(no subject)

[shinytoaster]

"'There were people in other countries who thought that this place was important. They believed that it could show that dry places like this could be changed. They wanted us to show that people could live together in a place like this and share everything.'

Mma Ramotswe nodded. She was familiar with people who liked to test out all sorts of theories about how people might live. There was something about the country that attracted them, as if in that vast, dry country there was enough air for people to breathe. Such people had been excited when the Brigade movement had been set up. They had thought it a very good idea that young people should be asked to spend time working for others and helping to build their country; but what was so exceptional about that? Did young people not work in rich countries? Perhaps they did not, and that is why these people, who came from such countries, should have found the whole idea so exciting. There was nothing wrong with these people - they were kind people usually, and treated the Batswana with respect. Yet somehow it could be tiring to be given advice. There was always some eager foreign organisation ready to say to Africans: this is what you do, this is how you should do things. The advice may be good, and it may work elsewhere, but Africa needed its own solutions.'

(A McCall Smith - Tears of the Giraffe - Abacus - 2000)

I think the bits of the concert I saw were fantastic, The Who and Pink Floyd in particular. But I'd like to reserve judgement on whether or not things will change until they actually do. Johnny Borrell out of Razorlight said 'We have to make them listen to us,' and I think he missed the point. In Blair and Brown we already have people who are listening, and in the rush to condemn our governments I think we forget that. Labour has an excellent record, as I pointed out before the election.

Of course, I want the debt written off, and of course I don't want five, six, seven children to die since I started typing this sentence: it's all so wretchedly horrible and unfair.

But I can't help thinking there's something fundamentally wrong with it coming from us. It needs to come from Africa. They need to help us help them in the best way. It is not our place to dictate what's best, because even though our system by and large works, it is not perfect. Debt relief is surely a good start, and will be A Good Thing when it happens, but why aren't we stopping arms sales? Should we be thinking about reparations?

Who really knows?

Comments

[pinguthegreek.livejournal.com]

You make the point I wanted to make so eloquently !

I wish influential people would see it the same way.

[jlh.livejournal.com]

Someone on either BBC World Service or NPR the other morning had this whole interesting argument against too much foreign aid, etc. He said that as long as the governments are beholden not to their people but to other countries and to banks that will give them money no matter what, true democracy won't flourish. It's a Draconian point, but a point nonetheless. I am reminded of Amartya Sen's work on famine, that it's often as much of a distribution (and political) problem as an actual food shortage problem.

I know Geldof has realized that private aid money itself doesn't go that far because of these governmental (or really, lack of governmental) reasons. And letting a government set up clean without the burden of foreign debt or the need to account to western banks or NGOs in any way is a really good idea. But who is choosing these governments?

It isn't just arms sales--that stuff is everywhere. It's the lack of any real consequences for anything a government might want to do. Empire made a massive mess of Africa, the Middle East, South America, and I'm not entirely sure how to fix it. Clearly just fucking off doesn't do the trick. And it's okay to say, I don't know what will help. It's the "certainty" of suggested paths that makes me nervous.

[titanic-days.livejournal.com]

In agreement, definitely. It's all very well to send fleets of Red Cross lorries laden with sacks of millet and wheat and blankets, which was kind of the aim of Live Aid, but it was a short term fix for an already existent long term problem that people weren't really awake to in 1985. Sure, it saved some lives - witness the girl St Bob brought on stage last night, who was in one of the original Ethiopian famine films, pictured as a stick-thin pre-schooler who had ten minutes to live, and she's just taken her finals at agricultural college and wants to set up her own business, and that's great, obviously, but when the short term problem is fixed you don't want more bags of millet - I'd want some seeds and a hoe and an artesian well, and then when my trees grew I'd want someone to pay me properly for the fruit so that I could live comfortably. If Live 8 can accomplish this, then it's much more of a success than Live Aid ever was. I hope this will be the case, but there's so much uncertainty that I'm just not sure if this problem can be solved.

[catlily.livejournal.com]

Agree with much of what you say. I agreed with the comments Andrew Marr made last night as well, in that Live8 probably achieved 2 out of 3 of its aims - wiping out the debt and providing aid. But the most important long term solution is going to be all about trade, and the dominance of the multinationals and the culture of cheap food and other produce, and this is the one that the G8 members are not going to find easy to sort out, even if they had the inclination to do so.

The fluffiness of these events annoy me a little, with all the mutual back slapping and dim celebrities going on about how meaningful it all is, and I find a lot of it quite patronising as well. However, I too thought that The Who and Pink Floyd were phenomenal, and I liked Paul McCartney qualifying things by referring to people who were there for the "right reasons", because I bet a huge number in the crowd were there for the crack rather than their desire to eradicate poverty.

(Btw - congrats on the job - I didn't get round to saying so before).

[silvetsmichell.livejournal.com]

I agree that we should help in other ways but we have to start from somewhere, no?
And what Bob Geldof did was beautiful and it might not have a huge impact immediatly but will surely create a conscience in a lot of people towards those problems. Who can really be at peace when you have children dying every three seconds, or not even beeing able to walk because their legs are sticks? I signed my name at the live8 list because if I can't do anything more than that,then that's what I'll do.
I wasn't at any of the shows because I'm from Brazil but I watched from almost the beggining through the end at MTV and it was very emotional for me, I wish I was more active but I'm glad that there are active people like Bono or Bob and what they say is true, politicians don't fear them, they start to listen when the people, the voters, take a stand and say something. I'm positive that we'll see good results at this G8 summit.
Well, this is my piece.

[wordplay.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to pop in over here to leave something that reminded me of this entry. A friend of mine just got back from Africa and has been typing up her travelogue. In the latest installment she recounts an interesting discussion (http://www.livejournal.com/users/jenn_unplugged/32665.html?#cutid1) (scroll past the lovely photos all the way to the bottom) that reminded me of part of why I think imperialist aid is something to be thoughtful about.