Live 8 Concert

http://www.cbc.ca/insite/COMMENTARY/2005/6/30.html

CBC Commentary	   June 30, 2005

Live 8 Concert

The Live 8 concerts are this Saturday but they won't do much to stop the
growing poverty and AIDS crises in the poor countries of the world. 

Graham Russell is a lawyer who works with Rights Action, a human rights
organization in Toronto. 

On Commentary today, he says it's only when G8 countries admit they're part
of the problem, that any solution can be hoped for. 

Grahame Russell: 

"Make poverty history" is once again a popular cry. But how long will it
last? Until the "Live 8" concerts are over? 

Rock "stars", politicians and the media are again pitching the idea that "we
are the world", that we care about the "have-nots", those billions of people
who live and die on 1, 2 or 3 dollars a day. 

It's easy to say 'Let's make poverty history', as we line up for free Live 8
tickets. But we can't end poverty if we don't understand its roots. 

Poverty is not a 'natural' state of affairs. Poverty - the greatest killer
year-in, year-out in our global human community - is caused principally by
exploitation and injustice on a local level, national level and global
level. But we, in the north, in the G8 countries, regularly ignore our role
... 

Poverty and wealth are two sides of the same coin. The same economic and
political systems that produce and distribute wealth, produce and distribute
poverty. 

Poverty is not created in a vacuum, but in a global economic order with
strongly enforced practices and rules related to control over property and
resources, over the production and creation of wealth, and over the
distribution of such wealth and of poverty. Poverty and powerlessness, like
wealth and power, are created and distributed unfairly from the local to the
global levels. 

If the G8 nations deserve high standards of living and huge accumulations of
economic wealth and military power, then by the same logic the poor nations
deserve low standards of living and huge accumulations of poverty and
powerlessness! 

If rock "stars" 'earn' and 'deserve' tens of millions of dollars / year,
then billions of exploited and impoverished people across the same planet
earn and deserve 1 to 3 dollars / day! 

To really make poverty history, we should demand an end to the actions of
global corporations that are mostly based in the G8 countries, corporations
that exploit already impoverished workers in countries of the global south;
corporations that often exploit the rich and natural resources of these
countries, for our benefit in the global north. 

We should demand an end to the actions of the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund whose "free trade" policies are set by the G8
countries, policies that have further opened the poor countries of the
planet to control and exploitation by northern banks and companies, even as
poverty and environmental destruction have worsened in the global south. 

And we should demand economic and development programs that are designed and
controlled at the local level, based on local ownership of and control over
their resources and production and distribution capacities. 

If we, in the G8 countries, are not willing to look in the mirror and
acknowledge that we are part of the problem of poverty, and that we need to
change how we live and act on the planet, then little will come of this most
recent clamouring to 'make poverty history', except for feel-good sentiments
and great rock 'n' roll concerts In the rich and powerful countries of the
planet. 

For commentary I'm Grahame Russell in Toronto.

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