Live 8

So today I'm at the gym, and I admit I usually tune to VH1 as they always have some kind of something on that is thoroughly mindless and enteraining for the full 45 minutes that I spend sweating on the elliptical trainer. Today, instead of Strip Search or Kept, they were airing Live 8. Someone named Damien was interviewing some-guy-in-the-crowd by the name of Terry. It seems that Terry flew from London to Philadelphia to attend the concert (did no one tell poor Terry that there was a concert in London as well?) to “raise awareness for African poverty.”

Terry, I think it is safe to say that people who read newspapers or watch television news even sporadically already knew about the poverty in Africa well before you flew to Philadelphia. Perhaps a better way to “raise awareness” would be to, oh, I don’t know, maybe donate the money you spent on the plane ticket flying to Philadelphia to see a concert you could have seen in London? Or, hey, wear a white band. That'll do it.

On the MTV site, I found a link to the Millennium Goals, a declaration by the UN in September of 2000. They’re noble and important goals, to be sure, but no amount of aid is going to repair the corrupt infrastructure in governments across Africa. Why doesn’t the UN, instead of simply declaring goals and aksing everyone to give a lot of money, work on eliminating the corruption that plagues African governments? Oh, right …