The Silent Penguin

« Amsterdam - European Open Source City 2005 | Main | Off to JavaForum »

July 03, 2005

20 years change - what?

20 years ago I had just graduated from German high-school and on the day of the LiveAid (dare I say - the original) concert I returned from my first longer vacation away from home. Everyone and his dog was glued to the TV back on that day and there was this "feeling" that Bob Geldorf and the rest of the pop crowd were really trying to change something. And we were there with them. A feeling that even came back (slightly) when I watched the DVD version.

But 20 years on and maybe I'm too much of a cynic now to think that we can't really change anything at all. If the original LiveAid concert had been a success then why did we need another? Why are over 30.000 children still dying each day from poverty?
Sure, it's a noble cause and my hat is off to the people who put something like Live8 together. It must be a logistical nightmare and they pulled it off really really well. But how naive are we to think that politicians anywhere will take a cue from "a pop concert" (ok, a large one) and change the way they run the world? As Steve notes, they can't even take care of their own part of the world - let alone a continent as diverse as Africa.

But at the same time it's also too easy to lean back and smile smugly at the superficial pointlessness of an effort like Live8. So, while the event may have been too full of "well intentioned self importance" at the same time, as one of the comments to Hugh's blog piece writes "I'd still pick well intentioned self importance over inaction, however". True.

Posted by Matthew at July 3, 2005 07:53 PM

Comments

Posted by: slot machines at July 10, 2005 10:39 PM