Live Aid Revisited

If ya'll can, think back 20 years ago to 1985. For the first time in music history, a concert that spanned the globe was held to raise money for charity- charity for Africa. It was called Live Aid. Founder Bob Geldof had this vision to unite everyone under the umbrella of music, raise funds, and make a dent in eradicating poverty in Africa. 20 years later, despite the historical impact that Live Aid had, Africa has not improved. Rather, the mind-blowing statistic is that half of Africa's population is under the age of 16 years old...and every three seconds...EVERY 3 SECONDS, a person dies of extreme poverty, not only in Africa, but in the poorest countries all around the world. 3 Seconds.

Instead of raising money this time around, the Live 8 concert focused on raising awareness. Awareness that after 20 years, extreme poverty still exists and awareness that if we, the people, make our voices heard, it may be possible to end extreme poverty in our lifetime. When I first heard that, I didn't think it was possible. That was before I knew about the G8 Summit happening this July 6th. Basically, this G8 Summit is a meeting of the eight most wealthiest countries of the world in which they have the power to help fight poverty and AIDS, cancel 100% of the debt owed by these poor countries, and reform trade rules in order that people in these countries can earn a decent income to support themselves that will help them get out of that poverty level.

On VH1's Best Week Ever segment, they were bagging on Live 8 because it was a concert to raise awareness and not money. For these free concerts worldwide, they were commenting that hey, charge each person $1 and there'd be a crapload of money to send to Africa! Yes, yes, BWE is comedy for comedy's sake, but when you really think about it, the whole raising awareness and getting the word out there makes sense. Take the tsunami disaster for example. When that happened, so many people around the world responded by donating money and other essentials to help out in any way they could. It was all over the papers and in the news practically 24/7. But now, you rarely hear anything about it, right? Does it mean that those people affected are doing fine now? Hell no. 20 years ago, aid to Africa was huge...and yet, the focus unfortunately dwindled. Most of the attendees at these Live 8 concerts were probably not even born yet or were too young to remember the outbreak of AIDS. In essence, this is probably one of the first times where this generation has really taken a good look at the world around them. Not to say that this generation is totally ignorant, but damn, look at how society has raised them up- lazy, selfish, self-absorbed, wasteful, and spoiled. And this Live 8 concert was just the thing to open up their eyes and see how much in trouble our world is.

The concert itself was pretty cool, although I have to complain about the coverage that VH1 and MTV did. While they were trying to cover all concerts, it resulted in the viewers not seeing a complete performance. If the artist or band were doing three songs, we'd see one and a half. It'd get cut in the middle where you're just getting into the song and you're like, what the hell?! I was diggin' on Bon Jovi, Madonna, Green Day, Wil Smith, etc, but man, did they have to cut it short? I suppose that we'll just have to wait for the DVD to come out to watch it in its entirety. I didn't stick around the whole day to watch the performances, but supposedly the highlight was when Pink Floyd reunited to play. I'm not a big Pink Floyd fan...in fact, I don't really dig their music at all. But hey, to each his own. I have to say that one of the highlights for me besides doing the whole reminiscing thing and seeing those that performed 20 years ago perform yet again (U2, Madonna), was when they brought up a young African lady to the stage. Recall how they used to show pictures of little kids with enlarged stomachs, enlarged heads, huge eyes, skeletal faces and bodies, and flies crawling all over them? Well, she was one of them. She was one of the success stories. When that picture of her was taken 20 years back, she basically only had approximately 10 more minutes to live. But she received care, medications, and fast forward to today, she just graduated from college! The story touched my heart and I couldn't help but get all teary-eyed. It's an amazing journey because she made it, but also heartbreaking at the same time because of so many others who didn't.

Like I mentioned before, when I first heard about the campaign to end extreme poverty in this lifetime was possible, I didn't believe it. It would take so much and honestly, I didn't think there was anything that I, me, one person, could do.

But there is.

Throughout the concert, celebrities and artists alike spoke out about the importance of making our voices heard. And who is it that we want to be heard by? None other than Mr. President Bush himself. If you go the the One.org website, you can sign a petition that will let Mr. Bush know that the state of these poor countries is purely inacceptable and that there is something that he can do about it. He can make a difference in that G8 meeting, but you can, too. Sign the petition and make your voice heard. I did. Spread the word. Let's make extreme poverty and global AIDS history...in this lifetime.

Happy Bang Bang!

Happy birthday America! Hope ya'll are enjoying this nice three day weekend. Here in MN, it is hot, hot, hot! Hubby is set to barbeque in a bit and then we'll be headed out to Minneapolis to watch the fireworks over the Mississippi. Watch out for them knuckleheads with bottle rockets and cherry bombs. BTW: did I mention that fireworks are LEGAL here? Oh boy...we'll be extra careful tonight. Whatever ya'll do today, have fun, enjoy, but most of all, be safe.