Has Africa disappeared ?
Up until the beginning of July , there were lots of postings on S.F on how we should all pull our weight to get Africa out of the sorry mess it was in.i.e. send it some money.
Apparently 30,000 children alone , were dying every day from starvation and /or disease. Emotions , it seemed were running high as we were told that somehow , we , in the West , were at least partly responsible. Hand -wringing went on unabated.
What happened ? Well , about 50 people were horrifically killed in London on the 7th.of July and since then , I can't recall one posting on S.F. that has mentioned the African crisis. I may have missed some but there certainly hasn't been a deluge , has there ?
Maybe the vast majority can't think about two crises at the same time ? But , after all the London bombings were 7 or 8 weeks ago and 30,000 children dying every day ..........!
I'm surprised someone hasn't reminded us .

I remember at the time that in one of my posts I predicted that concern for Africa would prove to be a flash in the pan and that Live 8 would soon disappear from the headlines. Live 8? What was that all about? Well, it was supposed to be about consciousness raising. Well, perhaps it did for about two weeks.

LOrd Chaverly ,

Yes , I think you're right and the sad thing is that next time there's a rally or a campaign for some on-going or one-off disaster , we , "cynics " will be classed as unfeeling , uncaring , mean .......etc......if we don't join in the fund-raising and the Rednoses and other stuff............for a couple of days anyway......
I'm sure the cumulative effect of all this is to water down trying to find a REAL , serious , solution to the various problems in Africa and elsewhere.

theres no simple solution,its the people themselves who have to get up and rectify every thing that is wrong........the majority of aid doesnt get to where its supposed to,the leaders are corrupt,the african nation has come to rely to much on western aid...........they have to make the decision to work at what they want

I expect that the people with a real concern for it are still working hard on projects.

What's disappeared is the media interest and the people who were making noise because it was trendy to do so. And that's not particularly SF but across the whole country.

The real work of all charities goes on behind the scenes, 24/7/365, but I guess that doesn't get the headlines.

Joe

Joe P.

Yes , I think you're right on the two points , there.
We never hear very much about the dedicated people who work , day in , day out , helping people in terrible circumstances , both abroad and in the U.K
Then as soon as a Campaign of some sort begins , all the extroverts , show -offs and Holier-than-Thous ,jump on the bandwagon. As soon as the T.V. cameras .....etc......move away , the dedicated ones keep at it and the shallow ones move onto a new cause ------for a time.
As you said , this is not an S.F thing but happens nationwide. Just as there's been virtually nothing about Africa on S.F. since 7/7/05 , I haven't seen many letters in the national press either. I can't comment on T.V. coverage or radio , as I can't get the U.K. ones.
To me , it just seemed surprising that the deaths of 30,000 children a day in Africa could so quickly become , "Non-News " !

Also is it not the case, that most of the promises of aid to africa by the UK have turned out to be little more than shuffling of figures and renaming of money paid to africa already???

its been sorted out...nothing to worry about - the celebs have fixed it...either that or the US have invaded it...

Originally posted by TimmyR
Also is it not the case, that most of the promises of aid to africa by the UK have turned out to be little more than shuffling of figures and renaming of money paid to africa already???

Correct. In fact the focus of Live 8 was supposed to be on the leadership of the G8, the purpose being to encourage the leaders of the world's leading industrialised countries to make policy commitments regarding African development. If you examine the history of the G8, you will find that many of the policy commitments made at G8 conferences have proven to be hot air. They tend to be couched in such general terms as to be virtually meaningless anyway and are soon forgotten, given the short attention span of the media. A week is a long time in the politics of global development.

The whole LIVE8 thing - like all of these high profile "charity" endeavours - was always going to be an excuse for celebs to massage their egos anyway. Disregarding the nonsensical media hype, I don't think the idea itself of putting pressure on the G8 leaders was a bad one, but I am surprised that no-one now seems to be arsed about the outcome.

As it happens, the outcomes were a mixed bag from the point of view of anti-poverty campaigners: On the positive side, 18 countries have had 100% of their debt cancelled (which is an unprecedented development), and pledges of aid money have increased. However, campaigners feel the aid increase is not nearly enough, and that many countries have been overlooked for debt relief. Also, bold statements about health and education, and accountability for the use of aid money, are not backed up with any solidity.

Have a look at Oxfam's report (http://www.oxfam.com/eng/pdfs/bn050729_G8_final.pdf) on the summit for more info.

its called jumping on the bandwagon.

Wasn't there a series of bombings the day after the last Live 8 Concert? Trying to keep it in the media after 07/07 would have been pïssing in the wind.

Heck, it all seems a bit convenient, if you wanted Bob Geldof to go away and stop making waves.

Originally posted by Phanerothyme
Wasn't there a series of bombings the day after the last Live 8 Concert? Trying to keep it in the media after 07/07 would have been pïssing in the wind.

Heck, it all seems a bit convenient, if you wanted Bob Geldof to go away and stop making waves.

Well, we could always ask CaroleK for a more detailed explanation of the relationship between the two events.