At the end of the day

Just some jumbled thoughts on the live8 day:

• Dido and Youssou N'Dour - brilliant! 7 Seconds was awesome.

• Velvet Revolver - did they get invited in error? Did someone think the Velvet Underground were going to regroup for Live8?

• Coldplay - I might finally be catching up with everyone saying they might be a band to watch

• Okay - I admit that I cried at the start. I know exactly where I was and with whom on 13/07/1985 when Quo sang "Rocking all over the world" and Geldof and Ure added a new term to the English language - "Live Aid". Lots of things have happened to me in those 20 years and not all have been good.

• Mariah Carey - why?? All the "Dahling" stuff about needing a stand despite saying she wouldn't was a tad annoying but then trying to big up her act by using a group of children selected because they were orphans?? That's sick I'm afraid. And then using Live8 as a platform for her new song - I couldn't really tell if it was new or not as I'm not an avid collector of her back catalogue but I can only fervently hope that she gets the sales she deserves rather than what she wants.

• Geldof - milked the pause in "I don't like Mondays" but that's what the day was about wasn't it? Probably shouldn't be singing but it wouldn't have happened without him

• The Who - "Bus pass rockers blow away the teenies" - if The Sun steal that I want royalties!

• Floyd are still able to send me to sleep after all these years

• McCartney - Okay then, he's got the sole franchise on some of the finest pop songs ever written - he even wrote some of them - but it's still hard to forgive "Mull of Kyntyre" and "The Frog Song"

• I cried again when Saint Bob introduced the video from 20 years ago with "Drive" by The Cars - everyone in the west should be made to watch that regularly but not so much that they become immune to its power.

• I cried even more when he then introduced a survivor from that film. I thought "even if Live Aid only saved one of them was it a waste of time?"

• Gates - I've already seen some of the cynical shite being written about his appearance but as far as I'm concerned anyone who divvys up the kind of brass he has to support development in some of the crappiest parts of the planet deserves respect. To hear some people talk you would think he sold heroin or crack rather than built a successful company - and before anyone starts hitting the "add comment" link to start berating me about Microsoft's business practices or how the world would be a lovely place if we all pissed about with Linux please save your time and mine - today really isn't the day for myopic rantings about the number of angels that can dance on the beak of a penguin.

• Keane were cool

• Will Smith did his best to engage the US audience but he's fighting a losing battle, TV coverage is very limited so the majority of the electorate in the most powerful country on the planet will probably hear very little about the real disaster that is happening outside their borders - that of itself is another tragedy.

• Green Day rocked

In amongst it all Calum and I also eat and he played on the PC upstairs and we erected the six-man tent in the paddock across the road to air it and we looked for a camp site for the family holiday and we had a tickling battle (I am still the undisputed champion) and we generally chilled.

Some facts

While Live8 at Hyde Park sinks slowly into the mellow tones of the Floyd (I never got Pink Floyd and I'm afraid I still don't) I thought I'd try and get my arms round some of the underlying issues. Why Africa - What works has a bewildering array of facts about debt in Africa,

In 1980 Africa had a 6% share of world trade. By 2002 this had dropped to just 2% despite the fact that Africa has 12% of the world's population. If Africa could regain just an additional 1% share of the global trade, it would earn $70 billion more in exports each year - more than three times what the region currently receives in international assistance.

and

In 1970, wealthy nations agreed to a goal of spending 0.7% of GNP on development assitance. In 2003, these countries spent on average just 0.25%; the U.S. gives the smallest percentage of its wealth, 0.15%, to poor countries. (OECD)

Pretty bleak stuff! And more about protectionism

Ghana can export raw cocoa duty free to Europe, but a 25% tariff is imposed if they process that cocoa before exporting it to Europe. It is this processing (tinning, roasting, labeling) which helps a country earn more money and develop its manufacturing base - and which allows its economy to grow. While fair trade could be Africa's ticket out of the vicious cycles of poverty, unfair trade rules like these trap Africa at the gates.

is available at Why Africa - Trade Issues.

The Jubilee Debt Campaign also paints a sorry picture of the action currently taken to support developing countries

'HIPC' - too little, too slow, and with strings attached

• The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative is the current international debt relief scheme
  
• The 'Paris Club' is a group of creditor countries which meet behind closed doors
  
• Countries which have received debt cancellation through HIPC -18
  
• Total debt cancellation through HIPC [between 1996 - 2005] -$30 billion
  
• Debt cancellation granted in one day to Iraq by the 'Paris Club' -$31 billion (Nov. 04)
  
• Number of qualified teachers which Zambia was unable to employ because of a public sector wage freeze imposed by the IMF in 2004 as a condition of receiving HIPC debt relief -9,000

Now I'm certainly not an economist but in between the chinks of this I think we might perceive some routes to follow. We seem trapped in a loop of paying aid to service debts while stopping these countries competing in the world market and trading their way out of poverty. The G8 can make the world a more equitable place - it takes courage and risk taking and a change in the current systems that mean our brothers and sisters are starving because they are not part of our "club" and we won't let them join.

And The Who were brilliant - I don't get Floyd but I saw The Who in 1976 in Manchester and seeing Daltrey and Townshend playing again took me back to those halcyon days.

MIT

MIT are running a survey on our online habbits. Click the image below to be taken to the survey page.

Another type of blog?

The BBC are running page devoted to text messages and sound bites from around the world as the live8 concerts unfold. It forms a tapestry of different voices, thoughts, emotions and views. Another sign of the power of technology? Text messages from Hyde Park, the Eden Project in Cornwall and Philadelphia mixed with BBC reports from Jo'burg and Moscow and Berlin and Rome and backstage at Hyde Park. A panopticon approach to a global event?

Sign up now

This takes you to the live8list nobody is after money - just your name on the list!

Icons

Saint Bob, left arm aloft in the middle of "I don't like Mondays", is probably going to become one of those iconic images to match Che or Jimi or Ghandi or Mandela. Great also to see the rolling count of names being added to the Live8 list - and it's only just hit 3 million so what are you waiting for???. And Will Smith tying the Declaration in Independence back to today's events was moving too - Live8 alone might not make a difference but only a fool would ignore it, let's see what the politicians make of it this week.

Old politico rocker rocks on

Billy Bragg, the voice of the Socialist Left in music for so long has had a few words about live8 at the rally in Edinburgh. Check out his comments and think about the section on outcomes. I'm sitting here watching this with my nine year old son - in a different world where might we all be now?

And for all those who say it won't do any good - if this doesn't work what will? How can we change the world?

And there's more............

The Reuters site is carrying news feeds about Live8 around the world and, as a news provider, is also adding some interesting editorial comment and background on events.

In Tokyo, the 10,000-seat venue was full by the end, although many in the crowd said they came mainly to see headline act Bjork give her first live performance in two years.

The diminutive star expressed the sense of helplessness she felt in the face of extreme poverty in poor countries.

"I look at the news, I see people starving, I am crying. I'm a total mess," she told reporters after the gig.

"You try to think how you're going to break through this cobweb of problems and bureaucracy and how on Earth anybody is going to make any change."

and they use the Mandela quote, when he came out in support of Live8 and the "Make poverty history" campaign, to counter the criticism of the event.

"Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great. You can be that great generation," Nelson Mandela

Finally and best for broadband users I'd guess, AOL Music are carrying live video feeds from all the concerts around the world.

Live8 isn't about money - it's about making our voices heard. You can add your name to the live8 list by following that link. And if you are wondering about the number of times Live8 is shown as a link - I'm using Technorati tags, each posting which includes that tag increases the counter on the image below right and hopefully shows someone somewhere that we are talking about it and we want to be heard.

Different views

As the countdown continues I think it's important to reflect on some of the alternative perspectives on the concerts and the potential impacts of live8 and debt relief.

George Monbiot, writing in the Guardian a couple of weeks ago described the G8 decision to cancel some of the debt as "Spin, lies and corruption" - questioning the motivation of the world leaders involved and particularly the conditions being placed on the debtor countries.

David Stubbs, Reviews Editor of Wired, writing on the BBC site raises a number of reasons that he won't be watching Live8 but they seem to boil down to his dislike of the music on offer.

For a truly diverse selection of views try Global Voices. It includes a quote from a Kenyan blogger, Thinker's Room:

If a concert in Africa would have me sceptical, words cannot describe just how I fail to see how the remotest benefit a 1 million strong concert in Edinburgh will be derived by a poor fisherman in Lamu. I don't see how one million partygoers will contribute to the filling of stomachs in Darfur, or a reduction of the gunfire. This concert, oddly enough, does not seem to have any African musicians performing aside from the good old token Yossou N'dour, something that will no doubt soon be hastily corrected and laughed off as a "technical oversight".

But not all voices are dissenting - I think it's a fantastic resource tying together the thoughts and views of people far more directly involved than those of us in the affluent West but I think it also points to another issue. One must imagine that the real people in need, the people in Dafur, are still not able to make their voices heard on the web - and I'm not for one moment suggesting that this should be a priority for anyone - but we still receive all the images and words mediated by others. We should remember that while we have the luxury of sharing our ideas and thoughts from the comfort of our homes and offices there are millions of people for whom the Internet means nothing - they are just too busy trying to stay alive!

Gosh!

Those who remember our current Home Secretary in his former role as Education supremo might not be surprised to hear that charges of "bullying academics" have been levelled against him. According to the BBC site Howard Davies of the LSE has suggested that Charles Clarke, and the government, had damned the LSE report on ID Cards before seeing it. That the report was produced by 60 people overseen by a dozen professors will cut no ice with Clarke - they probably specialise in something useless like Art History............. or Economics! Of course cynics might suggest that in the face of a reduced majority, back-bench revolt, growing public unease, potentially spiralling costs and some damning academic research the government is really just circling the waggons to defend - to the last - a showpiece manifesto pledge but it sits uneasily with the post-election promises to learn lessons and listen to the electorate. But what would I know? I'm very worried about many of elements of the proposed ID card not least the proposed use of some technologies but I'm just a dim technologist. And if anyone wants to know - Clarke read Maths and Economics at Kings College, Cambridge and has a BA (Hons).

Weirdness!

Something strange happening here - all the gear in the right-hand column has centred itself - does it look the same to everone else?

G8

The BBC have launched a G8 page with all the background and details about the issues that you would expect from one of the major news gathering organizations in the world. And Paul Mason, a journo on Newsnight, is running the Newsnig8t Blog, 'On the road to Gleneagles'. Behind the Live8 stuff it's important to look at the issues and the political players who can really make the difference.

Photos

More Live8 stuff! Check out Pyk's photos of "White Band Day" in Louth. Members of the local school theatre group performing street theatre.

Technorati

Live8!

Technorati are running a log of all Live8 blog postings - Check it out to see postings from around the world!

Play time!

Calum has just gone to bed so it's time for me to catch up with world events. While perusing a few sites I was pointed in the direction of this informative site. Enjoy! :-)

Weather Pixie!

The weather pixie on the right is letting you know the weather not far from here (it's actually at Manston Airport) so there ya go!

My mood

The little "My mood" picture has disappeared but it seems to be a problem with the mood server - maybe it's got moody? I thought I might have messed up when I changed the mood this AM but ScaryCheri's mood is missing too so I've either got intercontinental messing up powers or the fault lies elsewhere.

Link

The link to the Make Poverty History page with the code for the white band on this page and also a lot of other buttons and banners is http://www.makepovertyhistory.org/getinvolved/banners.shtml. It only takes a moment to copy the code and drop it into your web page or blog template :-)

Every little helps?

Sometimes it takes very little to hinder rather than help.

Tesco decided to use a rather cool technique to create some extra land in Gerrards Cross on which to build a supermarket. Let's cover over the railway cutting, effectively making a new tunnel, and build on top! Whoops! Rail chaos between London and Birmingham - thankfully nobody was hurt.