Live 8 Coverage

All Im saying is, more aid wont help them get out of poverty. More aid wont end the AIDS crisis. There are certain behaviors, both on the government and civilian level, that need to happen to actually change these things. Think about it, why didnt the AIDS situation in the US or Europe become what it is in Africa? Once we see the differences then we can work to really change things.

From an economic development perspective, there are tons of theories as to why a poor country becomes not poor, but more foreign aid isnt one of them. I guess it makes the first world countries feel good when they write a big check, but it doesnt actually make them more well off. It really is a give them a fish/teach them how to fish situation.

Instead of just claiming that everyone who doesnt agree with you is racist, maybe you should look at what they are saying. Money doesnt fix every problem, if it did, the US would be heaven.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

All Im saying is, more aid wont help them get out of poverty. More aid wont end the AIDS crisis. There are certain behaviors, both on the government and civilian level, that need to happen to actually change these things. Think about it, why didnt the AIDS situation in the US or Europe become what it is in Africa? Once we see the differences then we can work to really change things - instead of just throwing more money at it, and when that doesnt work, throw more money.

Instead of just claiming that everyone who doesnt agree with you is racist, maybe you should look at what they are saying. Money doesnt fix every problem, if it did, the US would be heaven.

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If giving food and irrigation to hungry people is a waste of time, what exactly do you propose?

Great concert. Lots of memorable moments.
Coldplay singing with Richard Ashcroft was great, Pink Floyd re-union was awesome and Green Day playing Queen's 'We are the Champions' was neat (I'm a big Queen fan).

Looking forward to the DVD. Should be a nice set, the original Live Aid DVD set is 4 DVDs for all the concerts, so Live 8 will probably be something similar.

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

Pink Floyd is pretentious, overbearing, ugly trash. Who cares what they do? I wish they all died from drug overdoses 20 years ago.

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This is the most important thing said in this thread.

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If giving food and irrigation to hungry people is a waste of time, what exactly do you propose?

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Its not a waste of time - a meal's a meal, but its not a solution to the problem, either.

Anyway:

01. The world community, through the IMF and World Bank, needs to emphasize cleaner, more transparent governments, freer of corruption. This has worked, as much as the anti-globalization protestors would tell you otherwise, look at the list of countries that are being slated for debt cancellation. They had to meet a fairly stringest list of rules for good governance before this happened.

A democracy is not a prerequisite, though it does seem to help - not every democracy is rich, but every rich country is democratic (China would seem to be the lone exception, but the richer they become the more democratic reforms they make and pro-free market they become).

02. The governments need to protect property rights. This is not easy. A lot of these countries have strong tribal conditions and it wont be easy for the government to say, "John has this land, legally" when the tribal chief says he does not. But its one of those things. Also, it needs to be easy to do things like start a business, without having to go through a minefield and spend lots of money on paying corrupted officials.

Basically, these two things will allow the market to jump start on a more fundamental, grassroots level. The government could emphasize certain industries, perhaps.

With the AIDS problem... what really needs to happen is a behavioral change. Again, not easy. A lot of people there are so distrustful of their governments that when the govs tell them, "use a condom when you have sex" that they will think the governments are trying to hurt them. But really, I think its a behavioral change that saved the US and Europe - once AIDS hit and we learned about the causes we ceased to be free sex people and became conscious. The people on the ground doing AIDS work - the Red Cross and others - are really key in this as they can build up the trust and work on an individual level.

Its really not impossible for some of these nations to become prosperous in 10, 20, 30 years - again, look at the Asian tiger nations. But it takes more than writing a check.

I looked at Live 8 as a concert with a "please help" dressing, and Pink Floyd's reunion was nice. MTV's stuff for it sucked, so I'll wait for the DVD.

Wow, I must say, 2 pages of 2 or 3 people arguing is not what I had in mind when I started it but hey, whatever.

I will say that ABC's rebroadcast was much better than MTV/VH1's, althought I would like to have seen full sets, there was no crowd interviews, or VJs, just music. Isn't that what MTV and VH1 are about? Music?

Oh and another thing, to all the people who said they were there because of the cause. Bullshit. Who are you kidding? You are there solely for the free concert.

The General public wonder why alot of people hate MTV. After watching Live 2 1/2; they realized why. That coverage was absolutely atrocious; I have never seen worse coverage. Freaking OJ Simpson had better coverage on MTV than Live 8. And to make it worse ... it was a benefit concert, there NORMAL copncert coverage is better. They should be ashamed of themselves. Actually they should issue an apology, the original Live Aid had uninterrupted cpverage. This one had more commercials. than ABC's Sunday Night Movie.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by diffusionx

Its not a waste of time - a meal's a meal, but its not a solution to the problem, either.

Anyway:

01. The world community, through the IMF and World Bank, needs to emphasize cleaner, more transparent governments, freer of corruption. This has worked, as much as the anti-globalization protestors would tell you otherwise, look at the list of countries that are being slated for debt cancellation. They had to meet a fairly stringest list of rules for good governance before this happened.

A democracy is not a prerequisite, though it does seem to help - not every democracy is rich, but every rich country is democratic (China would seem to be the lone exception, but the richer they become the more democratic reforms they make and pro-free market they become).

02. The governments need to protect property rights. This is not easy. A lot of these countries have strong tribal conditions and it wont be easy for the government to say, "John has this land, legally" when the tribal chief says he does not. But its one of those things. Also, it needs to be easy to do things like start a business, without having to go through a minefield and spend lots of money on paying corrupted officials.

Basically, these two things will allow the market to jump start on a more fundamental, grassroots level. The government could emphasize certain industries, perhaps.

With the AIDS problem... what really needs to happen is a behavioral change. Again, not easy. A lot of people there are so distrustful of their governments that when the govs tell them, "use a condom when you have sex" that they will think the governments are trying to hurt them. But really, I think its a behavioral change that saved the US and Europe - once AIDS hit and we learned about the causes we ceased to be free sex people and became conscious. The people on the ground doing AIDS work - the Red Cross and others - are really key in this as they can build up the trust and work on an individual level.

Its really not impossible for some of these nations to become prosperous in 10, 20, 30 years - again, look at the Asian tiger nations. But it takes more than writing a check.

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At least some people have some sense when it comes to this argument.

I would think that when they release the DVD of this, they would probably have full perfomances shown. I have the Live Aid dvds ('85) and they showed as much footage as they could get their hands on, as a lot was lost or damaged.

I had to go to work half way through watching live8, I'm not sure if Green Day did any of their own stuff, but I saw them covering Queen (which was weird).