live8 London

no, i cant. Of course I cant. I just think because of the sheer size of the event, i genuinly think the money will go to the right causes. I think the promoters will get some money, but thats only understandable, and there still a lot of preperation to do, and peoples wages to pay (the guys who set-up the stage etc). I dont think many of them will do it out of the goodness of their hearts.

But Kev once that money is raised and gone to those countries there is no guarantee that it will get to the poor, more likely to go to buying guns. thats why the british government wont hand over the money. i know its a noble thing that bob and co are doing but if it raising money for war then is it worth it?

the money isn't being raised to 'go to those countries'. the first £1.6million goes to the prince's trust and the rest goes to the band aid foundation or whatever it's called. the aim of these concerts isn't to raise money, it's to raise awareness. geldof has said himself that the lobbying of g8 leaders in edinburgh is far more important than the concerts. the concerts are simply there to raise the profile of the rally.

but what good will it do?

well the wiping out of billions of pounds worth of debt will release a lot of extra money for the countries who are currently paying huge interest payments per year. granted, there are those who use funds for the wrong purpose, but they are a minority, not a majority. i'm sure there would be some way of assessing the worthiness of a debt cancellation or added aid for each country.

Virtually none of the money from the first Live Aid went to people that needed it. It was, in effect, a waste of time.

There was also a story I read recently where some consortium saved up enough money for this tribe in Africa to buy a water purifier. He found out a year or so later that it had been spent by the tribal chief on two brand new cars.

Hopefully this will raise awareness, but still - cancelling their debt is only going to give the corrupt leaders more money.

how do you know that? If you watch the Live Aid concert, they do talk about how much food and material they raised and how they shipped it to Africa.

I was only wondering earlier if Queen+PR would be playing at one of the shows, I just got this in an email from QueenZone

Queen to Perform at Live 8 Via Satellite

Legendary British rockers Queen will perform at London's Live 8 concert thanks to a live satellite link-up.
The legends - who starred in the original Live Aid extravaganza 20 years ago - are busy performing in Portugal on July 2 when the Hyde Park charity event takes place.

But Queen is so keen to play at the historic event; they are arranging a spectacular satellite connection to join British fans at the star-studded line up.

Live 8 spokesman Phil Symes says, "The band is playing an outdoor concert on the same day. They are discussing being featured at Live 8 on a big screen."

Brian May, Roger Taylor, John Deacon and Paul Rodgers - the ex-Free and Bad Company singer who replaced the band's late frontman Freddie Mercury - will 'virtually' perform alongside other A-list celebrities including Paul McCartney, Mariah Carey and Elton John.

http://www.queenzone.com/queenzone/n...x?NEWS_ID=2581

I didn't know John Deacon was playing with them though, I thought he'd pretty much disappeared after Freddie died.

But it makes such a bad excuse - oh, I'm not giving money for such & such because it won't be used for what's needed. How do you really know? Perhaps not all of it will get through but some of it will. It may not help to the big scheme of things but what if it helps a little child get food or a pencil? Or help vaccinate him or buy him shoes? However small they amount that actually reaches them is going to help so much!

Mike and Russ have a point though.

In effect we could drop the debt.

then again all that does is let the most corrupt and mis-managed countries off more than those genuinelly trying to pay back their debts and the main reason most of these countries are in such a position int he 1st place is because their governments and leaders are so corrupt.