Comments on: Live8 – Are We Focusing on the Wrong Problem?

By: White African » Blog Archive » The sun is setting on traditional media

White African » Blog Archive » The sun is setting on traditional media — Sun, 03 Jul 2005 15:43:33 +0000

[…] ns regarding Live 8, mainly because I’m not convinced that it is the right solution (see post below), the event yesterday was a lesson in the power of the web. To say that the Live 8 concert(s) was […]

By: Aly

Aly — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 15:34:25 +0000

I’ve heard that about Martin – I’ll see if the library is in the know and pick him up.

And FYI – Jordan finished Wheel of Time a couple years ago. It goes to Volume 12, for release Fall 2006. (I’m pretty sure…if not, it’s Spring 2007.)

Have a great weekend, guys! Salute the Cap for me.

By: HASH

HASH — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 04:50:35 +0000

Swoosh just got up here to spend the weekend with us (btw). No Tuskers here, just Corona and Captain & Coke…. 🙂

I like your definition of advocacy at it’s best too. I’m 100% with you on taking the things that interfere with the ability of Africans to act. I’m actually in agreement with you on a lot of the things you say Aly. I come at it from a different angle than you though.

Robert Jordan is over 70 (I believe). With all of the miriad unfinished plots out there, I’m wondering if we’ll EVER see an end to this. I want closure! Also, he’s in my top tier of fantasy authers. The other two are Tolkien and George RR Martin. If you haven’t read Martin’s stuff, you’re doing yourself a disservice. Lastly, Neal Stephenson is incredible. Read Cryptonomicon.

By: Aly

Aly — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 00:39:14 +0000

BTW and off-topic: I’m a HUGE Robert Jordan fan…but I also feel kinda swindled in a Left Behind kind of way. Can you believe that by series’ end we will have digested nearly 20,000 pages? If only they gave some kind of post-graduate degree…

By: Aly

Aly — Sat, 02 Jul 2005 00:25:10 +0000

Dig it. Sorry for the rant. The world is a funny place to be right now – walking the line between careless isolationism and arrogant advocacy is an excercise in caution, fraught with danger on both sides. I think Swoosh’s comments are a testament to that: God save us from salving our consciences with the despair of others.

But neither do I want to err on the side of “Can’t they pull themselves up by their own bootstraps?” (My first week back from Kenya, a great uncle of mine – who probably couldn’t point to Kenya on a map if his life depended on it – went on a long-winded diatribe about African poverty being the natural result of laziness. I almost had an aneurysm.) It seems to me that advocacy at its best does not take away responsibility from those to whom it belongs. Instead, it seeks to indict and change the systems that interfere with the ability of those people to act on their responsbility. It’s my belief that gross governmental mismanagement of aid funding, astoundingly inequitable trade agreements, and unchecked corporate greed may in fact be systems that interfere with Africans’ ability to act on their responsibilities, and those systems are AT LEAST in need of examination, if not indictment and change.

I’m putting my soapbox away. Tusker, anyone?

By: admin

admin — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 22:55:52 +0000

Thanks for your comment Aly. You’re right, I did take a very high-level approach to this whole topic and just hit on some broad points that I felt were being overlooked. Don’t mistake my cynicism for non-support of the overall goals. I actually am glad that someone is trying to do something on a global level about poverty in Africa, I’m just questioning the strategy.

If it was possible to funnel all of this money directly into the NGOs and co-ops, I’d support that. If there was a way to relieve the debt without conditioning the ruling corrupt government officials to believe that each time they mis-manage their economy that it will just be forgiven, I would support that too. Lastly, I would strongly advocate and support grassroots initiatives brought about by Africans themselves that seek to create a better economic or political situation for themselves.

As you can see, my main aim is to see the Africans take the action. This Live 8 concert is great, it really is. What would be better though is to see this driven by Africans, and/or their diaspora, and to have a greater mix of Africans taking part in it. I want to see Africans fix Africa’s problems.

By: Aly

Aly — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 19:51:59 +0000

I think the whole issue is a lot more convoluted than you’ve made it seem. (No disrespect, Hash.) I’ve been a supporter of DATA for a couple years now, and I believe they ARE concerned with corruption, ruling elites, etc., and not as naive as you seem to think. DATA and other debt-relief proponents see debt forgiveness as the top-down solution, and future aid and fair trade as the bottom-up solution. They believe that 1st-world nations should stop pouring “aid” money into the pockets of the corrupt, ruling elite, who in turn create pro-1st-world trade policies that further damage the development of their poor nations. Instead, economically blessed nations should bypass corrupt governments altogether, funnelling monies to NGOs and grassroots trade co-ops…to the people who ARE taking it upon themselves to force change. The difficulty in this, of course, is further convoluted in that the US (and other 1st-world nations) benefit economically from the funky “free” trade policies the corrupt governments have instituted, so it’s not just the citizens of developing nations that need to force change from within.

Advocacy is about power: using the power I have to speak for those who don’t have any, until such a time as they do. It’s not paternalistic or condescending; I don’t have a “look how the cute Africans are so needy” attitude. I do believe Africans have a responsibility to look to their own future – but in a global community, their future is my future, and I share that responsibility.

By: Swoosh

Swoosh — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 15:46:53 +0000

sometimes we do things not for the object of our doing but for the peace of mind we give our selves by the doing.
We say, “I have done this great thing, see what I have done? This is what I have done!”
And though the consequences of our actions differ in actual reality from the idealism we put forth, we can still rest easy at night, knowing we have done our part in the world, not really caring about the reality.
It is our peace of mind that we seek to find, not a solution to something we know nothing about.
This is the fall of man.
For the poor, the suffering, the heavy-laden become less important than ourselves.