01 Jul 05
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Originally posted by wucky3I saw him in Manchester last year and he didn't turn up for the first 30-40 minutes of the show.
my friend went to see him and he didn't bother turning up!..i'll just have to wait and see 🙂
My parents saw him in a small pub in Ireland and it was much better by the sounds of it.
As for the Live 8, Pink Floyd are one of my favourite bands. The Eurythmics used to be but not Lennox solo.
The rest of them I would waste the electricity on.
EDIT: Geldof is playing??!! Is he singing? He only had one song didn't he? If he hadn't have done Live Aid then his career was over. What a loser.
01 Jul 05
Originally posted by Varg"Rat trap" is quite a good Boomtown rat's song.
EDIT: Geldof is playing??!! Is he singing? He only had one song didn't he? If he hadn't have done Live Aid then his career was over. What a loser.
And the whole album which starts with "I don't like Mondays" is excellent!
01 Jul 05
Originally posted by shavixmirThe boomtown rats had more than one song Varg... you only need to look at their greatest hits and its fairly obvious Geldof has some talent there... he was pretty cool back in the 80's
"Rat trap" is quite a good Boomtown rat's song.
And the whole album which starts with "I don't like Mondays" is excellent!
01 Jul 05
Originally posted by Bosse de Nageprobably not seeing as how he went on to do some solo stuff,got married,had some kids,and then set up his own production company Planet 24,so no think the interest has always been there
Did Live Aid have anything to do with him losing interest in performing I wonder?
01 Jul 05
Originally posted by RagnorakBlair and Brown have been pushing the EU, G8, the World Bank and the IMF for over a year now to increase aid, reduce debt and open up fairer trade for Africa... They are fully aware of the need to "do something about Africa".
Tony Blair capitulated to public opinion after a tv series by celebrity chef: Jamie Oliver.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4391695.stm
If fact, he didn't just capitulate. He decided that public opinion was so strong after the show, that he actully declared the whole idea his own.
D
Since when have "Joe/Josephine Public" given a rats ass about increasing aid and reducing debt in Africa... Since Bob Geldof went on tv and announced that he was going to host a big music festival with free tickets.
If anyone can be accused of bandwagon-jumping then it is the "if its endorsed by a celebrity..." section of the public. Probably the same section that marched in protest at the Iraq war...
01 Jul 05
Originally posted by mmanuelBlair and Brown are part of the whole bloody problem!
Blair and Brown have been pushing the EU, G8, the World Bank and the IMF for over a year now to increase aid, reduce debt and open up fairer trade for Africa... They are fully aware of the need to "do something about Africa".
Since when have "Joe/Josephine Public" given a rats ass about increasing aid and reducing debt in Africa... Since Bob Geldof we ...[text shortened]... .." section of the public. Probably the same section that marched in protest at the Iraq war...
by Eric Toussaint:
The meeting of the G8 finance ministers on Thursday of last week ended with statements about a “historic” cancellation of the debt that burdens poorer countries.
But the proposals boil down to very partial debt relief given the name “cancellation” for propaganda purposes. In other words, it is a sham.
Today’s situation is a complete fiasco. And the various projects being lined up for the next G8 summit are also nothing but smokescreens.
Despite all the talk by leaders of the world’s wealthiest nations, financing the development of Third World countries has been the subject of long debate — without a single firm and satisfactory decision being taken so far.
Yet it would be very easy to ask the countries of the global South to put an immediate stop to repayment of their external public debt. They could then use this money for internal development, under the control of their own people and parliaments.
Gordon Brown’s new project only concerns the debt held by the World Bank and the African Development Bank.
And his proposal only covers repayments between now and 2015 — a far cry from a 100 percent debt cancellation.
Moveover, these debt relief measures always come with conditions that demand the opening up of indebted countries’ economies to the interests of transnational corporations.
Lender countries demand continued privatisation of the public services and natural resources of indebted countries — a logic that admits no hope of improved living standards for the populations concerned.
The major development donors would have us believe they will be freeing up funds for Africa. In reality they are being as tight fisted as ever.
Official development assistance remained below $80 billion in 2004, with a large part of it never reaching the communities that need it.
On the other hand, debt leads to a constant outflow of capital. Developing countries service their external debt to the tune of more than $370 billion a year.
The countries that are to “benefit” from the G8’s so called generosity are only a handful — 27 in all, representing less than 10 percent of the total population of developing countries.
The G8 decision represents a continuation of the “highly indebted poor countries initiative”, launched in 1996 and highly publicised ever since.
But this initiative has failed. It involves the imposition of heavily neo-liberal policies, such as privatisation of natural resources and strategic economic sectors to the benefit of transnational corporations.
We should demand that these neo-liberal conditions be scrapped — there must be unconditional debt cancellation.
And the people of the global South must be able to make sure that debt cancellation really benefits those who need to be helped.
The London initiative can solve neither the issue of the debt, nor the issue of poverty, since it bears on only 2 percent of the external debt of developing countries.
We need a massive mobilisation at Edinburgh and Gleneagles from 2-6 July as part of the Make Poverty History mobilisation, and at Fana in Mali from 6-9 July for the Fourth Peoples’ Forum.
Eric Toussaint is president of the Brussels-based Committee for the Cancellation of Third World Debt and co-author of Who Owes Who? 50 Questions About World Debt. For more details go to www.cadtm.org
01 Jul 05
Originally posted by shavixmirInteresting..
Blair and Brown are part of the whole bloody problem!
by Eric Toussaint:
The meeting of the G8 finance ministers on Thursday of last week ended with statements about a “historic” cancellation of the debt that burdens poorer countries.
But the proposals boil down to very partial debt relief given the name “cancellation” for propaganda purpos ...[text shortened]... of Who Owes Who? 50 Questions About World Debt. For more details go to www.cadtm.org[/i]
Theres some really good information at that site mentioned at the bottom of the post.
www.cadtm.org
I hadn't read much into the details of the announced doubling of aid by Blair&Brown but i should have guessed it came with plenty of caveeats and pro multinational strings.
01 Jul 05
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Why shouldn't the cancellation of debt come with strings attached... What is to stop someone like Mugabe, once his country is free from debt, funnelling the money into his own slush funds, or funding more private armies...
I never thought that I would say it, but I partially agree with George Bush when he says that certain African countries need to reduce corruption etc. before aid is increased, or debt repayments are reduced.
Cancelling debt will not turn Africa into a social paradise...
EDIT: BTW I do not believe that all African countries are corrupt... However, some of them should take a leaf out of Botswanas book
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4318777.stm
http://www.gov.bw/government/directorate_on_corruption_and_economic_crime.html
01 Jul 05
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Originally posted by mmanuelI agree.
Why shouldn't the cancellation of debt come with strings attached... What is to stop someone like Mugabe, once his country is free from debt, funnelling the money into his own slush funds, or funding more private armies...
I neve ...[text shortened]... .bw/government/directorate_on_corruption_and_economic_crime.html
Of course certain strings should be attached to money given or debt relief, Its what strings get attached thats the issue.
From what Shavi posted it looks like the proposed debt relief comes with IMF-like strings to sell off state resources, open up markets to subsidised european and american produce and privatise water supplies, healthcare, education etc..
Its seems that everything a politician says needs to be taken and read between the lines to see what is actually being suggested.
01 Jul 05
Originally posted by dk3nnyObviously.
Its seems that everything a politician says needs to be taken and read between the lines to see what is actually being suggested.
When taking the words of politicians into account (or any media), one should always ask one's self these questions:
- Who's financing it.
- Who do they represent
- What do they stand to gain personally.
A wee example:
Research was done into thrombosis on aeroplane journies. The result of the research was that there was no connection.
KLM financed the research...
Another wee example:
Look at top politicians in the defense area of politics. Look at the jobs they get after they quit.
🙂
01 Jul 05
Originally posted by shavixmirThe international HIV/AIDS medical-pharmaceutical-industrial complex, which some observers have named "AIDS, Inc.," is poised to pull off its greatest ever propaganda coup during the first week of July 2005, hoping to penetrate more deeply than ever into the psyches and pocketbooks of the world's population. . .
continued at:
http://members.aol.com/pbchowka/live8hiv-aids070105.html
01 Jul 05
Originally posted by widgetNow this is very bloody interesting!
The international HIV/AIDS medical-pharmaceutical-industrial complex, which some observers have named "AIDS, Inc.," is poised to pull off its greatest ever propaganda coup during the first week of July 2005, hoping to penetrate more deeply than ever into the psyches and pocketbooks of the world's population. . .
continued at:
http://members.aol.com/pbchowka/live8hiv-aids070105.html
I've never even heard these arguments before!
I'm going to have to take a deeper look into this.
01 Jul 05
Originally posted by Bosse de Nagelol....shanes cancelled. Oh well!
You'd better take all your Pogues & Popes cds as a precaution--that way you can always listen to his voice on headphones if he happens to pass out on stage within the first 20 minutes. Good old Shane, he's the world's most pataphysical drunk. Maybe he's the right Irishman for Live Aid!
01 Jul 05
Originally posted by shavixmirSo the real question is:
Now this is very bloody interesting!
I've never even heard these arguments before!
I'm going to have to take a deeper look into this.
Does Geldof know he's working for BPM (Big Pharmaceutical Mother)?
Or does no-one out here have a long-enough attention span to read the webpage through... Big bucks don't go to Africans. They go to large pharmaceutical companies!