Don't forget the reason behind the Live 8 concerts

[pstans]

The Live 8 concerts brought to light to millions and millions of people around the world the injustices that are taking place.

A child in Africa dies from hungry every 3 seconds.

More than 38 million people around the world are infected by HIV/AIDS, 25 million in Africa alone.

Extreme poverty means living on less than $1 a day, unimaginable to us as Americans. ONE in five people around the world survives on this amount, with few opportunities to earn more.

As much as people in poor countries appreciate development assistance, no one wants to rely on a handout –– they want to trade their way out of poverty –– but international rules make it difficult.

What happened today in London is horrible. No innocent civilan should be forced to face such death and destruction, no matter if you live in Great Britain, the United States, Africa, or Iraq.

My thoughts and prayers are with the 33 confrimed dead in London, the many more that were injured in the terrorist attacks, their friends and families, BUT I wil also be praying for the 100,000 innocent Iraqi's that have been killed, our US troops that risk their lives everyday and the 1700+ that won't be coming home, and the millions that suffer from injustice worldwide.

Out of this long political darkness a brighter day will come.


http://www.live8live.com/
http://www.maketradefair.com/en/index.htm
http://www.one.org/
http://www.amnestyusa.org/musicforhumanrights/

[rman]

1. And don't forget it didn't make much of a difference.

Exept that many inhabitants of the rich nations can now feel good about themselves for some time.

Did the live8 folks even address the matter of international rules (as embodied by IMF, WTO, Worldbank etc - all creations of the rich nations) making it difficult to reduce poverty?

As a matter of fact "make it difficult" is a bit of an understatement - "obstruct" would be more accurate. It is these rules and the organizations that created and enforce them, that constitute the debt-trap that many of the poor nations have been led into.

Can anyone present even one example of a poor nation where the situation has improved rather then declined for the majority of the population of that nation, as a result of entering trade agreements concocted by the rich nations?