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Live 8

Aug 4, 2005 Print This Post

//MOOD: Hmmmm
//ITUNES: “Hurt” – Nine Inch Nails

Just read an interesting post from a missionary in Kenya about the Live 8 concerts, etc. It was interesting because I am teaching on James 1 this weekend and have been thinking about what this verse means in this day and age:

James 1:27 Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles, and refuse to let the world corrupt us.

This verse keeps flying around in my head:

Matthew 26:11 For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.

I have been waffling in my head on the Live 8 thing as well as the “Make Poverty History” deal. My friend Matt had a good post on it recently as well.

Anyway, you can read the whole post from the missionary here. For now, here are a few excerpts:

I have heard a lot about the Live 8 Concerts held earlier this month. It seems to have caught more attention in the West than here in Africa. I guess that is why I didn�t really spend much time thinking about whether it was a good idea or not. However, over the last month I have collected a few good articles on the topic of Live 8 and Poverty in Africa and I thought I would post a few that seem to coincide with what I am hearing Africans say.

Quoting Andrew Bolt:

Live 8 shows of superstars such as Madonna and Mariah Carey will feed a dangerous fantasy — that Africa’s squalor is caused by Western selfishness. They will also pamper to a generation of slackers by promising all they need do to end Africa’s misery is bully our politicians into sending a cheque of someone else’s money.

Africa does need help, of course. What a disaster the continent has been. Living standards of sub-Saharan Africa have dropped over the past four decades, AIDS has decimated countries such as Swaziland, and civil wars still rage on…

The official Live 8 demands — endorsed by the Blair Government � seem simple: “This without doubt is a moment in history where ordinary people can grasp the chance to achieve something truly monumental, and demand from the eight world leaders at G8 an end to poverty.”

An end to poverty? How? “By doubling aid, fully cancelling debt, and delivering trade justice for Africa.”

Notice how none of the solutions involve African countries doing much themselves? But this always was more about us than them. What a terrible fraud. ..

the harsh fact is Africa got $530 billion in aid between 1960 and 1997, and wound up poorer, not richer. Double the aid, and we may do no more than double the waste and the thieving.

Let Kenya be a warning. The British High Commissioner there, Sir Edward Clay, has publicly accused corrupt officials of “vomiting on the shoes of donors”, and named 20 big public projects riddled with graft. In February, the US Ambassador, William Bellamy, backed him, saying the money stolen in one of those projects could have paid for enough anti-retroviral drugs for every HIV-positive Kenyan for the next 10 years. He warned the US already gave Kenya $200 million a year in aid, and “more donor money is not the answer”. Kenya had to sell its bloated state enterprises and “either fight corruption of be overwhelmed by it”…

Help we should, but only to help Africa help itself.

Open up trade, yes, but tie aid to real reform, as the US now tries through its Millennium Challenge Account.

Not glamorous or fast, but, with luck, effective…

Africa is not poor because we are rich. It is not enslaved because we are free. Africa is poor because of its vices, not our virtues.

Food for thought.