Live8

“Live 8 was, and remains a brilliant moment but what is more important is the brilliant movement of which it was a part. This gives the poorest of the poor real political muscle for the first time.

It is this movement of church people and trade unionists, soccer moms and student activists, that will carry the spirit of Live 8 on.  It is this movement, not rock stars, that will make it untenable in the future to break promises to the most vulnerable people on this planet.

That was always why we put on the concerts.”

Bono

Live 8 was a series of benefit concerts held on July 2, 2005, to help make poverty history.  At 10 different venues, 1250 musicians participated in the Global Call for Action Against Poverty campaign. The G8 (group of governments from eight nations including Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) G8 leaders promised to double their 2004 relief funds to poor regions from U.S$25 billion to U.S$50 billion by the year of 2010.  The G8 leaders met shorty after the concert and promised a list of additional actions:

• AIDS drugs to all those who need them, and care for all AIDS orphans

• debt cancellation for 38 countries, with 18 benefiting this year

• Free, quality primary education and basic healthcare for all children.

• AIDS drugs for all who need them, and care for all AIDS orphans.

• Treatment and bed nets to halve deaths from malaria.

• Vaccinations to eradicate polio.

The Live 8 event was and is still important to me because I know that people don’t think about how fortunate we are to have the luxuries we do.  Our government makes it possible to maintain a very stable country for its citizens, whereas the nations over seas don’t even come close to that.  Almost one in five adults have AIDS in South Africa, and approximately 57% of Africans live below the poverty line.  Live 8 made it possible for people to think more about poverty in the developing countries and regions.  30 million people came together to promise those underprivileged that there still is hope.

  

"Live 8 - Making promises happen." Live 8. 2005. 26 Nov. 2008 <http://www.live8live.com/en/privacypolicy.shtml>.

"Poverty in South Africa: Extent of access to food and income." HSRC. Nov. 2006. 26 Nov. 2008 <http://www.hsrc.ac.za/hsrc_review_article-47.phtml>.

"The scale of South Africa’s AIDS crisis." Avert. Nov. 2008. 26 Nov. 2008 <http://www.avert.org/aidssouthafrica.htm>.