Live8 - End Poverty Now!

[SocialGroove]

Every day 50,000 people die of extreme poverty. Now, we have the power to end this tragedy—not with our money, but with our voices. On July 6, leaders from the world’s most powerful countries are gathering in Edinburgh, Scotland for the historic G8 Summit. They’ll discuss plans to increase aid to poor countries, eliminate debts, make trade laws fair—and, as a result, save millions of lives all over the world. But they’ll only act if enough people tell them to.
Do your part to help make poverty history by signing the Live 8 Global Petition: www.live8list.com/en/
Worldwide concerts featuring the biggest names in music—U2, Destiny's Child, Coldplay, Dave Matthews Band, Tim McGraw, Madonna, Sting and more—along with one million spectators and millions of viewers. All coming together on July 2 armed with one purpose—to make poverty history. Live 8 isn’t just an event—it’s a chance to change the world. And AOLMusic.com is the only place to see every minute of every show, live and on-demand throughout the summer.
For more info on the Live 8, please visit us at www.live8live.com.

[YogsVR4]

I'll leave this spam here for now.

Its nice to know that my hard earned money is just tossed away because other countries can't pay their bills. Until there is reform in Africa - no amount of debt reduction will make a difference. The governments aren't spending the money to help their people now. How the heck is reducing their debt going to get them to spend it on them later?

[Mustangman25]

That was the whole point of the Drop the Debt program; the idea that the countries had to spend so much repaying debt that they could not afford to help their people. Now that it was recently dropped, it will be interesting to see how these countries use the aid to help their people.

[MagicRat]

This Live8 program is massively misguided. With very few exceptions, the vast majority of foreign aid goes to line the pockets of a selected few dictators and businessmen in Africa.

Its nice to see that Bob Geldoff and these celebrities are in favour of having western governments spend the TAXPAYERS money (yours and mine) towards Africa, but do not give their own massive fortunes to the cause.

I give a big one-fingered salute to Live8 and to Sir Bob, for being so naiive and spend-happy with my money.

If the supporters of Live8 were SERIOUS about saving African children, they would get rid of their pets (dogs, cats, horses etc) and would use the resulting pet food and veterenarian money to feed and take care of African children.
Better yet, don't have any children of your own! Adopt an orphan from Africa instead. Hey, if you don't, and you proceed to conceive a child of your own, then a poor African child somewhere will die.

Its harsh, but if Sir Bob and others are going to lecture the nations of the world, then put your money where your mouth is or STFU.

[lazysmurff]

i signed the ONE campaign petition thing, just because i think poverty anywhere is a damn shame, especially when we have the ability to end it. the consumers of the USA spend more money on cosmentics every year, than it would take to provide the world with clean water and basic health care.

but these people above me are right, debt relief is NOT going to help these people. their governments DO NOT care about them. niether is foreign aid, as nice of an idea as that is. with the constant power struggles, coupes, re-coupes, and genocide, the aid gets lost in the cracks, or stolen by militia groups.

im no expert, i have no idea what we could do to help, and i wish i did.

though if W is intent on "spreading democracy and freedom" he sure has forgotten about africa.

[Mustangman25]

Exactly. As others have pointed out, their has to be some order brought to the continent; if Bush really does care about the spread of democracy, then he could kill two birds with one stone, by helping give aid in Africa, prehaps with the guidlines that the money would be used partly to reform the corrupt governments. In fact, Bush already attempted that with his Millenium Challenge, as he tried to bring democracy to Africa, though it is clear that he did not do enough. Bush claims that religion, and Christianity is a large part of his life; their are some 3,000 mentions of helping the poor in the Bible, so I don't see why Bush isn't doing more to help out. Democracy and aid in Africa should go hand in hand, and it will be interesting to see what comes out of the G8 next week in Scotland...other European countries have vowed to double their aid, I can only hope that America does something similar, prehaps also attempting to prove that Bush's "freedom is on the march" deal does not just apply to Iraq.
To those who are upset at "their government giving money away"-there is a large percentage of Americans who do not agree with the war in Iraq in any way, yet they still pay for it. When was the last time everyone aggreed on what our money would be spent on?

[T4 Primera]

I refer you all to the thread I started earlier about Live 8.

There are a couple of links in that thread that shed some light on why there is so much poverty in Africa.

The other Live 8 Thread

[TexasF355F1]

Originally Posted by Mustangman25

Exactly. As others have pointed out, their has to be some order brought to the continent; if Bush really does care about the spread of democracy, then he could kill two birds with one stone, by helping give aid in Africa, prehaps with the guidlines that the money would be used partly to reform the corrupt governments. In fact, Bush already attempted that with his Millenium Challenge, as he tried to bring democracy to Africa, though it is clear that he did not do enough. Bush claims that religion, and Christianity is a large part of his life; their are some 3,000 mentions of helping the poor in the Bible, so I don't see why Bush isn't doing more to help out. Democracy and aid in Africa should go hand in hand, and it will be interesting to see what comes out of the G8 next week in Scotland...other European countries have vowed to double their aid, I can only hope that America does something similar, prehaps also attempting to prove that Bush's "freedom is on the march" deal does not just apply to Iraq.
To those who are upset at "their government giving money away"-there is a large percentage of Americans who do not agree with the war in Iraq in any way, yet they still pay for it. When was the last time everyone aggreed on what our money would be spent on?

Saw some guy (not a politician) on the news this morning talking about this and he mentioned that Bush has given the most attention to Africa than any other president has.

[DVS LT1]

Well, speaking about foreign debt, I can say developed countries like Canada often dig these poor countries into the grave when we offer funding or loans. Aid in the form of food, medicine, clothing etc... is one thing, but when all a small poor country really needs is the know-how and basic tools to sustain crops, why the hell do we need to loan them money to buy tractors and all this over-blow shit that they'll be paying off for generations? Its all politics - maybe the gov't wants to help out slumping domestic manufacturers by essentially buying their equipment so as to loan them out to developing nations... or maybe the gov't really does want to have these poor countries by the balls when it comes time to exploit them politically, economically... who the fuck knows.

Give these people some garden tools, hook them up with basic iragation systems, medicines, etc... don't lend them massive amounts of money with strict stipulations to blow it all on John Deere tractors.