July 2, 2005, We bring good things to life
This week's visit to our comrades at Pravda gives us this discussion of today's "Live 8" concerts, including, of course, one in Moscow, which will feature a Russian cosmonaut now cloistered in the international space station. Other concerts (organized by professional do-gooder Bob Geldoff) will occur at Philadelphia, Tokyo, Paris, Johannesburg, Berlin, London and Edinburgh, and be accessible via broadcast to most of the world's population, in an effort to lobby G-8 countries meeting later this month in Scotland to put alleviating African poverty high on their agenda.
Hey, I like alleviating African poverty as much as the next guy: this planet is a big life-boat, and drilling holes in it (think "global warming", or "e-bola" or AIDS") will, eventually, kill all of us. And I like rock stars-- who doesn't? And do-gooding music... man, what can you say?
Well, it's a private initiative, and there's nothing wrong with that. Of course, a hand-out is, ultimately not the answer. The answer to resolving African poverty in less than one generation is remarkably easy: end all First World agricultural subsidies and other barriers to trade. ALL. OF. THEM. African economic development can piggy back on an effective cash-generating agricultural export industry; net losses to Africa from First World farm trade barriers dwarf aid (including debt forgiveness) handed to Africa, and frankly, my suggestion would lower prices to First World consumers.
So... good for you, rockers of the world. But this will result in a small drop in a very large body of water; give the continent a fish, you feed a family for a meal or two. Remove the barriers to the family getting to the ocean, and you can feed the continent forever... God bless...
Comments
Couldn't agree more TD except the absence of the other two necessary conditions ie dealing with the heavily-armed madmen who infest that unhappy continent and keeping out the global corporations. We don't want anywhere else ending up like S.America with decimated forests and monocultures do we?
Posted by euro-ron at July 3, 2005 11:34 AM
TD:
Tell your well-informed friend at Pravda that I'm Irish, not British.
Thanks,
Bob
Posted by Bob Geldof at July 5, 2005 1:03 PM