Well, one day nearer the demise of this Make Poverty History hysteria that is flooding our media. We seem to have survived one Edinburgh march without sheep being seperated from goats and The End Of The World As We Know It. Doubtless there will be much news attention to the great unwashed as they set up their wickies and prance about. It seems their intention is to draw people's attention to the poverty. OK - thank you; you can all bugger off now. I've got the picture. I'm sure even the eight of the G will have gathered something of the problem and the message. They have only been debating it for some five years. Incidentally, why just those eight? Other than Japan, not a single Asian, Latin American or African is a member of the team. Where is China? Where is India? Also, if it is the hangover from colonial days that is to blame - how did Ethiopia get into the caccky? I was there some 45 years ago and Addis Ababa was full of do-goody NGOs and UN bodies. It was the TV report from there that set-off the last fund raiser.
I caught only a bit of the G8 concert from London. It did not strike me as being as good as the last concert. Oh yes - one other question. If increases in aid were any solution, what came of the monies generated in that first concert. Were we transferring funds from rich people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries? The racial-opportunistic crowd got into act by wanting to know why - if the cause was African, why were there not more African musicians? I understand they were given a bone in some venue outside London. On their reasoning, if we had something to raise awareness of HIV, only Jimmy Somerville and Holly Johnson would be automatic choices.
No comments:
Post a Comment