Live 8: Canada Helps Africa

Yesterday, around the first world there was a series of concerts named Live 8 to help solve the root of the problems that have Africa in such poverty. Canada, being one of those first world countries, was home to one of those concerts in the city of Barrie (40 minutes to the north of the Canadian city by excellence - Toronto).

The tickets were free so that wasn't the source for donations as one might think. Instead, what really mattered was to present a unified "voice and presence" of people at those concerts. In other words, it serves as a way to protest and put pressure on the leaders of the G8 (USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia) to help Africa. Some other objectives to this concert was to get other goals done like those Bono from U2 has to cancel the debt of the world's poorest nations and to double foreign aid to them. These goals (and bettering export conditions for African nations) are also supported by leaders such as Tony Blair, the European Union and the United Nations.

If you can remember, last month, a big step had been taken already as the debt for 18 poor nations was forgiven (14 of these were African nations (http://www2.eluniversal.com.mx/pls/impreso/noticia_busqueda.html?id_nota=35979&tabla=INTERNACIONAL_h) and before the concert many European countries, under the advice of Tony Blair, accepted allocating a significant amount more of their money for aiding Africa.

So... how relevant was the concert? I personally think that the relevance of the concert remained on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Canada has continued to fall short in its commitment to aid less fortunate countries and we all know that in the US, George W. Bush has continuedly denied aiding Africa in the same way Europe has. And of course, it is worrisome that the US - being the most powerful country in the world- would not want to participate in this plan with a vision for a better future for our African brothers and sisters. The pressure and voice of this concert, should now be focused on these two slow or clearly reluctant countries.

Regarding Africa, I also feel that the concerts should also look to put pressure on the governments of Africa to find peace, democracy, respect for human rights, and (perhaps most importantly) transparency and the end of corruption. Even with our best intentions and the best intentions of the leaders of the G8, if these African nations continue with either authoritarian or corrupt governments, then the money received in aid will never reach the poorest and neediest of the population. And also, how much can aid do to help a country grow if there is no political nor financial environment that is good for economic growth.


So let's not forget that we have to help in every aspect. It is not enough to just give money and not care to what use it is put. We have to help give and make sure that money is used well. I believe, that perhaps Live 8 missed out on this last bit.

I include a link to a post that my friend Jacobo made about Live 8 too. It's in Spanish though:
http://www.jakovo.net/modules.php?name=MiDiario&dia=1120363200