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July 04, 2005
Various G8 links
Video
In response to the MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY video, Ira Israel and some Southern California teens created this message to show solidarity with ONE and Make Poverty History campaigns in the global fight against AIDS and extreme poverty. (Thanks Mike for this.)
ONE
ONE, the Make Poverty History campaign equivalent in the US, now has over 1 million supporters. Support seems to be broadening there. Christian singer Michael W Smith, Pat Robertson, and Bill Gates are all supporters. USA Today observes that evangelicals in the US seem to be increasingly broadening their political involvement from abortion and family values to include humanitarian concerns such as AIDS, Sudan, and even environmental issues.
Bush and Global Warming
While some progress has been made on Aid and Debt, Trade and Global Warming remain to be dealt with. George Bush seems now to acknowledge that human activity plays a part in global warming, but rejects Kyoto-style legally-binding reduction on carbon emissions, preferring to focus on new technologies as a way of tackling global warming.
Pope
The Pope has added his voice to call the G8 to act to help eradicate poverty in Africa. He said: "My heartfelt hope is that this important meeting is successful, that it leads to a sharing out of the costs of reducing debt and puts in motion concrete measures to eradicate poverty and promote genuine development in Africa,"
A lifetime's work
Gordon Brown observes that it will take more than one G8 meeting to deal with long-term poverty in Africa. He told the BBC: "It is a lifetime's work where we empower the people of Africa and the developing countries to make decisions for themselves." While we should still look for significant movement at the G8 this week, this is a reminder to us that a commitment to justice is not for one week, or one rock concert.
What Live8 was about
Live8 was not about rock music. It was not Live Aid 2, aiming to get people to give money. It was about educating and mobilising people to call upon our leaders to act for justice for the poor. The organisers of Live8 sent this open letter to the G8 afterwards:
"We just thought it was worth writing a reminder of what it was all about.
The very simple fact is that thousands upon thousands of people are still dying each day, in one damn way or another, as a result of extreme poverty.
No one, absolutely not one person in the world, thinks this is a good state of affairs. And yesterday millions and billions of people took part in an event that was meant to say that. They don't know how to stop the dying. But they are desperate and passionate that something should be done right now."
Tags: g8 live8 make poverty history
Posted by Keith at July 4, 2005 07:04 AM
