This Saturday, July 2, 2005, Live 8: The Long Walk to Justice, a massive, worldwide event, will blast out music from the world's top performers. The purpose of Live 8 is to draw attention to the problems associated with poverty in Africa in advance of the G8 Summit in Scotland from July 6-8.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to make a push for more aid dollars for Africa at the economic summit.
Concerts will draw masses in Berlin, Johannesburg, London, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, Tokyo and near Toronto, with Moscow being a ninth possibility.
Irish rock star Bob Geldof agreed to coordinate the gigantic event. According to an AOL report, "Geldof pulled off a show business sensation 20 years ago, when the Live Aid concerts in London and Philadelphia raised more than $100 million to help fight famine in Ethiopia and an estimated 1.5 billion viewers tuned into watch."
What I found interesting and most encouraging was the fact that Geldof would not agree to be involved in the proposed event until he was convinced that it would have substantive affect on the targeted problems.
Richard Curtis, a film writer and producer who has worked with Geldof on similar events in the past, noted about Geldof, "He always said he wouldn't do it until he believed there was a moment when it could make political change and not just charity. . . .
"There are only weeks to go until these men meet and. . .that's the last G8 for another year. The next one is in Russia where poverty may not be the key issue."
Curtis reported that Live 8 organizers were looking for the fair trade issue to appear on the G8 communique and for a doubling of aid from rich nations.
"What we're trying to do is provide a moment in history."
That is definitely what is needed--a moment in history.
The spirit of Geldof and Curtis reminded me of the words of Rev. William Sloane Coffin from a sermon delivered in Washington, DC in 2002:
"Had I but one wish today for the Christian churches of America, I think it would be that they come to see the difference between charity and justice.
"Charity is a matter of personal attributes, justice a matter of public policy. Charity seeks to alleviate the effects of injustice, justice seeks to eliminate the causes of it.
"Charity in no way affects the status quo, while justice leads inevitably to political confrontation.
"Especially I would hope that Christians would see that the compassion that moved the Good Samaritan to act charitably--that same compassion prompted Biblical prophets to confront injustice, to speak truth to power, as did Jesus, who, though more than a prophet, was certainly nothing less.
"Most recently, religious leaders like Desmond Tutu and Martin Luther King have seen once again that compassion frequently demands confrontation."
Geldof and Coffin are on point.
Enjoy the music if you have the chance on Saturday.
Visit the Live 8 website at http://live8.technorati.com/about/live8.html to learn what you can do to be involved.
While you are at, it follow the links to The One Campaign here in the U. S.
Sign the online letter to President Bush asking for his support at the upcoming G8 meeting for an unprecedented debt-aid-trade deal for the people in the poorest countries of our world--mainly in Africa.
Even more important, begin to seriously consider the place of justice in your faith and values system. And, when given the opportunity, insist that others do the same.
8 comments:
Great post...hope you don't mind, I'm posting a link to this post on my blog.
Neal, not a problem at all. The more links and the more word we can get out on this and these issues the better! Thanks for reading and for sharing.
UK Baptists Lead March on Global Poverty at G8 Meeting
http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=5949
Lets start worrying about our country and our people and stop giving money to everyone else. They don't help us.
Alot of the kids accepting food from American after the Tsunami were wearing "Osama Bin Laden is a hero" t-shirts. Let them starve. We have poor people on the streets of our major cities. Worry about them.
Hard to know how to respond to you, Anonymous. Lot's could be said here, but I'll leave that to others who drop in on the conversation. In general I would say though that your view of the world and mine could not be more different. Compassion is not about what others can do for us. And justice denied to anyone is justice denied to all. Of course, children fall into a completely different category for me, as I will be reminded again this evening when I hold and kiss my grandchildren who are exactly like the children of Africa and Iraq and Sri Lanka.
Anonymous,
Who is "us"? People who were born in a particular city, state, or nation? Or currently live in one? I'm just trying to understand where the line should be drawn. Mainly since Jesus forgot to give us an example of drawing a line on who our neighbors and brothers/sisters are.
And trust me, many third-world families are responsible for the low cost of our clothes, our tourist vacations, and most other products we buy, so they've helped us plenty on their way to the poorhouse.
A respose to Anonymous - - if you're still reading.
Every human being is a unique creation and has the right to life. You do, 'we' do, 'they' do. To say 'let them starve' is to turn a callous back to other human beings. Yes, we should be concerned about the poor and suffering in our midst. But allowing the incredible potential of people everywhere go unsupported and unexplored is weakening the entire fabric of our lives as well as theirs. Just think if the poor EVERYWHERE could be lifted up to become productive citizens who pass that on!
And if a disaster on the scale of the Tsunami were to hit our land (and don't fool yourself that it could not) and demolish our lives in such a complete way, would you want to have others say "let them starve" and go on with their lives simply because some of us would be wearing whatever T-shirts happened to be available? Do you truly believe that those children had any idea whatsoever what their T-shirt said? Do you not understand, also, that there are many perspectives to every issue - - for example, there are people who believe President Bush (and several other public figures) is a hero, and then those who believe he is himself producing terror for many, many people. Both sides see it from their own TRUE experience.
Thanks, Margaret. Couldn't agree more!
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