abolissons la pauvrete

First, just let me get this out of the way - a sentiment voiced repeatedly yesterday was that Live 8 organizers don't want our money, they want our voice. God gave us the gift of voice, not so that we should be silenced... as Neil Young sang so beautifully. So follow this link and sign the petition to add your name to the millions over the world who've done so.

This was not your every day festival type concert, so any review could not be a typical concert review. Steven Paige of the Barenaked Ladies said it best "This day is not about the music, it's about the message. But the music is rockin!" I have only like a half-complaint, and that is that nobody got a long enough set. Stephanie and I got on the bus at 9:15 and headed up. We got into the line-up just as Sam Roberts started his set and we heard pretty much the whole thing. Then as we went the long way around the bend, we missed the beginning of Bryan Adams set but got into the park in time to hear the last 2 songs which finale'd into an interlude of Tears Are Not Enough (which was the Canadian Musicians' collaboration for the original Live Aid) So we missed Tom Cochrane who was first and I think that's it.

But we were there for the worldwide snap-in. that was crazy cool.... you stand with 35,000 people snapping every 3 seconds in unison while knowing it's happening the same in philadelphia, london, moscow, tokyo, berlin, paris, johannesberg and rome and see if you don't get a little choked up. (the significance of the snapping is from the adverts, where celebrities were snapping every 3 seconds to demonstrate how often a child dies of hunger or aids or exposure in these countries.)

All the musicians did such a fantastic job, and when they spoke on the issues they really were eloquent. I understand that the aftermath of the media was to show people who were at the festival who couldn't answer the basic questions about the issues. they never asked me, and the people I was with; stephanie, jacqueline, jenn and cody. I just don't believe that the majority of the crowd were cluelessly there about the music... or just for kicks. The night before the concert, news coverage showed the first people to arrive at the park. And this 40-ish rocker type was sitting in his lawn chair with his wife and said "I just really believe all the love from these concerts is gonna reach the G8 and they'll do the right thing." I really do believe that was the heart behind everyone who turned up. You can't tell by looking at a person how deeply they feel about something. You can laugh at the naivety of that guy, or you can love him for it. If 26 million people (the number of signatures on the list around the time that the Barenaked Ladies took the stage) are all believing that they can make a difference, then I think we can.

Maybe poverty will not be 100% eradicated... If there is still poverty in Canada and the US then we would be crazy to believe we can eradicate it in Africa. But. Because there is no logical reason for poverty to exist in North America with the political systems in place, but you can understand where it could come from if you look at the exploitation and level of marginalization in these "third world" countries. (I was happily surprised to note that part of the Canadian make poverty history movement includes Canadian poverty. And you can go there too and sign up and send an e-mail to Paul Martin.) But. Aid does work, even if it's not the only answer and even if it cannot be the entire solution. In Johannesburg, we were introduced to a woman who, in the 1980's was a posterchild of the next victim of starvation... she was doomed... and now she is a graduate of University in Civil Engineering if I'm not mistaken. She studied in Africa and now she is there making a difference. You never know who you could help.

I will probably be talking about this for a while, consider that fair warning. It's probably okay, I'm sure y'all are sick of hearing about big daddy or whatever... I am and he's my crush. I want to close with this... Bruce Cockburn said (and I'm paraphrasing) "the cynical media has been telling us a lot... about how the aid we're asking for will never help the people we want to help because the countries in question are run by despotic and corrupt regimes who exploit their people and who benefit from the marginalization. But what we don't hear about, and people forget, is that those regimes are upheld by the very G8 leaders we are here to address today. If they stopped supporting these regimes they would fall. In a heartbeat." Basically, there are so many opinions going back and forth, so many editorials. but for heaven's sake this issue is not fodder for an op-ed page. these are lives in the balance. and it's time to do something. Even if more aid is the wrong thing, or not enough, it's more than what we're doing now.