
on Monday
excpet if you are rich
everything appears to change\
but in reality
only the slaves can finally end slavery
only the debtors can finally say
NO.

Hi yvgrvny,

If you project anger then you will only get angry people in your life.

"So just enjoy yourself" [Michael Jackson]

The flotila of hope "enjoy the struggle" [I don't know who said that]

But, You say, "Let the 'masses' act for themselves"

Now I know that doesn't include me because I'm dead.

But those rock stars and all their fans are still a 'live-8'

But when I was alive we were the world and we were the people.

Do you follow?

No one is arguing that the " 'rich and powerful' do or do not read Desiterata every morning" perhaps that is why they are rich and powerful even if they do?

But more likely than not they remembered it as a "life skill" so they didn't become too vain!

You are entitled to your opinion but in my view Desiterata is a bright light and it sounds like you need to do some hard work.

If there are things you do not believe in that's okay, time heals.

But I doubt that you could find fault with at least some of material in Desiterata.

I pass it on for free because it had once helped me! Now how could that be? I was as poor as a church mouse when I was alive now I've no need for material things because I'm dead.

Fred!

ORIGINAL POST SAYS:
nearly choked this morning as I surveyed an interesting photo of Bono and Condoleezza Rice shaking hands, as if both were world leaders deciding the fate of the planet.
MY REPLY:
didn't you see the photo of Bono in a Bath-tub full of coke with Condoleezza Rice squatting over him and squeezing a turd into his mouth while George Bush was shoving a whole pile of cash up his arse along with three nuclear missiles and a couple of iPods all wrapped up in the american flag as Tony Blair stood watching saying "I've never told a lie, I've never told a lie, I can't get hard, I can't get hard?"

Or was that just the way I saw it?

Dark Side of the moon alright - that's where the author of this article obviously lives.
If someone wants to help someone in a positive way, please let them without being a negative arsehole.
As Janet Jackson sang: "What have you done for me lately?"
Michael Replied: "Nothing lately, but remember when you were 10................."

If anyone wants to see some some fantastic images of the G8 protests occuring in Edinborough where the largest political protest in Scottish History just occured check out UK Indymedia. The Guardian newspaper also has some great coverage.
Although the concert itself was not the most revolutionary spectacle it is not counterposed or stopping a whole host of more radical actions occuring on the streets. Street theatre, blockades and carnivals against capitalism are all occuring. A blockade of the Scottish Military Base is expected to involve 5000-10000 people. Stop obessing about Bob Geldolf for a second and go and check out the latest outpourings of the global social movement for peace and justice.

I hear a very gentle sound
Very near yet very far
Very soft, yeah, very clear
Come today, come today

What have they done to the earth?
What have they done to our fair sister?
Ravaged and plundered and ripped her and bit her
Stuck her with knives in the side of the dawn
And tied her with fences and dragged her down

I hear a very gentle sound
With your ear down to the ground
We want the world and we want it...
We want the world and we want it...
Now
Now?
Now!

REMEMBER WHEN WE WERE IN AFRICA!!!???

The front page of the June 12 Observer announced, “$55bn Africa debt deal ‘a victory for millions'”. The “victory for millions” is a quotation of Bob Geldof, who said, “Tomorrow 280 million Africans will wake up for the first time in their lives without owing you or me a penny...” The nonsense of this would be breathtaking if the reader's breath had not already been extracted by the unrelenting sophistry of Bob Geldof, Bono, Prime Minister Tony Blair, British treasurer Gordon Brown, the Observer et. al.

Africa's imperial plunder and tragedy have been turned into a circus for the benefit of the G8 leaders due in Scotland next month and those of us willing to be distracted by the barkers of the circus — the establishment media and their “celebrities”.

The illusion of an anti-establishment crusade led by pop stars — a cultivated, controlling image of rebellion — serves to dilute a great political movement of anger. In summit after summit, not one significant promise of the G8 has been kept, and the “victory for millions” is no different. It is a fraud — actually a setback to reducing poverty in Africa. Entirely conditional on vicious, discredited economic programs imposed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the “package” will ensure that the "chosen" countries slip deeper into poverty.

Is it any surprise that this is backed by Blair and Brown, and US President George Bush (even the White House calls it a “milestone”)? For them, it is a useful facade, held up by the famous and the naive and the inane. Having effused about Blair, Geldof describes Bush as “passionate and sincere” about ending poverty. Bono has called Blair and Brown “the John and Paul of the global development stage”. Behind this front, rapacious power can “reorder” the lives of millions in favour of totalitarian corporations and their control of the world's resources.

There is no conspiracy — the goal is no secret. Brown spells it out in speech after speech, which liberal journalists choose to ignore, preferring the Treasury spun version. The G8 communique announcing the “victory for millions” is unequivocal. Under the section headline “G8 proposals for HIPC debt cancellation”, it says that debt relief will be granted to poor countries only if they are shown to be “adjusting their gross assistance flows by the amount given”. In other words, their aid will be reduced by the same amount as the debt relief. So they gain nothing.

Paragraph two states that “it is essential” that poor countries “boost private sector development” and ensure “the elimination of impediments to private investment, both domestic and foreign”.

The “$55bn” claimed by the Observer comes down, at most, to £1 billion spread over 18 countries. This will almost certainly be halved — providing less than six days' worth of debt payments — because Blair and Brown want the IMF to pay its share of the “relief” by revaluing its vast stock of gold, and passionate and sincere Bush has said “No”.

The first unmentionable is that the gold was plundered originally from Africa. The second unmentionable is that debt payments are due to rise sharply from next year, more than doubling by 2015. This will mean not “victory for millions”, but death for millions.

At present, for every US$1 of “aid” to Africa, $3 are taken out by Western banks, institutions and governments, and that does not include the repatriated profit of transnational corporations.

Take the Democratic Republic of Congo. Thirty-two corporations, all of them based in G8 countries, dominate the exploitation of this deeply impoverished, minerals-rich country where millions have died in the “cause” of 200 years of imperialism. In Ivory Coast, three G8 companies control 95% of the processing and export of cocoa, the main resource. The profits of Unilever, a British company long in Africa, are a third larger than Mozambique's GDP. One US company, Monsanto — of genetic engineering notoriety — controls 52% of South Africa's maize seed, that country's staple food.

Blair could not give two flying faeces for the people of Africa. Ian Taylor at the University of St Andrews used the Freedom of Information Act to learn that while Blair was declaiming his desire to “make poverty history”, he was secretly cutting the government's Africa desk officers and staff. At the same time, his “Department for International Development” was forcing, by the back door, privatisation of water supply in Ghana for the benefit of British investors. This ministry lives by the dictates of its “Business Partnership Unit”, which is devoted to finding “ways in which DfID can improve the enabling environment for productive investment overseas and ... contribute to the operation of the overseas financial sector”.

Poverty reduction? Of course not. Instead, the world is subjected to a charade promoting the modern imperial ideology known as neoliberalism, yet it is almost never reported that way and the connections are seldom made. In the issue of the Observer announcing “victory for millions” was a secondary news item that British arms sales to Africa had reached £1 billion a year. One British arms client is Malawi, which pays out more on the interest on its debt than its entire health budget, despite the fact that 15% of its population has HIV. Brown likes to use Malawi as an example of why “we should make poverty history”, yet Malawi will not receive a penny of the “victory for millions” relief.

The charade is a gift for Blair, who will try anything to persuade the public to “move on” from the third unmentionable — his part in the greatest political scandal of the modern era, his crime in Iraq. Although essentially an opportunist, as his lying demonstrates, he presents himself as a Kiplingesque imperialist. His “vision for Africa” is as patronising and exploitative as a stage full of white pop stars (with black tokens now added). His Messianic references to “shaking the kaleidoscope” of societies about which he understands little and watching the pieces fall have translated into seven violent interventions abroad, more than any British prime minister in half a century. Geldof, an Irishman at his court, duly knighted, says nothing about this.

The protesters going to the G8 summit at Gleneagles ought not to allow themselves to be distracted by these games. If inspiration is needed, along with evidence that direct action can work, they should look to Latin America's mighty popular movements against total locura capitalista (total capitalist folly). They should look to Bolivia, the poorest country in Latin America, where an indigenous movement has Blair's and Bush's corporate friends on the run, and Venezuela, the only country in the world where oil revenue has been diverted for the benefit of the majority, and Uruguay and Argentina, Ecuador and Peru, and Brazil's great landless people's movement. Across the continent, ordinary people are standing up to the old Washington-sponsored order. “Que se vayan todos!" (Out with them all!) say the crowds in the streets.

Much of the propaganda that passes for news in our own society is given to immobilising and pacifying people and diverting them from the idea that they can confront power. The current babble about Europe, of which no reporter makes sense, is part of this, yet the French and Dutch “No” votes are part of the same movement as in Latin America, returning democracy to its true home: that of power accountable to the people, not to the “free market” or the war policies of rampant bullies. And this is just a beginning.

[From <http://pilger.carlton.com>.]

"Capitalism is the astounding belief that the most wickedest of men will do the most wickedest of things for the greatest good of everyone." ~ John Maynard Keynes

Assuming that Mr dead fred is up in heaven (and not in that other place) perhaps he should have a chat with Jesus -- the one that got angry and smashed up the money-lenders and said "I come not to bring peace but a sword". While Fred is up there perhaps he should read that apology for subservience (the Desiterata) to Jesus in order to give him a lesson on anger management -- obviously the 'Lord' has some 'work to do' to reach the stage of enlightement which fred has reached.

No great change in history was ever wrought by people 'going placidly' -- it is not a concept which tyrants, bosses, and their slave institutions understand. What they do understand is being 'nice' as it's a useful tool to control the 'dead freds' of the world.

"Debt": Remaking Procrustes' Bed
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/June05/solo0628.htm

Inside the Murky World of Make Poverty History
http://www.focusweb.org/main/html/Article626.html