Posers, Pissants and Poisseurs

Rarely does an event, such as Live 8, accomplish 100% of its goals. But the series of Live 8 concerts held around the globe recently certainly did. Now, all the participants and all those who listened in can go back to their comfortable homes aglow in the knowledge that they have conspicuously demonstrated to the world that they really, really care about poor people. Now they can all feel better about themselves for having raised western awareness about worldwide poverty. Mission accomplished!
The whole show reminded me of a 1970’s era National Lampoon skit in which a typical college aged philosopher tried to impress his girlfriend by explaining to her how inflicting pain on himself helped him feel a closer kinship with all the starving millions in Bangladesh. I’m sure his self-flagellation left Bangladeshi stomachs much fuller. And, I’m sure that all the poor in Africa and elsewhere feel less impoverished just knowing that Pink Floyd and U2 care enough about their plight to play guitars for them.
The message of Live 8 was really the message we have come to expect from these charlatans: Somebody (else) really ought to do something about this problem. Somebody (else) really needs to sacrifice for poor people.
After the G-8 summit announced $50 billion in debt relief, the Live 8 organizers heaped credit upon themselves, obviously unaware that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced the package weeks earlier. I guess the only papers they are interested in are Zig Zag.
The fact of the matter is that most poverty around the world is the direct result of the despotic kleptocracies and western do-gooders. The G-8 nations are not destroying Zimbabwean farms. The dictator Robert Mugabe is. Nigerians see little benefit from their nation’s oil wealth because the money is stolen by their leaders. Black Christian Sudanese suffer due to an ethnic cleansing program administered by the Muslim Arabs. And African children are dying of preventable diseases.
The Live 8 organizers completely overlooked a huge chance to make a real dent in poverty, but were too self-absorbed to even be aware of the issue. The United States Congress has before it an opportunity to bring real growth and opportunity to an economically depressed region of the world, but it probably won’t happen because Democrats oppose it.
The Central America Free Trade Agreement would lower trade barriers and permit Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic and Costa Rica more access to United States markets. But, Democrats see in this treaty an opportunity to grandstand against “outsourcing” of US jobs. Another, even uglier motivation is that many Democrats, frustrated by their political weakness in both houses of Congress, simply want to deal a defeat to a Republican president.
Why anyone in their right mind would want to press a pillow over the faces of these nascent democracies for such pettiness is mind boggling – particularly as the Democrats portray themselves as the party of compassion. Undoubtedly, if any of the performers and organizers of the Live 8 concerts were to express an opinion, all would probably point to the Democrats as the party most inclined to do something about world poverty.
Also missing from the leftist anti-poverty agenda was DDT. Comfortable westerners like Geldof don’t think much about malaria. But according to economic estimates, treating malaria costs Africa up to 4% of its gross domestic product. Two million tropical residents will die this year from malaria. And that number is predicted to double as the drug-resistant strains spread. We could kill the mosquitoes that carry the disease, but that might harm birds. Ask a mother whose baby is dying how much she cares about a thin shelled bird’s egg.
It would never occur to Live 8 organizers that the biggest impediment to ending poverty derives from leftists like themselves who wring their hands over the exploitation of inexpensive overseas labor and who impose their luxury derived environmental ethics upon people who can’t afford them. And of course, the most loathsome of all are those who would smother Central American economies in the crib for the simple joy of handing George Bush a political defeat.
Will Paul McCartney croon for free trade agreements or mosquito abatement programs? I doubt it. Such things are merely substantive, requiring thought, and do not stroke the vanity.