As well as the hundreds of thousands who actually attended Live 8 concerts yesterday in Tokyo, London, Paris, Johannesburg, Rome, Berlin, Moscow, the United States and Canada, millions more tuned in on TV, radio, the Internet and even mobile phones. Over and above the massive fund-raising to combat Third World poverty and starvation, which claims by some estimates 50,000 lives every day in Africa, this extraordinary bonanza of worldwide music-making was also designed to send a loud and clear message to the members of the G-8 countries, just about to start a week of meetings in Scotland.
The hope is that this outpouring of song and the formidable appeal it has will sting the leaders of the world’s rich nations into taking positive steps to eradicate poverty, starvation and disease. The most potent message of Bob Geldof, the Irish pop star behind the original Live Aid and now the Live 8 spectaculars, would be hard to ignore. He asks why, when the world is capable of feeding itself, anyone should be going hungry, let alone starving to death.
The ardor and commitment of so many people, especially young people, to doing something about the wretched plight of millions in the Third World is as impressive as it is genuine. Whatever their personal sentiments however, leaders of the wealthy First World, caught up in the intricate web of financial and global politics may find it hard to respond in the way that the singers and their audiences would like. It is now clear that the original debt forgiveness package put together by British Chancellor Gordon Brown is not going to be all that he may have hoped it would be. This is partly because Washington has refused to be drawn wholly into a plan that it privately thinks is idealistic and flawed. It is also because it seems clear that mathematical legerdemain has been at work so some countries forgiven debt will be losing promised aid and might actually end up being worse off.
Yet the debt and aid issue also overlooks the far more significant economic benefit of funds repatriated to their home countries by Third World citizens working in the developed world. It also tends to fudge the problem of primary agricultural producers in poor states being unable to compete in the highly subsidized markets of North America and Europe.
Nevertheless it must be hoped that whatever the shortfall in the measures agreed to by the G-8 this week, they will have taken on board the reality that the plight of the Third World has become an issue they can no longer ignore.
In addition there is a limit to the amount of protest by good-hearted pop stars and their millions of fans around the world. Popular music is driven by fashion, and fashion, like pop stars, comes and goes. What did the fans yesterday enjoy most — the music or the feeling that they were participating in a worthy worldwide cause? As the last echoes of the last songs faded away, how much of their enthusiasm went as well?
The truth is it will take a good deal more than concerts to right the Third World’s wrongs.
