7.04.2005
After the weekend of marathon concerts and then a sunday of memorable pullout souvenier sections, i decided to ask what this might acutally do. There is enormous schizophrenia in the media circus which is usually pretty tight in its opinion. There are some who reckon this can really impact and make a difference, others who scoff at such celebrity indulgence.
My two cents on that is there is a great deal of spin and counter spin taking place according to various national and other agendas.
However i think the truth is somewher in the middle of the road regarding Live8, my one criticism is that the little movie slots failed to outline what we really mean by free trade, differentiate between free and fair etc. Inform without alienating.
Outside of that the whole prohject raised awarenedd suitably. Now we all expect something to happen at gleneagles and something may happen. But talk is cheap and real action is never set in stone, as those NGOs found out regarding our 0.7% Aid pledge.
It is never going to be a monumental failure and those who partook surely get some credit and album sales. The thing is though that i fear the difference will never be made until serious support is lended ot democratic regimes and every single incentive is given to those who strive for good governance and fraternal peace not hate riddled fraternacide.
I wish both Bob and the Crusties at the summit the best and hope that through two very different means of protesting something good may come from a meeting that can cause such harm. I would prefer to see all of us denounce the G8 as a neo-imperealist sham which serves to exacerbate and perpetuate current inequality through bullying and concerted economic warfare. The rich world however has a chance to do good but remain sceptical until action happens after the speeches. The G8 can be rightly seen as courting good publicity but i want hard promises and harder action which precipitates fair trade and the cessation of criminal policies regarding market liberalisation in countries unprepared to do so.
The problem with the G8 definition of democracy is that it means democratic-neo-liberalism. When we really need to let Africa decide if neo-liberalism is its bag. much like Malaysia and China did amoung others.
RR
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