Randy Winter, one of the older fans in the crowd (At Live 8 in Barrie, Ont.) at 50, said it was refreshing to see a global campaign based on awareness rather than fundraising.
"I think people are probably burned out after Live Aid and Farm Aid and . . . tsunami relief, and this is another way of doing it," he said while relaxing under the shade of a tree.
"And it's a smart way because it's the governments that can alleviate the debts a lot quicker than we can buy, collecting our nickels and dimes."
You rock Randy. See...some people get it.
Oh and the Minister for International Affairs announced there will be no additional aid money this year. I wonder if Paul Martin will make promises he can't keep? This is something that Goodale always hides behind: That Canada can't afford it right now, but we are doing our part and we don't want to make promises we can't keep. They've been promising to contribute more for what...40 years? and now they've found a conscience and they want to stop making promises they can't keep? I think Lester B. Pearson just rolled over in his grave.
If nothing else comes of the G8 meeting I am looking forward to the WTO meeting in China.
Song Du Jour: Mr. Brightside ~ The Killers
2 comments:
Yeah, I guess governments can do it faster than us with our nickels and dimes. They can donate our dollars for us, and since they have an unlimited appetite for tax collecting, they can start to donate future earnings on our behalf as well. Why not, somebody has to do it, right?
Some people just don't seem to get it, all the money that the government has is originally our money. It seems to me that the government has a duty to spend this money in the best interest of the people they took it from in the first place. I don't see giving the money for AIDS in Afganistan as a good choice.
Pop! Just pulled my head out of my ass. Still don't see this big inter-connectivity between poverty in Ougadougou and my security. One of the good things about Africa is that it's far away. That gives me some security.
Respect the cultures? No. I don't respect backwardness, superstition, fanatacism and irrational belief systems. Nor do I resepect female circumsion, gang rape as punishment, feudalism, corruption, genocide, etc. But I see a lot of that in the not so developing world.
What about Rwanda? The liberal media likes to talk about the responsibility of the western democracies in the genocide there. But I don't remember any western politicians going on the radio to tell the people to kill the cockroaches (who then went ahead and did it!). Nor do I remember any weterners flying in to Rwanda to start hacking off limbs at random. It was the people there who decided that they should go on a maniacal killing spree. And don't give me the line that it was a few bad apples, you don't exterminate that many people in that short of time using machetes without general participation. Or did those people living outside Auschwitz really think it WAS a shoe factory?
If this poor dead horse is not already flagellated to pieces, I'll close by just saying the only sense I've heard in this whole G8/debt relief hyperbole was spoken by Mohamar Quaddafi (sp?). That's when you know you've entered a weird twilight zone of accepted wisdom.
Duke
You make me laugh Willis.
Somebody has to do it right? LOL! No worries there Duke, Martin will not make any promises he can't keep ((cough...Bullshit...cough)). He repeated that sentiment this morning in a meeting with Bono.
Yes, even I find it hilarious that Geldof and Bono have special status at the G8 meeting and are allowed to participate. Ahhh..the cult of celebrity, ain't it sad? However, I think this shows the change from the restricitve Westphalian state society notion that only the state can participate in globol politics. Civil society and NGO's are playing a larger role now and that has a lot to do with Geldof and Bono.
I would agree that fighting AIDS in Afganistan is very difficult, yes. I beleive that because we have the strongest economy out of all the G8 countries we can afford to spend our tax money on Debt and Aid in Less developed countries. (my major concern is really how that money is spent and all the conditions that we apply to it.) If you consider that basically what we give now equals about 2 bucks per Canadian per week. A toonie Duke. I think even you would be willing to fork over a bit more than a Toonie to help Africans off their knees. And I would argue that if we actually give them an acceptible amount of money it won't just be a bandaid solution, we will actually be able to help build infrastructure and deal with the educational deficit. What is outlined in the Millenium Development goals to eradicate poverty by 2015 is the promise that we would increas our donation from a toonie to $7 buck per Canadian per Wek. To lift a whole continent out of poverty! I guess I feel that is not too much to ask and I think a lot of Canadians feel the same way I do. But I fully understand why some people thing that our tax dollars should benefit us and not anybody else.
Backwardness, superstition, fanatacism and irrational belief systems perpetuate because of the lack of education. Fuck 80 years ago our society thought some pretty fucked up shite too.
I actually do think that most people wanted to believe Aushwitz was a shoe factory. Who wants to believe the worst about humanity? To think that we are capably of such atrocities. But we can't continue to bury our head in the sand and think that the violence there won't spill over. Do you think that Africans won't realize soon enough that they are being exploited? I would rather stop that exploitation before it erupts. There is a lot of literature about the hopeless individuals (totally uneducated) turning to terrorist organizations because they appeal to their base nature.
Join us and we will help you fight.
There is also the considerable increase in the numbers of children enticed to become child soldiers in these war torn countries, especially in The Congo and The Ivory Coast...a society of violence will continue to grow because they don't know any other way, and they have no hope for a better life, and we should just look the other way? Sure, that's a great idea.
Okay...Now Rwanda. I am simply not following your argument there Duke. Have you read the ICISS report on the responsiblity to protect? The UN sdopted it in 2001.
Sadly it is the Western world that created the system we have now and gave legitimacy to States and we promised not to interfere with the domestic affairs of states and now that is coming back to bite us in the ass because we blindly thought that The State would ultimately protect its citizens. But When Mugabe turns against his people in Zimbabwe and we let him and States like South Africa and Nigeria continue to appease him is it any wonder he is still in power?
There is NO political will to take on these issues because it seems that The West doesn't value the life Africans. This is clear from the results in Somalia and Rwanda. When the going gets tough we pull out. I can recommend about 50 articles on the link between violence in Less develped countries and global security. Anything recently published by Lloyd Axworthy will get you started.
And there is a book called Sustainable Peace edited by Professors Keating and Knight that would give you arguments for and against.
Poor Dead Horse...I just won't leave it alone will I?
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