Today is so important, my friends.  All around the world, pro bono concerts are taking place in an effort to help stop one of today's greatest tragedies.  Helping to raise awareness are top musicians, celebrities, personalities, actors and politicians.  The United States, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, Russia and South Africa are all hosting these unprecedented concerts.  Here in the US, you can watch the 8 hour coverage on VH1 and MTV.  Additionally, you may watch the entire event online through broadband or listen on various radio stations.

Africa desperately needs your help.  Every three seconds an African child dies from poverty, disease and/or starvation.  Not only do many of these people live on less than $1 a day, the continent itself is in debt and using what little money it has to pay it off.  That money (and so much more, no doubt) should instead be going to things like health care, shelter and food for the masses.

Instead, babies are going to bed hungry, and parents are dying. 

On July 6th, the G8 convention will be held in Scotland.  8 of the world's leaders will be there to discuss global events and budgeting.  This year, Tony Blair is chairman of the convention, and will be bringing Africa's plight to the forefront.

We need the leaders to erase Africa's debt.  And that isn't even enough.  Further than that, we need them to provide this hurting continent with monetary grants instead of loans.  Africa cannot afford to pay anything back. 

So what can you do?  No one is asking for your money, simply your voice.  Please, please, please- sign the petition that will be presented to the G8 convention.  Let these 8 powerful men know that what's going on in Africa is unacceptable.  Let them know that you refuse to stand idle while 1/6 of the world's population slowly and painfully wastes away.  Let them know that it isn't fair for your birthplace to determine whether you live or die. 

To sign the petition, visit The ONE Campaign

You can make a difference.  You can be the key to saving thousands of lives. 

 

An excellent cause. I've already signed the petition and proudly carry a LIVE 8 Badge on my site just like this one!ROCK ON BARRIE ONTARIO!

Hey, do you mind if I copied this post and put it on my journal? I must say, you would make my biology teachers proud!

My biology teachers agree with one.org and are all into creating a higher standard of living for everyone and fund parasitology rather than cancer. They showed a movie during class and are always getting donations for humanitarian charities.

And thank you! I wouldn't dream of not saying you wrote this post. I think people would notice that it wasn't me who wrote it anyway.

Hi Jess! I'm heading over there right now! xoxoxo Thanks!

True Jess, The Dark continent needs our help. Take a look at this photo http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/images/earth_lights.html, and it tells the whole story. Where you see the light, you will finds the wealth. There is virually none in Africa. What can one person do? For one thing you can sponsor a child via World vision www.worldvision.org or other similar organizations. A dollar a day. We all throw more than that without giving it a thought. Thanks again Jess for helping to bring this into focus for us.

Dave

http://www.windows.ucar.edu/tour/link=/earth/earth_il.html

Try this one for the pics

Hello sweety,
I received your call to help and signed the petition, and sent off three more to my friends.:) Love, Buckeye

You might find this interesting: http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/default.htm
This is a link to ABC radio and tomorrow at 8:30 am (GMT +10.00) there will be a discussion about Live 8 along the theme of: "But what if the catch cry wasn't 'forgive poor debtors', but instead, 'punish bad lenders'?" The transcript of the broadcast usually appears on the site soon after.

Just stoppin in to wish you a very happy 4th! Have a great day my friend!

OK here are my thoughts on the Live8 thing. First, the poverty in Africa is horrendous. Beyond comprehension in some countries. And undeniably, it does not have to be this way. But what we see from the Live8 crowd is well-intentioned but seriously naive and misguided ideas. Throwing money and relief efforts into Africa has not worked. In fact, in most cases it's made things worse. The relief does not reach the people. It is often confiscated by the regimes running the countries and sold on the black market to further enrich the the powerful and wealthy rulers. They money is taken as well. In most of the countries suffering massive poverty and starvation, you have despotic rulers hoarding huge amounts of wealth while their countrymen starve. Providing relief only helps if it actually gets to the people, which in most cases it does not. The second problem with the Live8 crowd is the advocacy of forgiving foreign debt of some of these nations. Again, well intentioned, but misguided. These African nations spend huge amounts of money on weapons and very little on health care, education, agriculture. The accumulated debt is in large part due to weapons purchases and the like. If we in the west were simply to forgive the debt, these tyrants would simply continue to spend on more weapons, continue "raping and pillaging" their own countries for their own wealth, and the impovershed would see little if any benefit. We do nothing to punish those who squander the loans and aid and now we want to reward these thugs by forgiving their debt? I don't think so. I don't think there are many people in the world who are not moved by the photos and film of the horrors in Africa. And I think most people would like to help if they could. But past efforts have failed because of the internal politics of those African countries, and until those regimes are removed nothing will change. If we are honest about it, the only way to help those poor countries is to remove the e

here is the rest of my comment:

If we are honest about it, the only way to help those poor countries is to remove the existing governments and replace them with leaders who will do right by their countries. Yes, easier said than done, and not something that most of the world has the stomach to do. But it's reality, and until we face that reality, millions of people in Africa (and other places) will continue to die needlessly while those ruling their countries live in unimaginable wealth.

As I mentioned in my tag, money and aid are only temporary and quick fixes for Africa. For long-term solutions, the continent needs peace, development and leadership.

The rich, fertile soil of eastern Congo could easily feed much of Africa, experts say. But the violence has made many farmers abandon their fields of cassava, corn and beans. Insecurity on roads has also disrupted food shipments.

Violence forces aid groups to put their efforts into costly emergency relief, when money could be spent more effectively on getting people back on their feet, said Rachel Scott-Leflaive, spokeswoman for Congo's UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

These things need to be addressed by their own government before relying on other countries for constant aid. If these issues are not addressed and taken care of, the African citizens will be dependent on receiving aid from others forever.

While all of what you both say is true, Africa cannot get back on its feet while spending what little money it has repaying international debt. If you actually knew about Live 8, you would know it was not to raise money, but rather awareness. Such awareness would allow people to sign a petition to pressure the G8 conference into banishing Africa's debt and insuring fair trade so that those crops you speak of could properly be exported to other countries at low cost. I agree the tyranny needs to subside, and your points are fair, however; they are unachievable without debt relief, grants (not loans) to begin proper cultivation and advance (ie- begin) HEALTH CARE and fair trade to allow those crops to spread throughout all African countries. All of these things are possible not through patron donations, but through the 8 people who will sit in Scotland later today. And the more people who PROPERLY understand Africa's plight and its dire need of assistance, the more pressure those 8 men will be under to right the wrong.

I am well aware of the goals of live8, but I simply disagree with their methods. Signing petitions and running marches and protests in order to influence world leaders is a waste of time. Even if it were not a waste of time, what they are trying to get the G8 to do is counter-productive. Forgiving debt, loans, grants, or any other form of relief is just throwing money and resources down a rat hole so long as you countries being run by tryants like Mugabe. When you say "properly understand" what you are essentially saying is "people who agree with my position." There are many people of good will, such as myself, who want to help improve things in Africa but believe there is a better way, and that what is being suggested by the Live8 crowd would actually just worsen things.

No, properly understand was probably more for Rainbow who made her entire position sound like Live8 was about donations, which it isn't. Obviously if it doesn't apply to you, my dear Fred- then it wasn't meant for you. It's nice that you're a person of goodwill wanting to help African countries, so tell me- what have you done? Not even you specifically, just give me an idea of what CAN be done by people like yourself. See it's all well and good to talk of idealistic goals, but saying tyrannical leaders need to be outed does not actually get rid of them. I'd rather try to help and have it fail than not help at all. You cannot tell me that the aforementioned items the G8 can vote on will not help anything, that's not logical. It may not fix EVERYTHING, but it sure as hell has to fix SOME THINGS. I for one would much rather be optimistic and put forth the effort to at least try than to just say it cannot be done and sit back while 30,000 people die daily. Guaranteed you'd feel differently about the entire issue if you were one of the 30,000.

It's much easier to knock down somebody else's plan than to come up with one of your own, isn't it?

I believe you said it Sam. I believe that strangecloud has some valid points, but being so hardcore on "I'm right, you're not" tends to make people dislike you, and ultimately they will dismiss your thoughts because of your attitude. The leaders do indeed need to be removed in favor of better ones. That's almost a no-brainer there. But: would that alone fix it? I say no. it's got to be a multi-faceted approach, or you're just dancing around making noise, but not actually doing anything. Imagine how well a drill bit would work if it only had one edge instead of two. . .

It's not really much help if you take a good man and put him into a no-win situation, is it?

I think people need to think about things more thoroughly before they start multiple long postings.

Have a good day.

AS I mentioned in my earlier post the best thing any one of us can do is "adopt" one or more of these unfortunate kids through one of several agencies postioned to lend a hand that way. Worldvison is one I am familiar with. Adopting a child this way not only immeasurably changes the life of the child, but allows us our own place in the world through a different pair of spectacles . . .

Jess? Can you add a little section of your journal that FORCES us to preview our comments before we post them? I invariably see my typos, missed words and thoughts, etc, only after I have posted. Let's see how THIS one turns out . . .*fingers crossed* *CLICK!*

just wamted to make this an even 20 :)

Just a couple quick response to the posts above:

To Sam - you must not have read my post. But yes, when something is wrong it's fairly easy to "knock it down."

to Ms. Logic - actually I do try to do a lot of positive things in this world, especially for those who are living in poverty. I believe that is my obligation as a Christian. It's also just the right thing to do. But it's not about me. It's about what the world government's can or cannot do.

to Spokane: yes I agree that there are many things that can be done. But my point is that it's all useless and even counterproductive unless the tyrants are all removed first. Otherwise we are just proping them up and perpetuating the current situation.

to Dave: that's a wonderful way for an individual or family to do something positive!