[Mb-civic] Africans puzzled by Live8

[Ian]

Harold:

I hear you, and understand your skepticism.  After all, had Geldof et al taken the money (tens of millions) it took to produce the shows and used it elsewhere, it probably could have bought an entire bag of groceries for millions of people, or medicine et al for millions of others.

I never understood this whole thing anyway.  Raise awareness?  Anyone who is not aware that there is extreme poverty in the world (from Africa to Appalachia) has been living under a rock somewhere in the Mojave Desert for the past hundred years.

Peace.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Harold Sifton 
  To: MB Civic 
  Sent: Sunday, July 03, 2005 10:25 PM
  Subject: [Mb-civic] Africans puzzled by Live8


  Most Africans are puzzled, yet thankful for Live8 by rich white entertainers.

  http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2005/July/theworld_July70.xml&section=theworld&col=

  Point being, most Africans do not have TV or even are aware of Live8.

  2 billion people did not watch Live8 like the media says, maybe 80 or 90 million if ! Who knows ? I watched parts..... mostly London.

  http://www.live8live.com/

  There were not 1 million people at the Philadelphia show as they said !!

  Great idea, great music by some, but where will the follow up be by the artists .......... ???

  I think this will be more of a celebration of "I was there as a performer, an invited peer recognized by Sir Bob" and a great organization of international production, but the end result for Africa will be minor if anything at all. The celebrity performers will celebrate their effort amongst each other at the following tea parties, but it will have no real outcome other than a great show. Will Africa be saved, no, will the message be remembered, No, will the advertisers, sponsors of the show gain from their onslaught of branding, Yes!! After every song played, there was 3- 4 minutes of advertising, a media bonanza/windfall of ad revenue. If I see another Budweiser ad I will be sick, and I just watched the recaps........

  Will the awareness of the African plight be remembered, No, will this affect G8 decisions, No! Will record/cd sales of performers increase, Yes!

  I am so, so jaded by these celebrity events.......... everyone makes money except those who the charity is for. 

  Harry

  PS Live Aid, hardly any monies, pretty much none went to Africa, yet Sir Bob made millions on royalties...... he stands to make millions more through royalties of Live8, even though it was a free concert. Nobody does anything for free in the entertainment business, money always changes hands, one way or another.

  It was great to see Pink Floyd play , Pete Townsend still plays a mean guitar, and Andréa  Bocelli in Paris can sing a song like no other.

  http://www.live8live.com/theconcerts/index.shtml


  Later, H






------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Mb-civic mailing list
  Mb-civic at islandlists.com
  http://www.islandlists.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/mb-civic
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20050703/2114d158/attachment.htm