I've posted this on another forum, but thought it was relevant here too in support of Lizzie's original post.

The idea of the concerts and march is not to raise money from the public to send to corrupt Africa governments, but to pressure the leaders of the world's richest industrialised nations, meeting near Edinburgh on July 8th, to write off the debt that cripples so many African countries. These events have already opened up this debate though - here we all are talking about it now. I agree it is flawed to some degree - not enough African music etc, but even that does not detract from the fact this is a publicity-generating exercise whose fundamental aim is to get this debate on the agenda of those who can influence events at the highest level.

Since the idea was proposed, 18 countries, mainly in sub-saharan Africa have been freed from this debt burden - that's 280 million people. This burden of debt was a useful tool for rich companies to gain commercial footholds in Africa through morally dubious relief schemes. Debt relief was (and still will be, if the G8 countries have their way) often tied to the privatisation of a countries nationalised healthcare and education systems. Instiutions run by African Governments for their people and in their interest was turned into a moneymaking machine that serves the interest of shareholders in rich G8 nations.

Many African governments are run on an undemocratic basis by corrupt individuals, but this is not unique to Africa. British firms now export arms worth nearly £1 billion to African countries, including £53 million to Nigeria, plus £30 million to Angola and the granting of a military export licences to Uganda, the latter two were singled out by Vic for criticism in his article. If they are so corrupt, why are our government so happy to sell them weapons? Doesn't that make us, a the very least, complicit in the misery heaped upon the innocent citizens of these nations by their leaders?

Live 8 represents the chance for ordinary people to influence decision-makers that act more often in the interests of unelected commercial organisations rather than their own citizens. This is democracy in it's purest form - the people seeking to impose their will on their leaders.

stigWeard