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Live 8 Concert

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The Wrath

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Question: what is "live 8" really about?

From their site:

8 world leaders, gathered in Scotland for the G8 summit, will be presented with a workable plan to double aid, drop the debt and make the trade laws fair. If these 8 men agree, then we will become the generation that made poverty history.
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Hopefully Saint Geldoff will be able to help as many people as he did with all the money and food he raised with Live Aid.

Considering that would be absolutely not a single darn person, his goals are pretty easy to meat. Seriously, Live Aid was such a load of crap. All they did was give food to the dictators that forced people into starvation in the first place. What a clueless bunch of morons. Or was the term the Soviets used Useful Morons. Either way, they're morons.

And can I say as a fan of the Boomtown Rats, Bob is looking surprisingly bad. Man, and I thought Keith Richards looked used up.

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I mean, seriously...is there anything dumber than trying to "change the world with rock and roll?"

Yes, there is, believe it or not- it's when Bob Geldof stated in an interview promoting this concert that the starvation in Africa is not about politics.

:D

It's about Europe and its protectionist policies that impede importing crops from Africa. France and its farm supports. Zimbabwe and the Mugabe regime's illegal land seizure of farmland from white owners. Muslim-run nations rejecting vaccinations against deadly diseases because they view this as a blatant attempt to sterilize their women.

The last LiveAid saw grains delivered to African nations which wound up rotting in warehouses because the governments would not approve their distribution to the needy.

Yet Geldof insists that the starvation in Africa is not about politics?

:dough:

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Of the three aims (Wipe Debt/More Aid/Fair Trade) Debt is the one that has been achieved by Live 8 pressure, but it is the most inconsequential of the three. The Aid is the source of the problem I reckon - blank cheques to the aging African despots, and they want to increase it!? Relatively speaking, GWBush actually has the best policy on this - generous aid for strict reform. So this is a widely disputed objective. The latter, Making Trade fair is the truly necessary one - the hundreds of trade barriers in place in the EU and States that impose 30% tarrifs on things like cocoa is insane. It IS about time we practiced this free market we preach about. Sadly, this being the one thorougly decent objective, and will all most certainly not be achieved. Its the only objective that strikes at one of the roots of the problem. The others being aid and bad cultural paradigms.

Edited by Charles
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One thing really annoys me Wiping Debt and that is to not ask anything in return like making the countries freer and open up for capitalism in the end. I am not against wiping debt if there are conditions added to the wiping (Same thing with foreign aid).

When it comes to free trade you will hear no argument from me, in that department I can recommend a documentary called Globalisation is good by Johan Norberg (Johan is not an Objectivist, however he seems at least to be Objectivist-friendly nowadays (He is a former libertarian and maybe still is))

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Making trade "fair" and making trade free are totally different objectives.

Well, I am suspicious of the 'fair trade' movement and fully realize it is not acting in a free market capacity, but what I'm criticizing is the huge agricultural subsidies that the US and EU uphold (albeit the latter to a larger extent) to the detriment of African producers - that is not free market economics - in that respect I use the word unfair, meaning unfree. To summarise: There are damaging trade barriers that can't be justified in most African cases.

I think it is the only relevant Live 8 objective, though it unfortunately will probably not be achieved.

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I appreciated the irony in Pink Floyd performing the song "Money." Here are some of its lyrics:

Money, get away.

Get a good job with good pay and you’re okay.

Money, it’s a gas.

Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash.

New car, caviar, four star daydream,

Think I’ll buy me a football team.

Money, get back.

I’m all right jack keep your hands off of my stack.

Money, it’s a hit.

Don’t give me that do goody good bullshit.

I’m in the high-fidelity first class traveling set

And I think I need a lear jet.

Money, it’s a crime.

Share it fairly but don’t take a slice of my pie.

Money, so they say

Is the root of all evil today.

But if you ask for a raise it’s no surprise that they’re

Giving none away.

Also, I wonder how many supporters of the concert are also environmentalists who supported the banning of DDT. I'm sure that somebody during the concert must have mentioned how many Africans (most of them childeren) die due to malaria. However, I highly doubt that anybody criticized the philosophy that lead to DDT being banned and malaria becoming wide-spread.

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Also, I wonder how many supporters of the concert are also environmentalists who supported the banning of DDT. I'm sure that somebody during the concert must have mentioned how many Africans (most of them childeren) die due to malaria. However, I highly doubt that anybody criticized the philosophy that lead to DDT being banned and malaria becoming wide-spread.

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I was once told that a man ate a spoonful of DDT for many years and had no negative heath conditions as a result. It is really a shame that DDT is not in use to prevent malaria. Thousands die so that a few birds can live. These same people then advocate the sending of food to these people who they have condemned. :thumbsup: way to go

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Also, I wonder how many supporters of the concert are also environmentalists who supported the banning of DDT. I'm sure that somebody during the concert must have mentioned how many Africans (most of them childeren) die due to malaria. However, I highly doubt that anybody criticized the philosophy that lead to DDT being banned and malaria becoming wide-spread.

You make a good point. I wish I would have thought of that...

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Why don't all of the wealthy stars on the Live 8 train set examples and give everything they have to Africa, to show that they really, truly care. "That'll be the day," said John Wayne.

I don't care to watch such altruist nonsense, but I'm wondering if any of them had any messages to send out to the crooked garbage that run those countries and steal most of the aid. Funny how the stars have strong opinions about what the West should do, but never call for the stepping down of the despots.

The worst part of such an effort is the implication that aid is owed or obligatory. Instead of asking if you want to help, it's always how much are you going to give.

Let the star trash pay for it. Let them give everything down to the clothes off their backs. Let socialists prove they're not hypocrites.

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However, I highly doubt that anybody criticized the philosophy that lead to DDT being banned and malaria becoming wide-spread.
That would be relevant to malaria in the US (where DDT is banned), which is slightly on the rise. But DDT is still used in parts of Africa, e.g. in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Tanzania. The problem is indeed a result of a particular philosophy, but it's not specifically about DDT.
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I appreciated the irony in Pink Floyd performing the song "Money." Here are some of its lyrics:

Also, I wonder how many supporters of the concert are also environmentalists who supported the banning of DDT. I'm sure that somebody during the concert must have mentioned how many Africans (most of them childeren) die due to malaria. However, I highly doubt that anybody criticized the philosophy that lead to DDT being banned and malaria becoming wide-spread.

just for the record this quote belongs to cole. all apoligies for not knowing how to quote things properly.

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That would be relevant to malaria in the US (where DDT is banned), which is slightly on the rise. But DDT is still used in parts of Africa, e.g. in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Tanzania. The problem is indeed  a result of a particular philosophy, but it's not specifically about DDT.

South Africa banned the use of DDT in 1996 and did not begin using it again until very recently. There was a 400% increase in malaria-caused deaths during this time.

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South Africa banned the use of DDT in 1996 and did not begin using it again until very recently. There was a 400% increase in malaria-caused deaths during this time.
Right: I will be interested to see if it goes back down. It used to be largely malaria-free, but that was then.
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