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Tram Town
Sunday, July 03, 2005
 
Category: Live 8
One of my boys was watching the London concert this morning on FOX8 when The Who came on. Knowing my interest he called me into the telly room. I'm sure the vast majority of the audience were thinking "why are they playing one of the CSI themes?". As Pete made with The Windmill and Roger screamed "Who are you", images of the G8 leaders were scrolled on the screens behind them. The implication being that these leaders are nobodies and that it is the rock stars who are important. Pretty trashy for mine.
They followed up, interestingly enough, with Won't Get Fooled Again. I might be wrong, but perhaps this was a glib reference to the minimal effect that BandAid had and the bizarre way the raised funds were distributed (scroll down to see the following):.
Between the BBC documentary, other news stories, and the Live Aid concerts, nearly a billion dollars flowed into Ethiopia during the '80s. Most of it came from various foreign governments; Geldof's efforts represented nearly a quarter of total.
Along with the cash, thousands of western workers and journalists began to enter Ethiopia. Mengistu knew a good thing when he saw it and used the combined tidal wave of money and sympathy to prop up his regime. He required that relief workers convert their western tender to the local currency at a rate favorable to his junta, which tripled its foreign currency reserves, allowing it to buy arms and materiel. Mengistu's troops also commandeered aid vehicles and fed themselves on the incoming foodstuffs. As Wolf notes, "it became clear that a significant proportion of the relief food in Tigray--the epicenter of the famine--was consigned to the militia. The militias were known locally as 'wheat militias'."
The money allowed Mengistu to string out his war efforts for six more years. Between starvation and outright murder, the war cost more than 100,000 Ethiopian lives.
This article at the Telegraph issues some important warnings about "doing good" with cash in Africa.


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