Bob Geldof has urged one million people to descend on Scotland’s capital city of Edinburgh when the G8 summit convenes July 6-8. Headlines at The Scotsman range from “Shortage of portable loos hits G8 camp plans” to “Protests becoming too safe for ageing rockers.”

Are any of you joining Bob and/or the “Make Poverty History” marchers? By the way, via DN!, “President Bush made clear yesterday that he is opposed to doubling aid for Africa, [a major agenda item for the G8]. British Prime Minister Tony Blair has proposed that the world’s richest nations make a $25 billion increase in support for Africa. But asked about the issue yesterday, Bush said ‘It doesn’t fit our budgetary process’.”


Update [2005-6-2 12:18:10 by susanhu]: My daughter just sent me this story: Malawians now turn to water lilies for food. “Malawians are risking crocodile attacks to fetch water lilies for food after a sudden rain failure early in the year destroyed key crops leaving seven million short of food across southern Africa. …” The story describes mothers making porridge out of water lilies, for chrissakes, to feed their kids. Do you think George Bush knows, or even f–king cares?


More on the “nightmare” below:

From today’s The Scotsman, “Nightmare of a million on the march “:


Image Hosted by ImageShack.usPolice and the city council are already bracing themselves for a huge Make Poverty History march on Saturday 2 July, expected to be attended by around 200,000, followed by a Stop The War Coalition demo the following day.

But they have now been forced back to the drawing board after Geldof [PHOTO LEFT] and Ure urged people to head in their droves to Edinburgh after an all-star Live 8 concert in Hyde Park, London, and a string of other concerts in Europe and North America on 2 July. The focal point will be a Live 8 concert at Murrayfield Stadium on Wednesday July 6 and a rally called The Long Walk to Justice.

A Live 8 spokeswoman said that further details would be announced next week, but she revealed that celebrity campaigners would be flying in from America to Edinburgh for the event. …

[………………….]


The Edinburgh Pentlands MSP said: “We simply cannot have one million people turning up on the streets of Edinburgh without proper arrangements being made in advance.”


But the First Minister, Jack McConnell, said Scottish police and other agencies would be “very well prepared” for whatever happened.


Meanwhile, staff at the headquarters of multi-national oil companies in Aberdeen have been put on alert for possible demonstrations by anti-capitalist protesters. They have received special briefings about security measures and the background to the talks in the run-up to the summit.

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