Jumping on the bandwagon?

I'm on about the Make Poverty History thing in the top right corner.
Whilst it's all very fashionable to get behind Geldof and Co., I fail to see how a bunch of rich people complaining about another bunch of rich people will actually make an ounce of difference to poverty in Africa or anywhere else in the world.
Call me a cynic, but what's going to happen with all the money from the extra album sales these fellas make?
Anyone else feel slightly uneasy about the whole campaign? Seems to me to have been manipulated by a group of rich ****s for their own personal gain.
Noticed today that the London Times is supporting the campaign. Guess who owns the paper......Rupert Murdoch. :rolleyes:

aye what is this "make poverty history" about??? i dont get it.

anyhow, bono bringnig someone to court over a few items of clothing as he wants the money from the sales...the band are going to make 157 million euro from this tour...how much is he gonig to give to the poor??? how much has geldof given?

money where your mouth is i say....

i would never go to see u2 as bono drives me mad, he is so full of minure.

I have to say I was thinking that myself - i havent bought into it at all tbh.

Theres U2 playing 3 dublin gigs - as a gesture could they not have said feck it, sure we'll give all the money we make on the 3rd gig to charity!!!

exactly they could well afford too. they are full of minure.

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Originally Posted by paul_oshea

exactly they could well afford too. they are full of minure.

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Exactly how many times will you have said that about them before you realise you're not even spelling it correctly? I'll say two, maybe even three.

The problem i have with it all, is that its all good and well sending of shed loadsa cash and asking them to wipe out the debt,but surely unless changes are made within the governments and structures within each of those countries, the same problems are just going to reoccur.

20 years ago, or what ever it was , it Live aid, and all that money went over over ether. yet here we are still having to raise money. Thats the part that stops me getting involved or going, becasue it wont change untill they change the way countries are run - maybe Im wrong, but thats my take on it :o

U2 have given €5 million to charity from this tour - thats more than the 3 Croke Park gigs put together made. The truth is it doesn't matter what they and others like them do, a large slice of the public will be cynical about it. I mean how can anyone question Bob Geldofs motives? It's truly bizarre. :confused:

Bono/Geldof are by no means my favourite people but make no mistake. What these guys are doing is using their prominent positions in media circles to do good for those less well off than ourselves. Of course they stand to 'gain' publicity for their troubles. So what. There should be more people like them in the world and less people like you lot whinging about them. :mad:

I support the make trade fair/make poverty history campaign, might as well get that out of the way.

Geldof & Bono et al do actually give a lot of their own money (and time) to charities, fair enough they have millions in the bank, but even if they gave everything they ever grossed, it still wouldnt really help an awful lot unfortunitly. Anyway, these guys are figureheads, people listen to them because they are recognisable, not because of the hands on work they have put in to the campaigns. Its like politics in the UK: the queen is the figure head but its Tony Blair who calls the shots, so dont get too ruffeled about the singers asking governments to make trade fair.

[Quick example]
Every year the US government gives its rice farmers $1 billion to over produce rice to keep themselves in business. The surplus rice is then exported, at below cost prices, to third world countries (often as "aid"). This flood of excessively cheap food then forces local farmers to go out of business because they can no longer compete with this exported rice, forcing them out of work and adding to the unemployed. So these farmers go from being self sustained to joining the aid queue. This practice is called dumping and is putting millions out of jobs and homes each year. The phrase "trade not aid" is used a good bit now as it is seen as a longterm solution to helping poorer countries instead of throwing millions at them each year. [/Quick example]

Well, correct me if im wrong but didnt he give himself a slot for the concert in edinburgh (could sell a few records after that, handy eh?) but has since backed down because of people giving out about it :rolleyes: !!

Cosmo, the conspiracy theorist :D

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Originally Posted by Armando

U2 have given €5 million to charity from this tour - thats more than the 3 Croke Park gigs put together made. The truth is it doesn't matter what they and others like them do, a large slice of the public will be cynical about it. I mean how can anyone question Bob Geldofs motives? It's truly bizarre. :confused:

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Fully agreed with ya there mate, someone tryong to put pressure on Governments to try and make the world a better place and he's getting stick for it :confused: Does not make sense. Pack of cynical moany s*ite bags !

The people being critical of the Make Poverty History campaign have a very limited understanding of what it aims to achieve and how it's attempting to do that. For example the aforementioned "bunch of rich people" are certainly signed up to complain - and more power to them for it, what would you be calling them if they didn't - but they're mostly being used to get you to sign up to complain too. It's about bringing the message to as many people as possible, and quite literally asking them to get involved.

I'd suggest that you click on the banner above and take ten minutes to read the website it links to. Rather ironic that I actually have to say this. Just a little bit pathetic too.

I've taken the commerical banners off the site for a week or so while I'm running that banner, am I just looking for attention too? :rolleyes:

adam

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Originally Posted by dahamsta

I've taken the commerical banners off the site for a week or so while I'm running that banner, am I just looking for attention too? :rolleyes:

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Just on the subject of the banner, it's a good idea to display it like that because it gets noticed. Standard banners are ignored by most people.
I like it.

You could also go here to Make Trade Fair

I kinda agree with 1st post ideas. definitely lot of bandwagon jumping.

"Make Poverty History" in IMO is a dubious slogan. Like it or not there will always be poverty so is not an achievable aim.

Also Debt Relief is great idea but then again so seriously dodgy rulers in these 3rd world countries. Only recently at a Debt Relief Press Conference had Ethiopian PM with Tony Blair & others when at the same time his police force was killing student protestors.

Fair Trade is great too & easy to criticise the US but the EU is just as bad. Ireland is huge beneficiary of the EU Food subsidies - do we really want them abolished?

I don't see how a concert will solve anything - wouldn't it be better to donate the money used to host the concerts for sustainable development?

I don't think this should be Bono debate but IMO U2 are expected to give to charity as save millions every year with tax free artist status!

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Originally Posted by pete

"Make Poverty History" in IMO is a dubious slogan. Like it or not there will always be poverty so is not an achievable aim.

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Why isn't it achievable? No reason for poverty in this country, bar the pathetic Government we have... However, the poverty they are trying to make history is actually hard to comprehend, as we're talking about so little to make such a difference.

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Originally Posted by pete

Fair Trade is great too & easy to criticise the US but the EU is just as bad.

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Absolutly

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Originally Posted by pete

Ireland is huge beneficiary of the EU Food subsidies - do we really want them abolished?

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Id rather pay more directly to farmers for thier produce than give them subsidies just to survive. The reality is that farming in the EU and especially in Ireland should downsize dramatically (I'll leave the "but its our way of life" debate for another thread). There's no other industry that would get such huge subsidies to keep it alive when it is no longer needed (in the size of its scale) so why should farming be any different? Its actually happening right now with the sugar beet processing in Ireland. Although I do have sympathy for those involved, if there's no market for it then they shouldnt be producing it :o We live in a capitalist society, not communist. :eek:

In fairness to Geldof and the campaign they honestly believe in what they are doing and they are highlighting issues that need attention but there will not be long term gain in Africa until tin pot dictators, warlords, tribal chieftains etc are put out of business once and for all. True democratic reform and the removal of trade barriers is the long term solution.

I do understand some of the cynical attitudes out there towards it but I suppose so what if they are getting somewhere.

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Originally Posted by pete

"Make Poverty History" in IMO is a dubious slogan. Like it or not there will always be poverty so is not an achievable aim.

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Read the manifesto (PDF) and come back and tell us that again. There's no reason nor need for poverty in modern society.

adam

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Originally Posted by Troy.McClure

Id rather pay more directly to farmers for thier produce than give them subsidies just to survive.......Its actually happening right now with the sugar beet processing in Ireland. Although I do have sympathy for those involved, if there's no market for it then they shouldnt be producing it

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Without getting too bogged down into it and further off topic, the reason the irish sugar industry can't be sustained is they can't compete with heavily subsidised (by EU) foreign sugar industries. If it was a level playing field, I'm sure the local industry would be doing ok.
While I don't have any references off-hand, I remember reading a report on Madagascar. The EU fixed a price to buy their sugar (their main industry), that is so far off market value now, that they can now sell their sugar to the EU, then import sugar from another country, and still make a profit.