There’s one* fundamental problem with Live 8.
It’s not, as some seasoned (and ever so slightly embittered) activists would have you believe, the use of celebrity to spotlight the issues of world poverty. Sure it’s galling that Bono has a bigger audience than Noam Chomsky. Galling, but true. That Bono attempts to use his celebrity to push politics should, in this monkey’s humble opinion, be applauded.
It’s not that they’ve produced, as if from a magician’s hat, a rubber stamped plan, that has the approval of some of the world’s leading capitalists (Murdoch and Gates, to name but two), to tackle the problem. Certainly, as George Monbiot points out in Three Monkeys Online, there are problems with their plan if they accept neo-liberal conditionalities as part of the debt cancellation packages. But in reality it matters very little what’s in the Live 8 package – as it’s not going to be implemented.
No, the fundamental problem about Live 8 is how it views the G8. To listen to the impassioned pleas from even the more astute musicians (let’s not get bogged down in analysis of Snoop Doggy Dogg’s perception of the G8), one could quite easily be forgiven for thinking that Tony, George, Gerhardt, Silvio, Jacques, Vladimir, Junichirio, and Paul were brothers of some powerful clan, rather than democratically elected leaders.
So, concert organisers Bono, Geldof, and Richard Curtis outlined:
The hugeness of Live8 was the best that we normal citizens can do to send our leaders a message.
For God’s sake, take this seriously. Don’t behave normally. Don’t look for compromises. Be great. Do more than expected, not the least you can get away with. You know what will really make a difference, what will turn extreme poverty around. What will actually begin to save the lives of millions of men, women and children.
Do it. Please, do it. The world is watching.
Hardly Rock n’Roll – and that’s the problem. The subservient tone, the lack of demands, the appeal to one’s better nature. It’s as threatening as an aspirational mantra recited by a Californian new age guru. Or, more worryingly, it’s like the appeal of loyal subjects to their feudal lords. While the weight of history, and a shedload of vanity, may have its effect on Tony Blair (desperately scrubbing to remove that Iraq stain, before leaving office), it will, understandably, leave the likes of George W. Bush cold.
And threats are what make democracy go round. The only way to ensure that men like Blair, Bush or Berlusconi come through on issues is to effectively threaten them with electoral defeat. Of course to do that, you’d need to have an opposition party willing to commit to different issues.
In Italy we’ve had plenty of coverage of Live 8, and even quite a bit of debate over debt, trade, and aid, but remarkably we’ve had no interviews with Berlusconi, Fini, Prodi, or any other leader to discuss Live 8, the G8, or the Make Poverty History campaign. Take a look at the websites of any of the main political parties, right or left, and you’ll find no mention of epoch changing deals, or music changing history. And so, it’s not surprising that the G8 for many becomes an abstract thing – removed from democracy.
That’s not to suggest that Live 8 has been a failure. Far from it – it could be an important ‘paradigm shift’, encouraging more and more people to engage actively with their democracy. Could be. If they don’t give up on the first hurdle, and learn from the mistakes.
Let’s just hope that rock n’roll, rather than diplomacy, re-enters Geldof and Bono’s veins when the crooks in Gleneagles come up with some watered down compromise to a package that was already watered down. If Live 8 is to have any effect, it should be to remind people that the leaders of the G8 are not answerable to public opinion, and that they should be.
* of course there were numerous problems with Live 8, that left this monkey scratching his head. Amongst the most prominent: