re charity An investigation has found just 5% of the money raised by Live Aid and Band Aid actually made it to the victims of famine in Ethiopia. Instead, the millions of dollars of international aid intended to buy food for starving Ethiopians was used by rebel groups to buy weapons. Also, those two massive events fell on the exact same day as huge protests against the banking elite... coincidentally of course This is also how a lot of world bank aid money gets used. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/legacy/theeditors/2010/03/ethiopia.html
That was a sensational claim challenged by Geldof and other charities working in Ethiopia. Geldof asked for evidence that money was diverted for arms other than the word of a 'dissident malcontent' and none was forthcoming. Other charities, some who had been working in Ethiopia for 35 years, said the claims were outrageous.
I know as a matter of historical fact that the government in Ethiopia used some of that food to force people into lands they did not want to move to, either stay put and starve or leave and eat. Africa is not poor It atually does snow in Africa They do know when Christmas time is Bob talks about it like it's a country. There's 4 different climates. While the oil gold diamonds and minerals flow out, people are left to rot, Liberia is a perfect example. And you have Bono meeting in Davos with the very people who are propping up rotten governments against the will of the citizens in order to loot the place. Then guilting everyone. Same as the Children in need scam essentially. Charity is an endless system keeping them trapped in poverty instead of setting up a sustainable system where wealth is dispersed, nope, lets give them charity with one hand and help corporations rape the continent with the other hand, and Bono and Geldof are complicit in this
The famine was almost entirely man-made anyway, drought aside, the dislocation and the forced agricultural collectivisation policy meant famine was inevitable. Yes - there's criticism in the press today about the lack of knowledge about Africa and disingenuous [?] lyrics.
Africa's missing billions. armed conflict costs Africa around $18bn per year !! This si without even considering resource rape, which is facilitated by the fighting. No real challenge to guess where the money ends up http://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/africas missing bils.pdf
how the world bank and the imf destroy africa. IMF has just raped Europe and turned the mass of publicly owned stuff into privately owned stuff. http://www.africaw.com/how-the-world-bank-and-the-imf-destroy-africa
Another article with exactly the same title but from a completely different aspect - http://experts.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/05/11/africas_missing_billions
A Chevron Ad comes up when you load this page.. Irony Not just Africa Luxembourg has been turned into a corporation tax haven by the now head of the EU.. that Juncker c**t, that for me says it all. Corporations can now relocate to this tax haven and don't even need to have any exployees. Bit like the Bahamas where one office building is home to thousands of corporations, even though there's not even hundreds of offices. Corporations work with these despot governments in Africa, bribe and fund them and help them hold power for creating essentially what are not havens but specific tax deals that their "laws" allow, Juncker of the EU took this principle and did the same thing in Luxembourg. Now corps are flocking to Luxembourg to avoid paying tax while robbing the EU blind and avoiding "austerity" totally, and in fact making it much worse because the governments like in hte UK need to hammer the poor even more whilst giving hundreds of millions in tax breaks to the richest in some twisted logic that making them even wealthier will make the rest of us better off. Basically it is saying if we give the rich bigger meals, more food will fall from their plates to those under the table waiting for scraps, that's "trickle down" economics logic for you It is another element of raping of Africa rather than a different aspect. Ireland is not a tax haven, it does have better rates than most for corps and we have tax laws but yet Apple come in and agree a 2% or less tax deal with the government. Anywhere can be a haven with individual deals, so tax laws can and often mean nothing to big orporations
I am not the only one who sees the insideous side of Bono and Geldoff's Africa stereotyping self defeating "aid" that leaves htem worse off after the money runs out. http://www.theguardian.com/commenti...band-aid-bob-geldof-africa-fuse-odg?CMP=fb_gu
You know what's better for poor people than free handouts somewhere like the UK or Ireland or the US that keeps them where they are. Free education that you must take up to get your dole. That's investing in the future, and it's a closing of the gap in inequality a little because right now, Students are protesting these preventative fees in the UK at this minute
You have to look at intent in these things and I'm sure Band Aid and spin offs had only the best intentions, plus, the fact that humanitarian concern is now at the centre of foreign policies means some credit is due to them. Geldof has always maintained it's about social justice and not charity.
I seen a very good documentary a while back about organisations who were working against the big banks and corporations and the wealth stealing. The first time they organised a huge protest in the UK and other countries, well the first aid concert was put on that day and the protests for 0 coverage So these people set up another campaign and set a date for another set of huge protests. Guess what? the second huge aid concert also happened to be held on that exact same day there was years between these protests and conerts, no way a coincidence mate. Call me cynical. If you give a guy a fish he can eat for a day, if you give a guy a fishing rod, he can feed himself. These aid things are giving people fish while the corporations and banks are keeping the fishing rods for themselves... if you get my meaning A well educated fully self sufficient well organised Africa leads to less corporate raping.
Sometimes people just want to help their fellow man in his time of need, without an agenda, without an ulterior motive and with nothing but good intention at the heart of what they're doing.
Yeah but usually they have better hair than geldoff. I think his hair is so bad it has to be a conspiracy
