Live Aid

ZakAttak

If it were 10 hours of non stop footage of the situation in Africa. It'd be depressing and noone would watch it.

==>I never suggested this.

At the end of the day, thousands of people are alive today, who wouldn't be were it not for Bob Geldof and Bono, organising this concert.[/quote]

==>And there are thousands who are dead because the real issues of Africa aren't being addressed- they're being ignored in favour of rock concerts such as Live-aid.

Dudess

"...They're being ignored in favour of rock concerts such as Live Aid"... Right. How did you figure out that concerts like Live Aid, which raise awareness of, and money for, the plight of these people... are causing them to be ignored?

Oh, and people who think those in desperately impoverished circumstances under dictatorships and in the throes of war can help themselves and live happily ever after in some agrarian paradise... are naive, deluded idiots. If you believe these people can help themselves, how are they gonna go about it without help from outside? Enlighten me please.

Colonialism has made a fuk-up of Africa, nothing wrong with the West cleaning up its own mess.

Latchy

School children in ireland were putting their pennys in the black babys box at school as far back as the 60s .Helping Africas starving was going on long beore Live Aid

Dudess

I've a feeling ZakAttak is an idealistic and naive teenager/early 20-something who likes to indulge in pseudo-Marxist rhetoric every so often without having much to back himself up. I was the same once.

grumpytrousers

+1 - read the 'what was so different about the beatles thread' for more of the same...including the iffy formatting/quoting

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055307214

---

Now playing: Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God
via FoxyTunes

Dudess

And the Amy Winehouse thread. Jeez - now there's a headache if ever there was one...

damonjewel

Dudess wrote: »

I've a feeling ZakAttak is an idealistic and naive teenager/early 20-something who likes to indulge in pseudo-Marxist rhetoric every so often without having much to back himself up.

Or possibly drunk?

ZakAttak

Colonialism has made a fuk-up of Africa, nothing wrong with the West cleaning up its own mess.[/quote]


==>Don't you think Globalisation is another form of colonialism?

ZakAttak

Dudess wrote: »

I've a feeling ZakAttak is an idealistic and naive teenager/early 20-something who likes to indulge in pseudo-Marxist rhetoric every so often without having much to back himself up. I was the same once.

==>Not once did I mention Karl Marx, I don't know where you've gotten this from. I didn't even suggest that Marxist philosophy was a good thing. I said that Bono and Geldof have right-wing outlooks, and I don't think you can dispute that- they are both wealthy businessmen outside of the entertainment world, how many marxist-capitalists do you know?

and even if I was a Marxist (which I am not), what would be wrong with that? are you an Adam Smith-ist? 'cos I reckon thats worse.

Blisterman

I'd hardly call Bono and Geldof Right Wing.

Ok, they're not communists, but they both believe that it is the west's obligation to try and help poorer countries, which I'd consider to be a relatively socialist view.

ZakAttak

Blisterman wrote: »

I'd hardly call Bono and Geldof Right Wing.

Ok, they're not communists, but they both believe that it is the west's obligation to try and help poorer countries, which I'd consider to be a relatively socialist view.

==>They want Africa to have open trade with the west. In effect this means they want to allow western companies to exploit African resources, which is whats happening at the moment. This is how they get invited to all those diplomatic events with Bush, Blair etc.

Socialism promotes self-sufficiency, this is not what western leaders want. They want Africa to be dependent upon a number of products which only they (western governments) supply, such as; arms, certain medicines and certain electrical goods.

adox

Zakattak , hw about respecting the OPs point and not dragging threads off into random sweeping rants.


To answer the thread question, I was at band rehearsal in Litton Lane and then dashed back home to my parents house to watch for the day.

Dudess

ZakAttak wrote: »

==>Not once did I mention Karl Marx, I don't know where you've gotten this from. I didn't even suggest that Marxist philosophy was a good thing.

I'm using the term "wannabe marxist" in a generic sense - in reference to those who whinge from the comfort of their bedrooms and behind their Dell laptops about the oppression by the West of the Third World - and who include the West's genuine attempts to help the Third World under this umbrella of "oppression". Not all people from the West who give aid to Africa are cynical businessmen/women dangling carrots before these impoverished people in order to own them. Some of us from the West are simply trying to help in whatever small way we can. Self sufficiency is the ideal but not always achievable - it would have been downright impossible in Ethiopia back then. The government mercenaries would have put a stop to such projects.

I said that Bono and Geldof have right-wing outlooks, and I don't think you can dispute that- they are both wealthy businessmen outside of the entertainment world, how many marxist-capitalists do you know?

Ok, but they're not right-wing in the neo con sense, which is how it came across. Right-wing isn't always a terrible thing. They may be capitalists technically, but philanthropic capitalists with a degree of social conscience - nothing wrong with that.

and even if I was a Marxist (which I am not), what would be wrong with that? are you an Adam Smith-ist? 'cos I reckon thats worse.

I don't know why the hell you're asking that but seeing as you are: I don't think anyone in the West is in a position to criticise a certain amount of freedom within the market. Even small entrepreneurs - e.g. those who open a shop, a pub - would not be able to do so in a state-regulated economy.

ZakAttak wrote: »

Don't you think Globalisation is another form of colonialism?

ZakAttak wrote: »

They want Africa to have open trade with the west. In effect this means they want to allow western companies to exploit African resources, which is whats happening at the moment. This is how they get invited to all those diplomatic events with Bush, Blair etc.

Socialism promotes self-sufficiency, this is not what western leaders want. They want Africa to be dependent upon a number of products which only they (western governments) supply, such as; arms, certain medicines and certain electrical goods.

These are all valid concerns, but again, what the hell do they have to do with Live Aid? And how do these problems mean Live Aid shouldn't have happened?